Ninh Tran's Posts - Boolean Strings Network2024-03-28T21:42:59ZNinh Tranhttps://booleanstrings.ning.com/profile/NinhTranhttps://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1965420443?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1https://booleanstrings.ning.com/profiles/blog/feed?user=247jo4cxierdy&xn_auth=noTech Hiring Is Slowing Downtag:booleanstrings.ning.com,2016-07-14:2748775:BlogPost:1969182016-07-14T15:00:00.000ZNinh Tranhttps://booleanstrings.ning.com/profile/NinhTran
<p><span><a href="https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAkxAAAAJDQxZjM3ZTRhLTdlZDUtNDZjYi05MTVjLWM5MmU3NDFhMDNiZA.jpg" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><img class="align-left" src="https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAkxAAAAJDQxZjM3ZTRhLTdlZDUtNDZjYi05MTVjLWM5MmU3NDFhMDNiZA.jpg?width=300" width="300"></img></a> <strong>True or False - is tech hiring slowing down?</strong></span></p>
<p>I believe the answer is both, true and false. There is undeniably a slowdown in VC funding in the Bay Area as of late 2015 with all the unicorns and even giants falling in valuations due to “tech corrections”. Fundraising is not as easy as it was…</p>
<p><span><a rel="nofollow" href="https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAkxAAAAJDQxZjM3ZTRhLTdlZDUtNDZjYi05MTVjLWM5MmU3NDFhMDNiZA.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAkxAAAAJDQxZjM3ZTRhLTdlZDUtNDZjYi05MTVjLWM5MmU3NDFhMDNiZA.jpg?width=300" width="300" class="align-left"/></a><strong>True or False - is tech hiring slowing down?</strong></span></p>
<p>I believe the answer is both, true and false. There is undeniably a slowdown in VC funding in the Bay Area as of late 2015 with all the unicorns and even giants falling in valuations due to “tech corrections”. Fundraising is not as easy as it was before because the bar has been set a bit higher for startups who are raising money. I know this because we fund raised our seed fund of $1.5M in late 2015 right before things started to slow down and right now we are gearing towards another fundraising round. The money is there, and investors are investing left and right even in the Valley, but we do see a slow down of seed money invested and more of latter rounds as indicated by <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.crunchbase.com/funding-rounds" target="_blank">CrunchBase January 2016</a> and <a rel="nofollow" href="https://mattermark.com/early-q4-funding-data-indicates-20-slow-down-return-to-pre-2015-levels/" target="_blank">MatterMark</a>. It almost seems like as if investors suddenly got smarter with their investments (no pun intended). Good companies that performed well are still raising successfully especially with all the hundreds of millions invested just lateb January 2016.</p>
<p>How does this translate to hiring? Well, hiring is slowing down yes, but that’s mostly because open job positions that have been there for a while are now filled. Fewer jobs are being offered by seed stage companies and fewer new job positions overall, but what are we comparing this to? Is hiring now much worse than the .com boom in 2004? Is it much better than the bust in 2008? Let’s look at the data. Let’s observe <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=recruiting,hiring&geo=US" target="_blank">Google Trends search</a> in the US which indicates what people search for that month and year signaling level of interest for hiring and recruiting?</p>
<p><img class="center" src="https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAe0AAAAJGQ3MzNmM2Q2LTE1MTgtNDM3ZC04NGM0LWZmN2FkOTIyM2IxNw.png" alt="" width="640" height="345"/></p>
<p><span>The answer is it’s a lot better than 2008 bust, but about the same in 2004 boom. One interesting thing we can observe from this graph is that hiring is indeed in full swing but the acceleration slowing down, and recruiting is picking up exponentially. There are three reasons simple reasons why this is happening. First, we are running out of is left of unemployed or underemployed tech talent caused by the slower economy since the last regression. The active talent pool is smaller, and the passive talent pool is getting bigger, less responsive, and hiring managers are increasingly pickier. Second, the easy jobs got filled leaving the most challenging roles open. Third, the market has become so saturated and competitive for tech talent especially in the Valley.</span></p>
<p><img class="center" src="https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAjPAAAAJDgyNjA0N2U4LTVjYjktNDU1Ni04MDY0LWU5ZDI3YzVhZTU3Mw.png" alt="" width="640" height="465"/></p>
<p><img class="center" src="https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAegAAAAJGZjOGI2NTg4LTdmMjItNDkxMS04YjI5LWIzZTQzZmE3NDk5MQ.png" alt="" width="640" height="462"/></p>
<p><img class="center" src="https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAfNAAAAJDQxMmUxODU2LTBiOTctNDFhMi1iNTFmLTRjNmMxMTk1ZGE5NQ.png" alt="" width="640" height="428"/></p>
<p>Comparing <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends/industry" target="_blank">this January 2016 to January 2015</a>, hiring is in full swing across all industries especially the +136% in transportation and +20% in IT compared to same time last year. However, looking at last quarter and month in IT sector, we can see zeroes or negative figures in growth. Anyone who took college Physics or Calculus can mathematically derive that although the quantity of hiring is very high and in full swing and yearly velocity/growth is amazing, monthly velocity is becoming negative, which means that the acceleration is slowing down, and we are near the peak of the hiring boom. <img class="left" src="https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAloAAAAJDA4ZTk2MTJkLTkwNzktNGY4YS1hNjkyLTFmN2UzMWUwZTk3NA.jpg" alt="" width="230" height="124"/>We are in the early beginning of stage from <a rel="nofollow" href="http://claytonang.pbworks.com/f/s-t%20question1.JPG" target="_blank">points B to point C in the picture</a>. For example, the <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends/information-technology-industry" target="_blank">IT industry graph validates this</a> even to date (April 2016).</p>
<p><br/> <img class="center" src="https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAjkAAAAJGU0NWFjMzI5LTlkODYtNDMxYS1iOWMwLWQ1ZGEyYjZlYWVlYg.png" alt="" width="640" height="227"/><img class="center" src="https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAjUAAAAJDZiYWEwMTAyLWY0NDMtNGZhOS1iNjc1LWRhNGYyM2U5ZDEyMA.png" alt="" width="640" height="222"/></p>
