Web Site Brings Job Creation" and Career Advancement" Meaning Back to Dot Com"

Laser Tight Career Networking Now On-line in unique job search site.

(PRWEB) August 11, 2003 -- Despite confusing and depressing reports of unemployment figures, there are millions of jobs available today. The trick is for individuals to find out about jobs that fit their skills; for companies to find employees that fit their job openings.

One such report stated there were 3.6 million jobless receiving unemployment insurance in the week ended July 19. Depressing, but in order to collect these benefits, each job seeker/claimant had to report nine job contacts. While many of these may have been cold calls, most of these job seekers also knew of several actual job openings, even if they were not suitable for them. Imagine being able to meet these job seekers and learn of all those jobs.

A new Website, The Instant Network (http://www.TheInstantNetwork.com) has come online that is designed to be a repository for that information: - and for job openings posted by employers as well.

The employment problem is NOT the lack of jobs, its the lack of communication," claims Robert Muller, a Stamford, CT entrepreneur. What happens to the unemployment rate if all job seekers could share job intel? Each would no longer be alone in their job search and instead have hundreds, or hundreds of thousands searching along with them. Moreover, the connectivity would inevitably produce job-creating collaborations between job seekers. These are core concepts of career networking."

Muller designed The Instant Network to be both a repository of that collective knowledge AND a ready introduction mechanism to learn more from the person who knows the most about it - the one who found and posted it. It is the only online resource with this capability.

The Instant Network is a membership-based, online career networking referral service. To join, members post their resumes into career categories of their choosing. However, unlike most resume compendiums, Instant Network resumes are not used to advertise skill sets to employers as much as they are used to advertise areas of expertise to other members. A members resume on The Instant Network is predominantly so other members can determine if they have an area of interest in common to discuss prior to making contact," says Muller. Resumes also can be used in the normal sense and sent to prospective employers.

With the resume filed, members can search through career categories and find other members they wish to contact. Introductions are as simple as Hi, I got your name from The Instant Network and see you have expertise in (whatever), do you have a second to talk?" Each member, as a condition of membership, is obligated only to respond - to Network. And since most initial contacts are expected to be made via e-mail (or other method selected by individual members in their resumes), those contacted receive and respond at times and places of their choosing.

Members also are expected to post not job openings, but Career Opportunities." By its nature, jobs posted in sites like Monster.com and even classified advertisements have legal requirements. They have to be bona fide jobs and advertisers are subject to certain advertising and employment laws. Conversely, advertisers have certain incentives to withhold important information in order to manage the quality and quantity of the response, as well as evaluate responders.

Opportunities in The Instant Network are acknowledged to be word-of-mouth, and as such, are reviewed by members with such understanding. Members posting opportunities control the amount of information posted, and, although urged to post as much information as possible, are required only to post enough to allow other members to discern their level of interest.

I am, by training, a mechanical engineer," says Muller. Suppose I go on an interview only to learn the employer is seeking someone with a bit more expertise in structural design than I have, or say I find out in the interview I am no longer interested in the offer, or that the employer is not interested in extending an offer - basically I am not going to fill the position either by my decision or theirs.

I come back and post the opportunity on The Instant Network. Short of the employer, who knows more about the position than I do? I got an interview. I know who the Company is, the location, the Personnel contact, perhaps even the hiring manager. I have no vested interest. I can tell any other member that information so he can go straight to the employers decision maker. And I can tell him how I got the interview!"

Membership dues in The Instant Network for individuals are $20 per month. However, as an incentive to post, each submitted career opportunity earns the posting member a $5 credit on those dues (up to three such posting credits per month). This means active members can realize dues of only $5/month.

Corporate memberships also are available for $100 per month for which designated company officers can have unlimited access and job posting privileges. Clergy, Support Group and Government Entity memberships also are available and are free.

In these times of high unemployment, job seekers are constantly reminded that 80 percent of all jobs are created through career networking. Seminars, articles, texts and self-help gurus abound with tips and techniques, yet they all start by acknowledging that most people network very, very badly. All that collective knowledge and teachings and the fact remains that most people think n-e-t-w-o-r-k-i-n-g is a four-letter word.

Networking has earned a negative connotation because it is random at best. Networkers have to repeat their situations, over and over and over, to a group of people one person at a time, hoping something they say registers with one - or more -- and that someone then suggests contacting a person they know. The networker then has to extend him or herself again to that person, whom they do not know, and attempt to repeat exactly what they said before in the hopes the same connection is made. In the meantime, the mutual friend may or may not have contacted the referral to give him or her the heads up for the networkers call. That person has to then take time from their day, at a time and place they do not get to choose or control. How many of us have been a bit irked when a friend calls to say, I gave your name to.....?" The entire process is so stressful, for networker and referral, no wonder it's done badly. And it gets even worse with each degree of separation.

Even Monster.com, the most well-known online job site, says you should network. But it provides no mechanism to do so," says Muller, who asserts Monster.com, Careerbuilder.com, and all the current ilk are nothing more than online classifieds. Each has mechanisms for employers to post jobs and people to post resumes. They vary in their business models; how resumes are connected/presented to openings (or vice versa) and revenue streams," explains Muller, but basically each opening is akin to a classified ad, and every candidate is competing with every other candidate interested in that opening to a nameless, faceless, anonymous screener."

Members in The Instant Network, however, are networking with other members who are knowledgeable, not anonymous, for as little as a grande-vente latte per month.

The Instant Network, accessed via the Internet at http://www.TheInstantNetwork.com, is a service of The RLM Group, LLC., an international management and procurement services firm with offices in Stamford, CT.

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EDITORS:
Muller available for interviews.
Headshots available.
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