Has this Recession led to more Job Offer Declines??…By Raghavendra Shetty

A new trend seen in recruitment during this recession is the increase in the “post-offer declines” from the offered candidates and “pre-offer declines” from candidates when they receive potential offers. A candidates reason for declining offers may be their decision to stay back at their present company. While the cause of the same can be easily identified as being due to the recession, here is how candidates may quote this –

-“I’m concerned about possible lay-offs”

-“My job is very secured and I have got good project pipeline in my present company…. I don’t want to take a risk”

As a Recruiter, some of these questions can really put you in a difficult situation to answer when candidates quote some of the examples of their own dear ones losing their jobs. However, there are many ways a Recruiter can turn such cases to successful hires and I believe on the following ones.

1. Help the candidate realise the importance and value of hiring during recession: Of late many candidates ask this question to me as to why are we hiring during recession and I turn this question as an answer to their question. First of all, we should make the candidates understand and realise the importance and value of hiring during recession. Candidates should be given enough information about the roadmap and future of business and also the position they are hired for as to how it can be a possible “recession proof”.

2. Involve Business/Hiring Managers: Asking the Hiring Manager to call the candidate very often after the offer release would definitely help to keep the candidate’s interest level high. Some time candidates may consider Recruiter as more of a job “seller” but their “trust factor” will be more when a hiring Manager calls up the candidate and talk to him.

3. Re-Brief the importance of the role in the company: Re-briefing is very important during a candidate’s post offer to pre-joining phase. Those candidates who are getting interviewed in multiple companies may forget what was explained to them during their interview. The Recruiter should make an attempt to address all queries related to job roles and responsibility.

4. Give personal touch: Perhaps there is nothing better than giving a personal touch to a rapport built with the candidate to avoid offer declines. Add the candidate to social networking sites like Orkut and Facebook, your chat room etc to make him feel more comfortable with the process. Meet the candidate very often both at office and outside, if possible. Apart from being his “career consultant”, talk to him about his personal part of life and make him feel you are not an outsider.

5. Beware of negative candidates/Window shoppers: Don’t be a victim to those ‘window-shopping’ candidates by letting them to make use of your offer to get what they want from their current employer.

The author of this article has been with the Oracle India Recruitment Team for the past three years and can be contacted at raghavendra.shetty@oracle.com

Micro-Blog Recruiting What is it???.....by MC Didone

One of the latest technologies that the Recruiters are using are Micro-blogs. Micro-blogs, by definition, are different than a traditional blog, such as the one you are reading now.

According to Wikipedia “Micro-blogging is a form of multimedia blogging that allows users to send brief text updates (say, 140 characters or fewer) or micromedia such as photos or audio clips and publish them, either to be viewed by anyone or by a restricted group which can be chosen by the user. These messages can be submitted by a variety of means, including text messaging, instant messaging, email, digital audio or the web.”

With the nature of a Micro-blog being limited in characters, the content is different than what one finds in a traditional blog. People use Micro-blogs for both personal and business use. A Micro-blog is a great way for an organization to announce products, services or career opportunities.

There are quite a number of Micro-blogs available to use. The most known appears to be Twitter which has been around for about two and one-half years and has won web awards in the blog category at the 2007 South by Southwest Conference in Austin, Texas.

Plurk is also another Micro-blog platform that integrates video and picture sharing. Jaiku is a Micro-blog platform that incorporates social networking and lifestream service and is by invitation only.

Yammer is a recently launched micro-blogging service that allows users to post updates, follow others and tag content. “Yammer focuses on business, and only individuals with the same corporate email address can join a given network”
As companies come and go, some micro-blogs might come and go as well such as Pownce did. Pownce was a free social networking and micro-blogging site but was closed down following an acquisition by SixApart.

The concept of micro-blogging, however, is here to stay and can be an invaluable tool to get corporate messages and career opportunities out into the community and start a “following” of candidates for current and future opportunities.

Stay tuned for my next blog installment discussing Social Networking and Recruiting…

The author of this article has been with the North America Recruitment team for approximately five years and can be reached at mc.didone@oracle.com

What will 2009 bring...a view from our North America Recruitment Team...by Jason Nowell

Like many of us, I have found myself searching high and low for some positive news about the global economy. As the media continues to report on how 2009 is shaping up to be a bumpy ride, I recently came across some interesting articles that speak about what might be in store.