<p>My advice for job seekers for the next few months is to act fast on any offers they get before the open jobs are gone and hiring slows down. If you are considering switching careers or change now, act fast. There is still a good window. Who knows things might pick up after a while, it’s the economy after all. One thing is for sure, when the economy goes up, it must go down eventually. Looking for a job in a recession is tough. From my personal experience, I graduated from Cal and fundraised for my previous venture during the recession in 2012, and it wasn’t easy to secure funding then. It is much easier even now after tighter VC funding. Many of my engineering friends who graduated in 2012 couldn’t find a job for more than one year. Don’t wait for that to happen.</p>
<p><span>If you enjoyed or found this article useful please like and share. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.</span></p>
<p>This article was originally published <a rel="nofollow" href="https://goo.gl/0dDwmj" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>
<p><strong>ABOUT ME</strong></p>
<p><strong>Ninh Tran</strong>, CMO at Hiretual, a <a rel="nofollow" href="https://hiretual.com/">Recruiting Power Tool made by Recruiters for Recruiters</a>.</p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tranninh/" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="https://twitter.com/ninhtran09/" target="_blank">Twitter</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.quora.com/profile/Ninh-Tran" target="_blank">Quora</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.facebook.com/ninhtran09/" target="_blank">Facebook</a></p>How To Recruit On LinkedIntag:booleanstrings.ning.com,2016-06-30:2748775:BlogPost:1970082016-06-30T15:00:00.000ZNinh Tranhttps://booleanstrings.ning.com/profile/NinhTran
<p class="center"><b><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557592520?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557592520?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"></img></a></b></p>
<p class="center"><b>How To Recruit On LinkedIn, Fast, Without Breaking The Bank</b></p>
<p>Recently I discussed the <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/slowdown-bay-area-tech-hiring-true-false-ninh-tran" target="_blank">slowdown in tech hiring</a>, which is already reflected in today’s longer and more difficult hiring cycles as hiring managers…</p>
<p class="center"><b><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557592520?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="750" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557592520?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750" class="align-center"/></a></b></p>
<p class="center"><b>How To Recruit On LinkedIn, Fast, Without Breaking The Bank</b></p>
<p>Recently I discussed the <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/slowdown-bay-area-tech-hiring-true-false-ninh-tran" target="_blank">slowdown in tech hiring</a>, which is already reflected in today’s longer and more difficult hiring cycles as hiring managers are more selective with the quality of candidates. Recruiting and job seeking has become significantly more challenging as offers are given out only to candidates who meet all requirements without fail. Sahat Yalkabov, a software engineer at Yahoo, was rejected multiple times describes this trend in his post “<a href="https://medium.com/@evnowandforever/f-you-i-quit-hiring-is-broken-bb8f3a48d324#.95kssdrt8" target="_blank">F*** You, I Quit — Hiring Is Broken.</a>”</p>
<p>I empathize with Sahat and others out there who are struggling to get offers. The environment of hiring and talent acquisition had changed from two years ago when Sahat got the gig on Yahoo. Back then almost every company needed to fill tens, sometimes hundreds of positions.</p>
<p>Today, only pockets of the tech industry still enjoy significant growth and hiring volumes, for example, autonomous vehicles, augmented and virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and deep learning. To satisfy hiring teams, talent acquisition professionals must find better and more creative ways to reach premier talent and generate their interest for the right opportunity. Can LinkedIn be an excellent recruiting channel to connect the right people with the right roles?</p>
<p class="center"><img class="center align-center" src="https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAdgAAAAJDZkMWEzZjRmLTFjMzgtNDA1OC04Zjk2LTNmZThjYjAyZjdlNQ.png" alt="" width="640" height="432"/></p>
<p class="center"><em><a href="http://b2b-assets.glassdoor.com/50-hr-and-recruiting-stats-for-2016.pdf" target="_blank">GlassDoor - HR and Recruiting Statistics for 2016</a></em></p>
<p class="left">LinkedIn is a professional network where people connect, exchange ideas and expertise, manage relationships, and look for jobs. There are, however, two essential problems with recruiting on LinkedIn. It takes way too much time to reach the right candidate, and the response rate from people is very low, a lot lower than it used to.ason Webster, the current Head of Strategic Accounts Program at Glassdoor and Ex-Co-Founder of</p>
<p class="left">ason Webster, the current Head of Strategic Accounts Program at Glassdoor and Ex-Co-Founder of Ongig said: "The majority of my industry contacts tell me that their [InMail] response rate is between 10-20 percent. By contrast, colleagues from big-name companies like Google have said that they fetch a response rate of 70 percent using InMail. That seems to be an anomaly compared to the norm" (<a href="http://blog.ongig.com/hiring/whats-your-linkedin-inmail-response-rate" target="_blank">OnGiG</a>). Why? Do Google recruiters have secret methodology or technology that gives them an unfair advantage? Is the Google brand so attractive in the minds of premier engineers?</p>
<p>No. With simple hacks, I had a 40 percent conversion for engineers currently working at Google and similar big-name companies to apply for jobs with sometimes unknown startups. So the answer must be in the recruiting, not the brand. I’ve cracked the code.</p>
<p>For the past couple of months, I have been recruiting top talent from Google, Apple, Cisco, Yahoo, LinkedIn, and successfully generating interest and applications for placements in early ventures. I achieved 41.3 percent response rate and 36.1 percent acceptance rate with 994 InMails in a month and a half which is 22 times the number of InMails for Recruiter Lite, while spending only $119.95/month for my subscription. What I am about to unveil is a working strategy with proven results to recruit premier candidates, both technical and non-technical, as an educational guide for talent acquisition professionals and hiring managers who compete for top talent with limited resources and limited time.</p>
