‘millennials don’t go to job boards’
April 3rd, 2008
If you ever have the pleasure of interviewing Gen Y expert Penelope Trunk, you’ll quickly discover things don’t go as planned. It’s curve-balls galore.
My latest chat with her was no exception, as I attempted to get more information over a comment she made in her keynote at the ERE conference this week, essentially saying, “millennials don’t go to job boards.”
Enjoy. And in case my mom sees this, I was wearing pants.
Penelope Trunk Interview - Rated PG-13
Learn more about Penelope Trunk at her Web site, her blog and Brazen Careerist. You can also view a highlight from Penelope’s keynote only on Cheezhead’s Facebook Fan Site.
April 3rd, 2008 at 3:08 pm
I think that Penelope is great but she’s dead wrong when she says that Millennials a/k/a Gen Y’ers don’t go to job boards. Without a doubt, some Gen Y’ers don’t use job boards, but that’s no different than any other niche. We have hundreds of thousands of unique visitors per month, millions of dollars in sales, and are quite profitable. None of those would be true if Penelope’s analysis was correct.
April 3rd, 2008 at 6:43 pm
Although I wouldn’t want to meet her in a dark alley late at night, I wouldn’t mind drilling:-) her about online recruitment. She seems to be on the money.
April 4th, 2008 at 11:14 am
I am sorry to say that I cannot repost this vid on my blog. Bummer because it is too funny. unfortunately, I saw you all weekend and I don’t think you were ever wearing pants. Thanks Penelope for calling him out on it.
April 4th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Cool. Never heard anyone laugh at their own joke so hard..
April 4th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
I’ve been reading and watching Penelope for a while now and mostly I find her provocative. Not necessarily right, in fact I often disagree with her points even though she’s creative in their delivery.
Her take that Gen Y doesn’t use job boards is just another example of that. Some may not use job boards but most do. The reality is that HR/recruiters don’t have time to blog and participate with candidates at that level. While the market may eventually force them to, at this point, there isn’t a labor shortage on a level to force this type of change.
April 5th, 2008 at 12:55 am
LOVE the interview, the conversation and the power of social media. The world is new and exciting … once again!
Cheers!
Polly Pearson
VP Employment Brand @ EMC
April 6th, 2008 at 7:52 am
Great interview and oh so true. Sure, people still go to boards, like she says: when you are desperate. But the truly great talents, will never apply for a job, they want to be asked. And that group is expanding every month (the level or bar is set lower per day). Why? Because we have the lowest unemployement in history (at least, in Europe we do) and about 15% of the work force is leaving in the next 7 years…
April 6th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
This is quite interesting actually. The job boards unfortunately became spam central. And, I don’t mean that if you list your resume, you will necessarily get the enlarge your manhood e-mails, but you get flooded with phone calls, and other contacts that are irrelevant to what you are seeking. I would definitely be interested in alternative ways to give my resume an exposure, but on a higher levels than what job boards can offer… and I would love to get one on one interaction by my targeted companies and not someone who calls you up trying to get you situated in a job but obviously neglected to read your job board profile and resume. Trunk may not give a really accurate information, and sometimes may miss a point, but shes way ahead of of what I see out there currently available.