The following article discusses how the Obama administration plans to make major investments in technology as Obama will appoint the first ever “Chief Technology Officer” to tackle some of these tough issues.

"Clearly the government will be a major spender on a variety of projects, including technology," said Scott Kessler, head of Standard & Poor's information-technology unit. "Obama has talked a lot about improving the nation's digital infrastructure."

Some other key initiatives are protecting the openness of the Internet and improving America’s competitiveness. Click here to view the Obama technology plan in more detail.

The article also references some of the challenges our industry is facing in 2009 as some companies will be trimming their technology budgets. While the Nasdaq is down 40% from last year’s high Oracle seems to be especially well positioned for 2009 and beyond.

New reports show Oracle is positioned in the Leaders Quadrant in each of the three new Gartner Magic Quadrants focused on application infrastructure. These three segments for Application Infrastructure include: SOA Composite Application Projects; New Systematic SOA Application Projects; and Back-End Application Integration Projects.




This is especially encouraging because so many deem SOA to be critically important to the future evolution of software. While 2009 promises to be a challenging year I think it’s important to remember how crucial our industry will be to the success and competitiveness of our customers in the 21st century.

The author of this article has been with the Oracle North America Recruitment Team for the past two plus years and can be contacted at jason.nowell@oracle.com

Are We Really Changing the Way We Recruit... by Vanesa Rodriguez

I read an article yesterday on the use of video games for recruitment, which made me think how companies are changing the way they recruit to attract, engage and identify Millenials. Can we also use Web 2.0 technologies to assess candidates for a role?

According to this HR blogger, this might be the next step in this transformation of recruiting. And therefore, this could affect not only the way we spot millenials but also the way we select them.

Recent research from Pew Internet & American Life Project found that “virtually all American teens play computer, console, or cell phone games and...the gaming experience is rich and varied, with a significant amount of social interaction and potential for civic engagement."



Nowadays, companies are launching new blogs, and making their webpages more attractive to millenials, (you can visit www.careertours.com, where companies publish videos jobs), but are companies doing their selection process more interactive? Virtual career fairs are getting limited results not to mention the empty virtual world Second life, where many companies were established with no success. Is it worthy then to invest in an interactive model to assess candidates?

The HR blog wonders “What if instead of the process being a one-way street (candidates search for information about employers, employers try to figure candidates out), it was a two-way simultaneous sharing of information?”

What if companies use their technology to give candidates more information about them and at the same time, testing their analytical/technical skills? Does it make any sense to you or is it just an absurd idea?

What do you think? Can we utilise Web 2.0 technologies to assess candidates for a role, or is this technology better suited to the attraction/identification and search for candidates. Your thoughts are welcomed!!!

The author of this article has been with the Oracle EMEA Recruitment Team for the past year and can be contacted at vanesa.rodriguez@oracle.com

Interviewing in 2009: Let’s get Ready….By Lucy Zhuang

You may have interviewed numerous times and gained solid interview skills in the past, in this article I want to share some of my experiences from a Recruiter’s point of view and share some ideas on interviewing successfully with Oracle.

1. Be prepared – I am not focusing on interview skills like eye contact, dressing accordingly, being confident, etc… Other than those, please really be ready for any single interview mentally. Don’t let good opportunities pass you by because you already have a wonderful job. I have some candidates who are not quite motivated to change their jobs currently, so they just go to interviews very casually without any preparation. If you are not motivated to move, tell the Recruiter politely that you would like to try some other opportunities later on. Don’t go to an interview knowing you are not ready to move from your current role. You may end up damaging your personal brand with that company and potentially lose the opportunity to explore future opportunities as you may be perceived (correctly or incorrectly) as “the sheep that cried wolf”.

2. Tell a story and paint a picture - Understand what behavioral based interviews measure. Behavioral based questions are designed to assess individual competencies by measuring your past successes. Using S.T.A.R. a well known and also my favorite method to give an example you can recount your experiences and provide examples of how you overcame challenges at work? I found many candidates with great experience failed to give good examples to demonstrate their experience. S.T.A.R method, that is Situation – Target - Action - and Result, can help you. Use one or two sentence each to describe the Situation and Target, put most emphasis on Action part, and one or two sentence to give the Result. This can make your example expressed in a clear and logical way.