<p>This LinkedIn sourcing strategy has been proven to work for front-end and back-end junior, iOS and Android, architects, DevOps, data scientists, full-stack, hardware and software engineers to senior engineers to staff engineers to CTOs, both general and highly specialized. It also works well for sales positions like corporate account executives, director-level product managers, junior and senior user experience and user interface designers. This strategy will work for any role except for those so specialized that only a few people in the world could do.</p>
<p><img class="center align-center" src="https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAieAAAAJDNjZGM4OTk2LWJlMmUtNDQxMC04Mjg4LWQ2MjcxYzA3ZGM4NQ.png" alt="" width="640" height="572"/></p>
<p class="center"><em>Personal InMail Analytics from 3/11/2016 to 4/29/2016</em></p>
<p class="left">For a more accurate example beyond my InMail Analytics, I had a month to fill a tough role with a demanding hiring manager for a startup that only wanted to hire Googlers. To add to the challenge, after each of the first four onsite interviews, the hiring team changed the requirements for the role. Counting inbox responses (where responses are measured by those who willingly gave their contact information via LinkedIn message to further discuss the opportunity) confirms a response rate of 35.45 percent (39/110) from Googlers and Google-caliber engineering talent. Of those who responded, 59 percent applied for the position after the initial phone conversation.</p>
<p class="left">Within a month, I had 23 relevant and quality candidates solely from sourcing on LinkedIn (Note that this is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_and_lower_bounds#Bounds_of_functions" target="_blank">lower bound</a> overall, considering the stringent demands of the role). The hiring manager appreciated the candidates and this sourcing strategy, saying, “Thank you for providing a constant stream of quality candidates week after week.”</p>
<p class="left">Other hiring managers' experience was similar, with several asking questions like “How do you find so many fantastic candidates?” or “Where do you get these guys?” - because speed and quality matters.</p>
<p class="left">For those not familiar with LinkedIn Recruiter products, Recruiter Lite accounts come with 30 InMails for $119.95/month. One can add 10 InMails for additional $100/month. LinkedIn Recruiter Corporate accounts come with 150 InMails for $899.95/month and for each 10 additional InMails it is $60/month.</p>
<p class="left">How is it possible to send so many InMails without a LinkedIn Recruiter Corporate account and spending over $10,000 each month for InMails? A lot of LinkedIn “Power” Recruiters just connect to the person first and wait for the connection or wait for the email read confirmation or look for a sign of online activity before sending an InMail ... a common best practice among Google and other top recruiters. Why? If the person does not want to connect with us in the first place, then the chances that they will respond favorably to a recruiter's InMail is next to zero, wasting all those expensive InMails credits. According to the <a href="https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/business/talent-solutions/global/en_us/c/pdfs/global-talent-trends-report.pdf" target="_blank">LinkedIn 2015 Global Talent Report</a> about 51 percent of people on LinkedIn is somewhat interested or not interested to hear from a recruiter, whereas 43 percent are very interested.</p>
<p class="left">The report also states that “followers [and by deduction your connections] are 81 percent more likely to respond to your InMails than those who do not follow you.” Pro Tip: Create a short post about the opportunity on your LinkedIn before sending invitations to connect. </p>
<p><strong><img class="center align-center" src="https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAd9AAAAJGZiYWI4YmM2LTIxYWYtNDk5Ny05ODMwLTliODk0NmIzNTI5NQ.png" alt="" width="640" height="345"/></strong></p>
<p>It is possible to grow anyone’s LinkedIn from 0 connections to 3,000+ connections under one month without getting restricted by LinkedIn. Be very careful not to come across as a connect spammer. Have a genuine reason to justify the invite to connect with anyone to respect the LinkedIn Community Guidelines. I advise against any automated LinkedIn connection tools. High-volume connection invites should be controlled and limited to at the very most 200-300 invites per day and 3,000-4,000 invitations per month. I have been enjoying about 60 percent acceptance rates. Sending a connection request works as a probing signal to see whether that person is open to communicating or not. Clean up any one-month-old invitations every week in the <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/people/invites?trk=connect_hub_manage_invitations_sent" target="_blank">LinkedIn Connect Hub</a>.</p>
<p>The beginning of all sourcing begins with cleaning up and completing your LinkedIn profile to look and feel like a professional recruiter, or better yet executive search recruiter. Most people connect and respond to executive search recruiters even if they are not executive level yet. Make your profile and profile picture likable. Second, get the Boolean search optimization process down cold. If the Boolean search is a tough nut to crack, use tools that have Boolean search recommendation as a good starting point. Take on a data-driven approach to perfect the Boolean search by testing results and counting the accuracy, experimenting with the Boolean string, re-testing, and optimizing again. Here is an example Boolean string to search for <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Izj39t5tG7KcFPWmy7JBq8e7kEQIYpQt0miTt_oLHoY" target="_blank">Java Web Application Engineer on Spring/Groovy/Grails</a> that shows 9 out of 10 relevant profiles.</p>
<p>Two pro tips: Bookmark the Boolean search to connect with more people another day. Use current title in the Boolean search to improve the results accuracy significantly. Do not use the default “current or past” parameter because combined with the negative keyword operator “NOT” it does not work as intended. For example, people with founder titles only in the present or only in the past will still show up in the search results. Beware of this small LinkedIn design flaw of not having “current and past” option.</p>
