Word-of-mouth epidemic

A colleague of mine shared with me an article about the online word-of-mouth epidemic and how it impacts recruiting. I thought the article just scratched the surface on how powerful this epidemic really is.

The article got me thinking of a new way to search for jobs. What would happen to Monster or Careerbuilder if Google wrote a job engine algorithm that cataloged job results like Amazon catalogs books? That is right, I said Amazon the worlds largest bookseller.

This is how the word-of-mouth epidemic would work.

A job seeker would start by entering a search criteria. For example, Financial Analyst, American Express, New York City. (We all know this is how most people search anyway.)

The search result page will list the typical American Express matches and something NEW. A list of the other jobs that applicants applied for. This is what it would look like:

People who applied for this job also applied to these jobs: (Like Amazon's check out algorithm.)
Morgan Stanley - Sr. Analyst, New York City
AXA Advisors - Financial Analyst, New York City
Burger King - Financial Accountant, Coral Gables, Florida
Macy's - Finance Director, New York City

In addition to the job listings a job seeker can read comments from employees about the jobs/company.

Word-of-mouth epidemics can help big companies act small and small companies act big.

Does the flat world have "passive" job seekers?

Hello Human Resources and Marketing Communications and welcome to my blog. My name is Darren Grant and I work at JWT EC. This blog was launched to start a conversation about recruiting in the flat world. Please share your thoughts and experiences.

As a North American Client Director, I am often asked to create sourcing strategies to find “passive” job seekers. But does the flat world even have “passive” job seekers?

I read the below African Proverb in Thomas Friedman's book "The world is flat" and I thought this is the perfect first entry for our blog.

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.
It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning a lion wakes up.
It knows it knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.
It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle.
When the sun comes up, you better start running.

In a flat world working harder than the person to your left and to your right is not enough. Imagine that as your headline on your monster or careerbuilder job posting.