Jim Stroud recently appeared on our RichLife Radio show and he had some great tips, but he was such a wealth of information and had sent us some great information that we wanted to share with you that we got through an off the air interview.
Joshua: How did you get to where you are today?
JIM: It was purely by chance. My initial goal was to be a successful screenwriter / author, but that was not getting me anywhere at the time. I was considering marrying my college sweetheart and it was at her prompting that I should get a “real job” that I switched direction on my career.
The year was 1997 and I had only a passing fancy with the internet. At that point, a friend showed me how to navigate BBS (Bulletin Board Systems aka online forums) to find pictures of bikini clad models, so I thought that was the highlight of what the world wide web could offer. (Not impressed)
In my search for suitable employment, I stumbled across a job posting for an Internet Researcher. The verbiage basically said, “we are seeking people to surf the web all day.” Upon reading this and considering the number of bikini models that I could discover while ”working,” I thought it was a fairly attractive offer. The employer was MCI and the job quite literally changed my life. Using the Internet to find resumes and passive candidates was cutting edge in the states then and I was very fortunate to be on a team that was focused on pioneering that space.
Joshua : Who do you admire most in life? Do you have a person or persons you could point to and say, it was that person that inspired me.
Difficult to say, as I hold several people in esteem but I will give it a go. I count my (late) father as my most adored hero. He impressed upon me the importance of perseverance, self-confidence and imagination. I have always admired the spirit of Josephine Baker who is the one person I would like to travel back in time to meet. She has been a great inspiration to me as well. There is also a long list of fictional characters that have inspired me as well for no other reason than, they help where they can and are not motivated by personal gain. I count among them… The Lone Ranger
Jim, I know from personal experience that you do a LOT of different things. Can you run through a short list?
Principally, I train recruiters on lead generation strategies. I do that with via webinars, a membership website, a printed magazine and an online video series. I also manage an award-winning blog – The Recruiters Lounge and co-host a popular technology podcast called The Friday Traffic Report. In addition to that, I teach job search strategies to various job seeker groups around the city as time allows.
With the economy being what it is today, I imagine people seek your advice a lot on how to find work. I know some in our audience would like to know some of your tips and strategies for finding work. Can you give some insights?
Sure and I will say this as well, the same advice I give job seekers is (more or less) the same advice I would give an entrepreneur seeking clients since they are (pretty much) the same thing. (make sense?)