<p class="center"><strong><img class="center" src="https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAh8AAAAJDMzMjQ1ZGIwLTE4MmQtNDBlZS1iYTNkLTA1OWQ5YzkzNWVlNA.png" alt="" width="640" height="601"/></strong></p>
<p class="center"><em><a href="https://hiretual.com" target="_blank">Augmented LinkedIn Boolean Search Results</a></em></p>
<p>While optimizing the Boolean search, you want to get 400 to at most 1,200 search results because LinkedIn results are capped at 10×100 results. Add more restrictions like zipcode-based location with radius or industry or current/past company or negative keywords when there are too many results. Relax restrictions or add relevant keywords if there are not that many results. LinkedIn's search accuracy is capped by its technology, so no matter how complete the Boolean string is, the search results are never going to be 100 percent accurate.</p>
<p>For this strategy to work, hit at least 80-90 percent accuracy in the search results. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_separation#LinkedIn" target="_blank">Six degrees of separation</a> explains the difference between first, second, and third connection on LinkedIn. Note that LinkedIn always shows first connections in the first couple of pages even though first connections are unselected. To experiment and improve the Boolean search, quickly glance over the first page's results with second connections, then 10th and 20th-page results, and see if the titles are actually what you are looking for. If everything looks good, make a deeper check and review a couple of profiles randomly. Analytics speed up this whole process with domain expertise, years of experience, and peer ranking directly in the search results. Use negative keyword operator NOT (keyword1 OR keyword2) for not relevant titles or keywords that appear often.</p>
<p>To connect with people, use regular LinkedIn search. To reach out to the first connections go to “View in Recruiter” from the search results. Under relationship filter apply “Any” to clear out the settings and then select “1st Connections.” The first people who connect are likely going to be active seekers, but after a few days, there will be enough first connections to whom we can send a free InMail. Pro Tip: Save this search in a project to get notifications on people who just connected and we have not contacted yet. Another Pro tip: free InMails can be sent to second connections who have premium accounts. Review everyone’s profile before sending an InMail to make sure there is a good match. Use tools that augment profiles with further analytics for deeper review. To save time, craft an appealing and straightforward InMail template. Make sure it’s an upfront and killer message that encompasses all points that people care about.</p>
<p>Pro Tip: Save this search in a project to get notifications on people who just connected and we have not contacted yet. Another Pro tip: free InMails can be sent to second connections who have premium accounts. Review everyone’s profile before sending an InMail to make sure there is a good match. Use tools that augment profiles with further analytics for deeper review. To save time, craft an appealing and straightforward InMail template. Make sure it’s an upfront and killer message that encompasses all points that people care about.</p>
<p class="center"><img class="center align-center" src="https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAe6AAAAJDQ3OTU1NDY2LWY2YzEtNGUxNS1iOTA3LWI4MzJmMzQ5ZjBjOQ.png" alt="" width="423" height="489"/></p>
<p><img class="center align-center" src="https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAfdAAAAJGEwYzkzMWE5LWU0ZDctNDEyNS1iMzQ3LWVmZTVkZDhjYmMyYg.png" alt="" width="480" height="528"/></p>
<p><em><a href="https://www.jobvite.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/jobvite_jobseeker_nation_2015.pdf" target="_blank">Jobvite 2015 Job Seeker Nation: Inside the Mind of the Modern Job Seeker</a></em></p>
<p>Here is an example of a data-driven title that people appreciate: <em>$180K + Equity + Mountain View, CA + Principal Software Engineer + Full Benefits + VISA Sponsor</em></p>
<p>This message encompasses all of the decision-making aspects of a job seeker, whether active or passive in the order of importance, and leaves only work life balance, flexibility, culture, and leadership undetermined. People often make the first decision based on their three to four priorities. Get those cleared up with the first message. Individuals who decline giving thanks for reaching out providing a reason like “I am happy where I am” or “just got a job not ready to make a move” etc. 87 percent of people who accept the InMail are interested in discussing the role because it already satisfies their core requirements, which could be salary, could be location, title, benefits, visa sponsorship. There are going to be a couple of people who ask whether the opportunity can be remote because to them working from home is a core priority. Whether they accept or decline, mostly everyone will want to keep in touch with us, because we are approaching talent as a recruiter who is trying to help them find a better job. Some tools can contribute to estimating people’s compensation and avoid awkward messages whenever the current salary is higher than offered.</p>
<p>Start the body of the message with something personalized. Use templates, but personalized the first line(s) of the message. Here are some good introductions - recognize their skill and experience or tell the person that we have shown their profile to one of our colleagues or one of the team members or the hiring manager who liked it. In this way, we will answer the questions that half of job seekers want to hear: “Are they looking for someone like me?”</p>
<p class="center"><img class="center align-center" src="https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAdBAAAAJDU3NDk1YWNmLTk1NTQtNGUwYy1hYTNmLTU4NTcyZTY1OGMzNQ.png" alt="" width="505" height="577"/></p>
<p><img class="center align-center" src="https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAfWAAAAJGM3M2FjZTVlLWIwYTYtNDA2NC05NDZiLWNhNzcxNDQwMTA1ZA.png" alt="" width="503" height="522"/></p>
<p><em><a href="https://hiring-assets.careerbuilder.com/media/attachments/original-2184.pdf" target="_blank">CareerBuilder - Rethink the Candidate Experience and Make Better Hires</a></em></p>
