Welcome to day two at the SHRM Conference in Vegas.
One of the things that happens frequently at conferences are big industry announcements, like SHRM sharing that their interim CEO, Hank Jackson, has been named their president and CEO, and product announcements, like Monster.com’s release of BeKnown, a Facebook driven app for job seekers and employers.
And as bloggers, we are offered a slew of meetings with vendors so we can learn more about what they are up to. One group who reached out to us was BranchOut, and FOT’s Tim Sackett wanted to spend time chatting with them given the dominance of social recruiting these days, and LinkedIn’s IPO. They tout themselves as being the largest professional networking app on Facebook… so you can think about it this way – BranchOut has often been compared to a LinkedIn for Facebook as users can network and find jobs through their “social graph”.
Timing is a funny thing though. Sackett had planned well in advance to spend time with BranchOut founder, Rick Marini – who by the way is a dead ringer for Patrick Dempsey. (So much so, ask him about the time he was in China and on the Great Wall… what can you do but smile and bow?!) And on the coat tails of meeting with BranchOut, we hear about then begin checking out Monster’s BeKnown… and we couldn’t help but to say, “Huh. This looks familiar! It feels like… BranchOut!”
So we had to get some scoop on BranchOut’s reaction to the BeKnown product. How could we not? And it’s not as if Monster and BranchOut founder, Rick, are complete strangers. Coincidentally, Rick’s first company, Tickle.com was acquired by Monster. So check out the video. I’m not gonna call this BranchOut vs. Monster’s BeKnown. But it’s worth noting that there are some similarities between the two platforms. And that these two folks aren’t strange bedfellows. (Email/RSS subscribers, click through to actually watch. And sorry to all for the sound quality!)
BranchOut vs. Monster’s BeKnown from fistful of talent on Vimeo.
And to learn more generally about BranchOut and what makes them who they are? Check this out… (Email/RSS subscribers, click through to actually watch.)
About BranchOut from fistful of talent on Vimeo.
So our friend’s at Monster… got a rebuttal? Happy to grab some video if you wanna share some insight here on FOT. Just holler…
Jessica Lee is a VP of TA at Marriott International where she leads a team that enables the company to think big, broad and boldly about all things talent acquisition and in effect, keeps them relevant and ahead of the curve in how they attract and acquire top talent. Don’t be fooled by that fancy pants title and description though, she’s still an everyday HR gal in the trenches at the core. SPHR certified, a decade and a half into trench HR life… she can whip up a corrective action plan or source for your purple squirrel in a heartbeat.