3. Have an open communication with your Recruiter. The Recruiter should know the job requirements. Open and honest communication with Recruiters can definitely help you to win an opportunity. Many of my candidates try to collect information from their friends who used to work with Oracle or guess by themselves what we are looking for. Sometimes, the information is correct and helpful but sometimes not. Talk to the Recruiters directly if you have any questions or concerns regarding the position, and I am sure they are willing to help. The best thing to do is to have open and honest communication so we can ensure you have the information you need to be successful.

4. Write a “Thank you” letter promptly after the interview. In China, it is not very popular to write a Thank You letter however, a Thank You letter is not meant just to say Thank You but you can also highlight or re-emphasize some of your skills/experience required that you noticed the hiring managers focus on during the interview. It is a professional and polite way to engage with the Company and genuinely thank someone for their time.

The author of this article has been with the Oracle China Recruitment Team for the past two years and can be contacted on lucy.zhuang@oracle.com

Using Twitter to Land a Job: Real Life Examples

As readers of our blog may know I am an advocate of Web 2.0 technologies and Social Networking Tools - specifically as it applies to Job Searching and Recruitment.

I have just read an article by Jonelle Marte titled “Twitter Yourself a Job .

Jonelle Marte writes "Looking for a new job, Alexa Scordato didn't email or call her contacts about possible openings. Instead, she messaged them via the social-networking Web site Twitter.com.

Her brief message: "Hey there! Looking for a Social Media job up in Boston. Are you guys doing any entry level hires?"

Within a week, she had an interview. Within two weeks, she had a job.

...It's been criticized as a site for sharing mundane details about everyday activities. But people like 22-year-old Ms. Scordato, who used Twitter to privately message some people she'd met at a conference, show the site can be more than that.

"I would guess that if I had just sent them a long email with my résumé, I might not have gotten a response as fast as I did," says Ms. Scordato, who was hired by Mzinga, a Boston-area company that helps businesses use social technology.""

This is a fantastic example of the changing way that companies and candidates are now using Social Networking Tools to connect with each other. I do not believe tools like Twitter have gained widespread acceptance in the Recruitment Industry yet (I stress the word yet as it is becoming more mainstream) but it is quickly becoming a more viable tool and will soon be common practice in Recruitment. To stay connected with candidates companies will need to integrate these tools into their recruitment strategies and be less reliant on using job boards and traditional means of recruitment to attract top candidates.

My Twitter ID if you want to connect is http://twitter.com/DavidTalamelli

Oracle Corp.: Ranked #1 Human Resource Company in China

Over the last five months, the major job portal in China, 51JOB conducted an extensive screening and selection process to identify the top 100 companies in China that have demonstrated best practices in the area of Human Resources Management.

Through their initial screening of numerous companies, followed by data collection and analysis of hundreds of companies, combined with telephone and face-to-face interviews, they have identified the 100 companies whose Human Resources practices have significantly contributed to their success.

This has been one of the most comprehensive, in-depth and far-reaching awards in the field of Human Resources in China and these 100 companies, with their demonstrated best practices, can and should serve as models for other companies in China.



In November 2008, it was announced that Oracle's China Recruitment Team is the winner of the 2008 “100 Best Human Resources Management (HRM) Companies” Award and won a second award of “Best Campus Recruitment Practice for 2008” as well.



Malcolm Bentley, Head of Oracle Recruitment Greater China and Korea, was interviewed in July this year in relation to Oracle Internal Recruitment Function and Campus Recruitment Program.

The author of this article is the Head of the Oracle Greater China Recruitment Team and can be contacted on mal.bentley@oracle.com .

The Hidden Job Market.....How do I Find It??

If you are reading this blog entry you are on the right path.

I read an article today about how a local Australian Job Board - Seek.com.au has expanded in Asia by buying 10% of a Malaysian Job Board - Jobstreet.

Seek buys 10% of Malaysian Job Board Jobstreet

This got me thinking - Open roles posted on Job Boards only make up a small percentage of all the roles that are actually available. I know that I advertise positions on Seek and Jobstreet but the number of people that join Oracle as a result of seeing a job posted on Seek.com.au is relatively small.