<p>Crafting message content is the most important determinant of response rate from both premier candidates and passive seekers. It is the difference between 25 percent and 40+ percent positive response rate. Company branding matters. Just like candidate’s first impression matters to the interviewer, so does the company’s first impression in the minds of the candidate matter. What people read and feel from the message about a less-known business matter. Paint a picture of who the candidate would want to be, the best they can be, and how this opportunity will help them achieve it. Find something about our client’s company that we are excited and passionate about. Passion sells and the message should sell, hard. Anything and everything that is exceptional about the company should be briefly mentioned in the message. Is the team made of all Stanford Ph.D. data scientists? Is the CEO a very successful entrepreneur? Is the product meaningful? Does the company’s mission touch our hearts?</p>
<p>Find the reasons why we would want to accept the offer for the presented opportunity ourselves. Keep the message short and sweet, add a little mystery, and leave room for curiosity to do its work. Don’t ask for resumes and don’t give a job application link in the first message. Give people the company name regardless if it’s in stealth or not because it’s something people want to know. If funding is exceptional, mention it. We want to have the best introduction about the company as possible. If people respond, the next step is to ask for an email to send them more information and schedule the initial phone call. Even though we can find contact information easily, always ask first. Treat people like we would want them to treat us. Among all the spam, the human element and permission-based contact in all our interaction with others are so important. It will set us apart from every bot that just bombards candidates with non-relevant emails, and it sets up the initial call to be a success.</p>
<p>Example message:</p>
<p><em>My colleagues and I think that you would be a great fit for our role of Principal Software Engineer at XYZ-company, a $15M SEED-funded startup (99% of seed stage startups don’t raise more than $1M) located in Mountain View, CA and founded by very successful serial team of entrepreneurs and gurus in the analytics space. Our CEO was recently featured in Forbes’ 30 under 30: [Link to article without shortening]</em></p>
<p><em>$180K + Equity + Mountain View, CA + Principal Software Engineer + Full Benefits + VISA Sponsor</em></p>
<p><em>Take care,</em></p>
<p><img class="center align-center" src="https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAjEAAAAJGRiNGIwMTQ0LWIyMTAtNDQ0Mi05YzQ2LTYzNzA3NWJhN2IxNQ.png" alt="" width="640" height="264"/></p>
<p class="center"><a href="https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/business/talent-solutions/global/en_US/c/pdfs/eng-guide.pdf" target="_blank"><em>LinkedIn 2016 Guide to Modern Recruiter v2.0</em></a></p>
<p>Finally, remember that the whole process matters. We must have a solid #recruiting strategy and #hiring process. From the moment when we make contact with the initial message to the moment when the candidate gets an offer, through onboarding and beyond, treat the candidate as a person, with honesty and decency. Answer their questions, give constructive feedback, and follow up, and you will create a lasting relationship that goes beyond any one role.</p>
<p>If you enjoyed or found this article useful please like and share. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.</p>
<p>This article was originally published <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/how-recruit-linkedin-fast-ninh-tran" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>
<p><strong>ABOUT ME</strong></p>
<p><strong>Ninh Tran</strong>, CMO at Hiretual, a <a href="https://hiretual.com">Recruiting Power Tool made by Recruiters for Recruiters</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tranninh/" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/ninhtran09/" target="_blank">Twitter</a> <a href="https://www.quora.com/profile/Ninh-Tran" target="_blank">Quora</a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ninhtran09/" target="_blank">Facebook</a></p>How Microsoft-LinkedIn Could Reboot Recruitingtag:booleanstrings.ning.com,2016-06-27:2748775:BlogPost:1970092016-06-27T15:00:00.000ZNinh Tranhttps://booleanstrings.ning.com/profile/NinhTran
<h2 align="center"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557594908?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557594908?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="400"></img></a> <strong>What's the big deal?</strong></h2>
<p> </p>
<p>On June 13, 2016, three big brothers got together and spun the roulette. The Microsoft house took the gamble, and the LinkedIn players got their huge payout. Microsoft's CEO <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satya_Nadella" target="_blank">Satya Nadella</a>, LinkedIn's CEO …</p>
<h2 align="center"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557594908?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="400" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557594908?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="400" class="align-left"/></a><strong>What's the big deal?</strong></h2>
<p> </p>
<p>On June 13, 2016, three big brothers got together and spun the roulette. The Microsoft house took the gamble, and the LinkedIn players got their huge payout. Microsoft's CEO <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satya_Nadella" target="_blank">Satya Nadella</a>, LinkedIn's CEO <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Weiner" target="_blank">Jeff Weiner</a>, and LinkedIn's Co-founder <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reid_Hoffman" target="_blank">Reid Hoffman</a> announced <a href="http://news.microsoft.com/2016/06/13/microsoft-to-acquire-linkedin/" target="_blank">$26.2B cash LinkedIn acquisition</a>. What is the financial impact for both of the companies? MSFT is trading at <a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=MSFT" target="_blank">$50.14 (-2.60%)</a> and still slowly dropping while LKND surged to <a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=LNKD" target="_blank">$192.21 (+46.64%)</a> and is still slowly rising. LinkedIn stockholders are having a field day and here's an <a href="http://dwc.cnbc.com/Sm2lg/" target="_blank">interactive graph of it</a>. This is a big win for LinkedIn, and I applaud them for getting acquired. Who in the world would think something like this would be possible for <a href="https://ourstory.linkedin.com/" target="_blank">a small startup found late 2002</a> to grow into a tech giant and eventually be devoured by a bigger tech giant?</p>
