Something entirely new, revolutionary, and different….maybe?

Lyz Lenz, a very good Iowa-based writer (check out her newsletter) recently tweeted: “I told the liquor store guy about a drink I made with this gin he sold me and he was like, “Congratulations you invented a Tom Collins.” – something entirely new! Ha.

Sometimes I feel like the guy at the liquor store. At least once a month I get a call from someone who has read my blog/listened to the podcast/heard me talk/or got referred to me as ‘the job board guy’. So that’s good – that’s actually the kind of thing that keeps this job board consultant busy! But…

As the conversation progresses, I realize what the person is describing to me as ‘really unusual’ or ‘revolutionary’ or ‘definitely not a job board’ is: a) not unusual; b) not revolutionary; and c) a job board (albeit perhaps not a 1990s-style job board.

So what?

Let’s be clear – I am always happy to take these calls. I see my role in life as a job board consultant to help my clients. Sometimes that is by working with them to refine and polish their ideas. Sometimes that is to warn them away from something that has been proven to fail. But always – it is to be honest with them. In fact, even if the person on the other end of the conversation never becomes a client, I will still be honest with them. Why? Because if I was the one calling, that is what I would want, too!

But what does this have to do with anything? Is this another consultant sob-story?

No.

My opinion is that very few things, sites, tools, techniques, or pieces of software are ‘revolutionary’ or something entirely new. Instead, they tend to be – at best – improvements on existing tools or ideas. You know what? That’s ok. Improvements are good. There is no perfect job board, no perfect recruiting tool – in other words, no absolute religion. At one time, social media was going to destroy job boards. Uh uh. Didn’t happen. Then it was going to be 100% programmatic in 2020. Not quite. This is not to even mention the much heralded ‘death of the resume‘. Nope.

I’m not saying that these tools, etc. haven’t had an impact – they have. But were they entirely new? Programmatic was brought over from consumer ads. Social media grew up on a college campus. Who knows where resumes came from? They seem kind of eternal, like peanut butter (which, I realize, was in fact ‘invented’).

So do yourself a favor – on the road to making a better mouse trap, skip the vainglorious language (especially something entirely new!)  and focus on what your tool or site does really well – what problem it solves. Because, in the end, that’s what everyone wants – a better solution to those problems that keep happening.

And…always feel free to give me a call!

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