So how do people end up getting jobs at Oracle???

1) Call/email us, ask our Recruitment Team if we have any suitable roles, if we don't it doesn't mean that a position like the one you are after will not come up in the future.

2) Have an online presence - are you on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc... with all the social networking tools out there it makes it much easier for us to find you. You would have seen from previous posts my thoughts on Social Networking, if you do not have an online presence - begin today.

3) Keep an open mind - you may not 'actively' be looking for a role, but if we have a role that fits your career plan let's talk about it - sometimes opportunity does knock at your door.

4) Referrals - are you telling people you are looking for work?? We are always asking our 80000+ employees at Oracle who they know who may be interested in work with us - one of those people you tell that you are looking for work may be able to refer your details to our Recruitment Team.

5) Are you part of any organisations, communities, associations, etc... Have you written any articles or blogs. The more visible you are in the IT Industry the more opportunities that will present themselves to you.

This is just a quick snapshot of some things you can do, I may edit this blog entry and create a Top 10 List. We do hire people from Job Boards, but we think outside the square as well.

If you do not see a role posted on Seek.com.au by Oracle does that mean the role does not exist or that we are not hiring??? Opportunities you may want to know about could be passing you by. Contact us and find out what roles we have, your next career step could be with us!!

Other Countries Are Gaining in the War for Talent

I read an interesting blog earlier today titled:

Other Countries Are Gaining in the War for Talent

It is by Raghav Singh and while it is based around the labour shortage that is happening in the US - the article was interesting as it noted: "While a disproportionate number of skilled immigrants still come to the U.S., the numbers that are staying home or are going elsewhere is increasing. Over the last five years, the U.S. attracted an average of 73,000 skilled immigrants annually, down from about 107,000. That may still seem like a lot, but Canada attracted 56,000, Australia 20,000, and even tiny New Zealand managed to get 10,000."

In today's market place when I am recruiting staff here at Oracle, it is no longer about who is available in a city or location - but more so who is the best talent we can identify for a role. In Australia and New Zealand many skilled IT people overseas look to move here for either lifestyle choices or the opportunity to work on new projects, etc... By being able to consider people from outside Australia and New Zealand this increases the potential number of candidates we speak to.

From a candidate perspective moving overseas is a big decision to make. We have hired many people from overseas who have joined us at Oracle in ANZ. I think that before you put you start looking for work overseas you have to go through a thorough thought process and be able to answer:

1)Why do I want to move overseas to a specific location(lifestyle,family,work, etc)?
2)If I have family, is everybody in the family comfortable with this decision?
3)Have I considered salary expectations and cost of living?
4)What Visa requirements must I meet/have to go through?
5)What time frame do I need to be able to relocate?

Moving overseas can be great for your career and also be a great adventure in your life. If you are overseas and would like to think about work with Oracle in ANZ or APAC, have a look at opportunities besides your current location, we may be hiring for that dream job you are looking for now.

Oracle APAC Graduate Recruitment Program

The Oracle Graduate Recruitment Team has been hard at work since the beginning of the year and has done a fantastic job in identifying and hiring a large number of Graduates in ASEAN and have put in place plans to have Graduates start in Australia and New Zealand in January next year.

I think the Oracle Graduate Program is unique to many of the Graduate Programs available. The difference is that instead of just being a Graduate Developer or Graduate Sales Person, here at Oracle what we do is over the course of 2 years our Grads get to work in numerous business groups like Sales, Consulting, Development, etc... and at the end of two years they can then pick which area best suits them.

I think this is great because it gives people a chance to try a number of different jobs rather than just working in one area without getting to see how the whole business operates and they can see the differences in each group. Many people just starting in their career do not yet know what direction they want to take in their career and I think this program helps give our Graduates the information they need to help them make their individual career choices.

The closing date for this year in Australia and NZ was August 31st, but for Graduates graduating in 2009 you can register your interest at campusrelations_au@oracle.com for Australia campusrelations_nz@oracle.com for New Zealand.

The link to the Oracle Graduate Recruitment Website is: https://campus.oracle.com/HR/Globe.aspx