<p align="center"></p>
<p class="left">There is a good rule of thumb to company valuation in the finance world; it's the <a href="http://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/times-revenue-method.asp" target="_blank">times revenue valuation method</a>. Multipliers on average tend to range from three to seven of the yearly revenue where ten is exceptional. Before the acquisition, LinkedIn enjoyed a multiplier of 7.607 on the NYSE with solid 34 percent year over year revenue growth. Microsoft-LinkedIn deal is <strong>8.759 times</strong> the <a href="https://press.linkedin.com/site-resources/news-releases/2016/linkedin-announces-fourth-quarter-and-full-year-2015-results" target="_blank">$2.991B total revenue</a> of LinkedIn in 2015! That is unquestionably quite the achievement for LinkedIn and a big premium for Microsoft. Here's what Microsoft bought:</p>
<p>LinkedIn most valuable product is the users, "our" data, and the fact that we come on this platform to update "our" profiles. What Microsoft bought is "us" and when the acquisition is going to be done by the end of the year, we will all join hands in the Microsoft Dynamics database.</p>
<p>There are <a href="https://press.linkedin.com/about-linkedin" target="_blank">433 million LinkedIn</a> users and <a href="https://ncmedia.azureedge.net/ncmedia/2016/06/msft_announce_160613.pdf" target="_blank">2 million paid users</a>. That's <strong>4.6 percentile</strong> conversion rate of free versus premium which essentially makes any new users equal free users. Everyone who registers is worth about sixty bucks and some change. Everyone who pays a couple of bucks to LinkedIn is worth thousands. Microsoft paid $60.50 for each user or $13,100 for each paid user. Here's something that you might not know about how good of a deal this is for LinkedIn. Microsoft bought all the inactive, outdated, and fake users which amount to about 86.6 million profiles (twenty percent of 433M) as well as the 70.43 percent of users outside of US. Talk about inequality and the economics of abundance and creating value out of thin air. It's miraculous, and it happened at LinkedIn!</p>
<p class="center" align="center"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557598303?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="750" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557598303?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p class="center" align="center"><em>Microsoft + LinkedIn "The Professional World."</em></p>
<p><b><u>Two possible scenarios of what will happen to LinkedIn:</u></b></p>
<p>LinkedIn lunges in the stardom of professionals and productivity everywhere. This deal could be the next Microsoft-Minecraft that exponentially lunges an already viral game into the gaming stardom and special-ed classrooms (a very cool and honorable project). However, the founder of Minecraft, Markus "Notch" Persson regrets the decision to sell Minecraft to Microsoft quoting "Hanging out in Ibiza with a bunch of friends and partying with famous people, able to do whatever I want, and I've never felt more isolated" (<a href="http://www.cnet.com/news/billionaire-who-sold-minecraft-to-microsoft-is-sad-and-lonely/" target="_blank">CNET</a>).</p>
<p>Scenario two: Microsoft ruins LinkedIn, and this acquisition is the next in line Microsoft-Nokia kind of a deal. It's more like <a href="https://www.thurrott.com/cloud/social/67925/linkedin-purchase-microsoft-not-learning-lessons-past" target="_blank">four times the Nokia deal</a>. Here's the problem with Nokia today, you might have heard or know or even owned a Nokia phone in the past, I did, but you surely don't anymore. Now it's all about the Windows Phone whose market share fell <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/23/11743594/microsoft-windows-phone-market-share-below-1-percent" target="_blank">below one percent</a>. To be fair to Microsoft, Nokia wasn't doing exactly great before the acquisition. Was LinkedIn doing well before the acquisition?</p>
<p align="center"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557598449?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="750" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557598449?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p class="center" align="center"><em>LinkedIn Crash on 02/05/2016</em></p>
<p>It's hard to say what is going to happen, or is it? I am going to say what both Microsoft and LinkedIn won't say. The acquisition is a company-wide $26.2B <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_parachute" target="_blank">golden parachute</a>. LinkedIn stock plunged to <a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/news/linkedin-crashing-weak-earnings-guidance-120700571.html" target="_blank">$108.38 (-43.63%)</a> only 4 months ago. Since then, LinkedIn only recovered to 68 percent of the pre-fall glory. LinkedIn generates $1495.50 per year per paying user and $46,400 per corporate customer (<a href="http://www.trefis.com/stock/lnkd/model/trefis?easyAccessToken=PROVIDER_b1ad1abbce1d06c047a15ed692f1b611f80448f0" target="_blank">Trefis</a>). There are about 43,000 Talent Solutions Corporate Recruiter seats powering over 65 percent of LinkedIn revenue in Q3 of 2015 (<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2015/11/04/why-talent-solutions-is-the-most-valuable-division-for-linkedin/#583966b14e67" target="_blank">Forbes</a>). The majority of LinkedIn's revenue is paid for by enterprises like the ones in direct competition with Microsoft. I can only imagine if our competition owned the database for our hiring. Things are going to change as companies are going to move away from LinkedIn to find talent elsewhere.</p>
<p>Beyond public information, my friends at LinkedIn told me about massive lays off where the Director of Engineering of Mobile was fired because the LinkedIn app earned 1-star rating across the board triggering a chain reaction of hundreds of top engineers quitting their jobs as people are leaving the company. <a href="https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/me/business/en-us/talent-solutions/cx/2016/images/infographics/LI_IndustryReport_IT_US_FINAL.pdf" target="_blank">Internal reports</a> say that only 3.5 million IT professionals on the LinkedIn network are active beyond the average user. LinkedIn struggles with internal and product design challenges and big ones at that. To be fair to LinkedIn, their numbers are still very impressive. Growth rates tend to decrease as volume goes up, for example, first world GDP growth vs. the emerging economies GDP growth rates. Engineers tend to leave when stock plummet and people get fired when things go wrong. Microsoft acquisition is the saving grace for LinkedIn product and its early stage employees (<a href="https://www.quora.com/What-do-early-LinkedIn-employees-think-about-its-acquisition-by-Microsoft/answer/Leo-Polovets?srid=zgnH" target="_blank">Quora</a>).</p>
