The Wall Street Journal-20080212-Need a New Situation- Check the Internet- Recruiters and Job Seekers Find Each Other Through Facebook- -Fan- Pages- Videos

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Need a New Situation? Check the Internet; Recruiters and Job Seekers Find Each Other Through Facebook, 'Fan' Pages, Videos

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This isn't your father's recruiting market, or even your older sister's.

Employers are experimenting with new strategies for spreading their recruitment messages and screening candidates online. And Web-savvy job hunters are taking advantage of new Internet resources aimed at helping them make better career decisions.

A growing number of employers are using data on how Web users behave and the information they provide to place recruitment ads online that will be seen only by a specific demographic or group of people.

"You have to drive the advertising to the people you want to recruit," says Mike Temkin, a vice president at Shaker Recruitment Advertising & Communications, a small agency that has helped about 20 corporate clients with the strategy over the past two years.

Verizon Communications Inc. began placing targeted recruitment ads on Facebook.com late last year, says Odesa Stapleton, director of talent management for Verizon. One of the goals "is to try and meet the 'Millennials' where they are, and they spend the majority of their time on social-networking sites," she says.

The paid Verizon ads, which Facebook calls "sponsored stories" and which appear on users' home pages, have been distributed twice so far to millions of users. One was sent exclusively to recent graduates and college seniors with majors in specific fields. The other was sent to experienced professionals with backgrounds in those same areas. The ads encouraged recipients to consider careers at the company and included a link to Verizon's career site. The campaign generated more than one million clicks, Ms. Stapleton says.

Verizon also plans to allow employees who belong to Facebook to add an application to their profiles, called "Work With Me." Visitors to their pages who click on the application will be directed to the company's career site, Ms. Stapleton says.

Creating "fan" pages is another way employers have begun to leverage Facebook for recruiting. Site members can opt to become "fans" of employers they like, much as they choose to become "friends" with other members. Similarly, companies can create group pages on Facebook to share information and news, including recruiting events, with members who opt in.

Microsoft Corp. launched a Facebook fan page in December called "Working It @ MSFT" that has so far attracted about 400 users. It features a discussion board, videos and links to blogs about careers at the software company. "We want to give users of Facebook a slice of life at Microsoft," says Warren Ashton, a recruiting manager. "We're trying to connect folks from outside the company with folks inside the company."

More employers are conducting first interviews with candidates over the Web, says Ms. Shapiro. "This is just starting to get going," she says. "In the next couple of years, you're going to need a video capability on your computer to find a job." The strategy helps employers save time and avoid expenses like plane tickets and hotel stays, she adds.

Employers can also use video conferencing to have candidates meet hiring managers in other locations. Six candidates for a senior finance job recently went to One Communications Corp.'s headquarters in Waltham, Mass., and interviewed via video with executives based in several different locations at once, says Linda Chapman, executive vice president of human resources.

Until recently, few employers produced Web videos describing what it is like to work for them. Today they're abundant and more sophisticated, says Joel Cheesman, author of Cheezhead.com, a blog on Web recruiting. And the videos are ubiquitous, finding homes on job boards, company career pages and video-sharing sites like YouTube.com. One example: About 7,000 videos are currently posted on Jobing.com, a job board that specializes in listing career opportunities in specific geographic communities.

Similarly, a growing number of employers are creating podcasts, narrated by employees, on career-related topics. Accenture Ltd. has been producing about one a month for its online career portal since mid-2006.

To engage job hunters, more employers are also adding interactive media to their online career portals, including games, blogs and real- time chat services. For example, in December, ASML Holding NV, an equipment supplier for the semiconductor industry, designed a recruitment-events page that job hunters can synchronize with their Microsoft Outlook calendars. Users can also opt to receive event reminders via email or text message.

Scanning the Web for information that might derail a job hunter's candidacy is now routine procedure for recruiters at many firms, says Cynthia Shapiro, author of "What Does Somebody Have to Do to Get a Job Around Here." Many recruiters even engage in the practice before extending interview invitations, she adds.

"If what pops up is a ranting blog about the evils of corporate America or a picture of you topless in Cancun with a beer in your hand, you're in trouble," she warns. "Your resume will land in the trash, and you won't even know what happened."

Job hunters can turn the tables in their favor by creating a Web site, blog or networking profile specifically for employers, Ms. Shapiro says. "The Internet lets you flaunt things you can't put on a resume," she adds. "If you don't have that kind of presence on the Web, you are losing a critical opportunity to put yourself at the top of the list."

Companies are also increasingly using social-networking sites to vet potential hires. It's ripe territory as the membership databases of these sites continue to grow rapidly. For example, five-year-old LinkedIn.com, which caters to experienced professionals, now has roughly 19 million members, up from eight million in 2006.

Recruiters for Electronic Arts Inc. began perusing MySpace.com and Facebook.com a little more than a year ago to learn about and engage with prospective hires, says Matthew Jeffery, head of global talent brand for the gaming company. "We want people who are passionate gamers, and often on these sites, people talk about their hobbies," he says.

Once you get from the job ad into the application process, more employers are adding assessments to the online-application process -- a form of candidate screening previously reserved for the interview stage, says John Hancock, managing director of recruiting services at Capital H Group, a human-resources consulting firm. The idea is to learn about candidates' intangible qualities, such as leadership skills, work ethics and business acumen, he explains.

Companies are also using assessments to weed out applicants who aren't serious, says Mr. Hancock. "It's an indication of interest from a candidate to spend time completing a more comprehensive application process," he says. Indeed, some assessments can take up to an hour to complete, he adds.

Similarly, some Web sites now offer free assessment quizzes designed to help job hunters find the positions that best match their qualifications, work histories and job preferences. For example, visitors to nine-month-old Climber.com are prompted to answer about 25 questions on these topics, which takes about 30 minutes to complete and results in a personal profile. Climber works with roughly 40 corporate clients and sends them profiles of job hunters that closely match their hiring needs. Job hunters whose profiles aren't a strong fit for Climber's clients are directed to ads on the Web.