<p align="center"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557602912?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="750" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557602912?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p class="center" align="center"><a href="http://www.trefis.com/stock/lnkd/model/trefis?easyAccessToken=PROVIDER_b1ad1abbce1d06c047a15ed692f1b611f80448f0" target="_blank"><em>Trefis - LinkedIn Talent Solution Revenue Estimations</em></a></p>
<p>This acquisition is less about LinkedIn and more about the growth potential for Microsoft. Financials indicate a steep acquisition premium which makes this move a pretty controversial one from Microsoft. Of course, there is potential on both sides to do some good, but there is also a lot of potentials to do a lot of bad.</p>
<p>Despite LinkedIn's revenue growth stalling since Q1 of 2013 indicating a negative acceleration (<a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-04/linkedin-sales-outlook-trails-estimates-on-slowing-core-business" target="_blank">Bloomberg</a>), let's assume a steady revenue growth of 34 percent year over year for LinkedIn. Running the numbers with <a href="http://www.webmath.com/compinterest.html" target="_blank">logarithmic compound interest</a>, we find that the break-even point for Microsoft's investment is seven years and 142 days away. The real break-even point is more likely to be a decade away.</p>
<p>This acquisition is not a bad acquisition for Microsoft, although, the money in LinkedIn stock might never see the light of profit unless Microsoft pours all of its resources, namely the 1.2B office users, behind LinkedIn to help it grow or finds a buyer to hand over the ball. Microsoft is onto something. Strategically this acquisition accomplished for Microsoft what they failed to accomplish last year. Microsoft tried to acquire Salesforce and its database and customers for $55 billion, but Marc Benioff the CEO of Salesforce countered the offer with $70 billion and effectively outpriced Microsoft (<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-ceo-marc-benioff-responds-to-questions-about-a-microsoft-takeover-bid-2016-5" target="_blank">Business Insider</a>). Now the pressure is on Salesforce as well as Google and Facebook and all the other tech giants to respond to this very strategic move by Microsoft. Will Goole or maybe Apple acquire Salesforce?</p>
<p align="center"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557603260?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="750" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557603260?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p class="center" align="center"><em>LinkedIn Revenue Growth</em></p>
<p><b><u>Why did Microsoft buy LinkedIn? Three simple reasons:</u></b></p>
<p><strong>There's a clear mutual benefit.</strong> LinkedIn needed to be acquired. Otherwise, it would have died. Microsoft is <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/6/13/11920856/linkedin-microsoft-deal-explained" target="_blank">reinventing itself as a business services company</a> and needed a social network to compete with Google for Work and potentially any professional features on Google Plus.</p>
<p><strong>Location, location, location.</strong> Microsoft is a not so hot Seattle tech giant who wants to break into the Silicon Valley to compete on a level field with Google, Facebook, Cisco, and Salesforce. LinkedIn, on the other hand, is a hot tech giant <a href="https://goo.gl/maps/h9ipRi1jgwE2" target="_blank">located right next to Google</a> in Mountain View and San Francisco, CA. There are natural relationships, intermingling, ideas being shared between people from Google, Intuit, and LinkedIn at Sports Page, the unofficial spot where everyone hangs out after work, which LinkedIn is <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2015/04/02/exclusive-linkedin-to-buy-mountain-view-dive-bar.html" target="_blank">about to buy</a> for its new parent company.</p>
<p><strong>Technology war.</strong> More on that after a commercial break by the two CEOs who made this deal happen.</p>
<p align="center"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557603489?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="750" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557603489?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p class="center" align="center"><em>LinkedIn-Google Mountain View, CA Location</em></p>
<p>Going forward, I am excited to see where these two about to become one super giant take us with their product, innovation, and hopefully working solutions. Take it from the two CEOs who made this deal possible:</p>
<p>Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, said: “Together we can accelerate the growth of LinkedIn, as well as Microsoft Office 365 and Dynamics as we seek to empower every person and organization on the planet.”</p>
<p>Jef Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn, recently discussed some of the synergies between Microsoft and LinkedIn and the future changes to LinkedIn platform in <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/linkedin-microsoft-changing-way-world-works-jeff-weiner" target="_blank">his article</a>:</p>
<ul>
<li>"Massively scaling the reach and engagement of LinkedIn by using the network to power the social and identity layers of Microsoft's ecosystem of over one billion customers. Think about things like LinkedIn's graph interwoven throughout Outlook, Calendar, Active Directory, Office, Windows, Skype, Dynamics, Cortana, Bing and more. </li>
<li>Accelerating our objective to transform learning and development by deeply integrating the Lynda.com/LinkedIn Learning solution in Office alongside some of the most popular productivity apps on the planet (note: 6 of the top 25 most popularLynda.com courses are related to Microsoft products).</li>
<li>Realizing LinkedIn’s full potential to truly change the way the world works by partnering with Microsoft to innovate on solutions within the enterprise that are ripest for disruption, e.g., the corporate directory, company news dissemination, collaboration, productivity tools, distribution of business intelligence and employee voice, etc.</li>
<li>Expanding beyond recruiting and learning & development to create value for any part of an organization involved with hiring, managing, motivating or leading employees. This human capital area is a massive business opportunity and an entirely new one for Microsoft.</li>
<li>Giving Sponsored Content customers the ability to reach Microsoft users anywhere across the Microsoft ecosystem, unlocking significant untapped inventory.</li>
<li>Redefining social selling through the combination of Sales Navigator and Dynamics.</li>
<li>Leveraging our subscription capabilities to provide opportunities to the massive number of freelancers and independent service providers that use Microsoft's apps to run their business on a daily basis."</li>
</ul>
<p class="center" align="center"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557603635?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="750" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557603635?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p class="center" align="center"><em>Microsoft-LinkedIn Acquisition Presentation</em></p>
<p class="left">I like LinkedIn. I do. It allows me to connect with people I wouldn't have otherwise and do my job better. I have even written a piece on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-recruit-linkedin-fast-ninh-tran" target="_blank">how to recruit on LinkedIn</a>. However, there is something unsettling about what is happening post-acquisition. Shortly after LinkedIn Microsoft acquired Wand Labs, a messaging AI startup, "to add more natural language tech to messaging apps and bots" (<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2016/06/16/microsoft-buys-wand-labs-to-add-more-natural-language-tech-to-messaging-apps-and-bots/" target="_blank">TechCrunch</a>) and the "World's Most Connected People Have Disappeared From LinkedIn" (<a href="http://www.inc.com/candice-galek/the-worlds-most-connected-people-have-disappeared-from-linkedin.html" target="_blank">Inc.com</a>) published by <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/bikini" target="_blank">Candice Galek</a>, Founder of Bikini Luxe, wrote: "What I have found is that this could happen to anyone, for any reason. What we are led to believe to be our virtual property is not ours at all, and it can be taken away at any time". Suddenly, something sank in...</p>
<p class="left">This is a lot bigger than LinkedIn. Welcome to the search engine wars. Microsoft gave away Windows 10 for free which is a clear big-brother move because of its shiny new feature Cortana that monitors your every activity. Microsoft bought LinkedIn to give it's Artificial Intelligence a constant and a massive stream of live data on which it can feast and grow on. This is the real reason behind the acquisition -- to compete with Google Assistant, Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri, Viv and all the other AI (<a href="http://fortune.com/2015/09/14/technology-artificial-intelligence/" target="_blank">Fortune</a>). It's to teach the Cortana AI why, how, and when a professional makes a buying, hiring, or any other business decision, and then augment Bing, Dynamics, and all other Microsoft products with this AI just like Google embedded BrainRank in its Search (<a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-18/google-embeds-ai-in-new-products-to-make-search-ubiquitous" target="_blank">Bloomberg</a>). Microsoft is creating a powerful intent discovery engine based on all the messaging interactions between professionals on LinkedIn. Google, Baidu, Yahoo, Apple, IBM, and Microsoft, all these biggest players in Tech today have a single most important competing arena, and that is Artificial Intelligence. Welcome to the beginnings of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skynet_(Terminator)" target="_blank">SkyNet</a> ladies and gentleman! This stuff is happening.</p>
<p class="center" align="center"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557609484?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557609484?profile=original" width="630" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p class="center" align="center"><em>Microsoft Artificial Intelligence - Cortana</em></p>
<p class="left">The recruiting industry is indeed waiting for the big great unveil which will come. If Microsoft plays the LinkedIn card well, they could make a super recruiter platform that integrates better LinkedIn-Bing Boolean search, save LinkedIn groups with Yammer, integrate Skype for real-time candidate outreach, Outlook/Exchange calendar scheduling as well as Excel or Dynamics CRM/ATS system. Of course, any of these integrations would take years just building the architecture for integration and serious commitment to accomplish given the speed of innovation of these giants. It would be truly LinkedIn version 2.0 for recruiting and perhaps a lot of recruiters might like it. AI powered by deep learning and quantum computing is pushing the boundaries of innovation, perhaps sooner or later Microsoft's Cortana will be our best recruiting assistant.</p>
<p class="left">Microsoft is playing a huge gamble where LinkedIn got the big payout, but the odds are always with the house. For the Xbox and PC gamers out there, Microsoft pulled the console out and typed "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_your_base_are_belong_to_us" target="_blank">allyourbasearebelongtous</a>" and won the game and its achievement is published on its Microsoft-LinkedIn company page. Imagine the risk. Imagine the possibilities.</p>
<p>If you enjoyed or found this article useful please like and share. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.</p>
<p>This article was originally published <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-microsoft-linkedin-could-reboot-recruiting-ninh-tran" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>
<p><strong>ABOUT ME</strong></p>
<p>Ninh Tran, CMO at Hiretual, a <a href="https://hiretual.com/">Recruiting Power Tool made by Recruiters for Recruiters</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tranninh/" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/ninhtran09/" target="_blank">Twitter</a> <a href="https://www.quora.com/profile/Ninh-Tran" target="_blank">Quora</a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ninhtran09/" target="_blank">Facebook</a></p>