My first job out of college was working as a Human Resource Assistant at a civil engineering firm.  A few months into the position, the company's Recruiting Coordinator left and, instead of replacing her, it was decided that I would assume some of her responsibilities. I had no knowledge of recruiting, and so, as with everything else in my life, I decided that the best way to learn about it was to read about it. I ordered books on Amazon, read articles online and spent hours at the library. I peppered the Recruiting Manager with lists of questions. By week five, I knew what a requisition was and what "full cycle recruiting" meant. I posted a few jobs on Monster, and even phone screened candidates. I felt like a pro. When a senior manager asked me to check out Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), I felt confident I could evaluate the pros and cons of each option, and select "the best." After all, I knew everything there was to know about recruiting.

I promptly scheduled a call with a representative, and began the conversation by asking him what the advantages of his system were. He rattled off a list of features including simple reporting, a clean candidate interface, access for hiring managers, and, of course, candidates could subscribe to receive job updates via RSS. All my reading had not prepared me for those three little letters. "What is RSS?" I asked the representative. I felt stupid asking for the definition of a term he stated so matter-of-factly, but would have felt even worse if it turned out to be something important and I didn't ask the right questions. As it turned out, he didn't know much more about it than I did, and suggested I Google it.

Ironically, the first thing that I learned when I Googled RSS was that it stood for "really simple syndication." I laughed. Nothing about RSS is simple to the beginning learner. In fact, RSS is a perfect example of why so many experienced recruiters cringe at the thought of being asked how they incorporate technology into their recruiting strategies. Technology like RSS, Twitter, and LinkedIn seem complicated and time-consuming, and as a result are often dismissed. One recruiter suggested to me that they "take time away from what is really important - recruiting."

In a nutshell, RSS feeds provide you with updates on recently published entries or articles on a website or blog. For example, if you wanted to track what ERE was publishing, you would go to the top of your Google browser and look for a little orange box. Click on the box, and a list of "feeds" that you could subscribe to would appear. Click "Subscribe to Google Reader." What is Google Reader? Google Reader is a (free) "feed reader" and, by their own definition, "constantly checks your favorite news sites and blogs for new content." Instead of starting your morning by spending hours browsing websites, Google Reader does the work for you. Log in to Google Reader, and you will find each of the sites that you "subscribe" to listed, along with links to recent articles and news updates.

"Great," you say, "but what does this have to do with recruiting?" A lot. Good recruiters must become subject matter experts in the field that they recruit. To attract top candidates, you must do more than memorize the job description and a list of required certifications. A good recruiter must be able to speak the candidate's professional language, and to do that, you must stay abreast of the latest developments in their field.  As of late, most recruiters are finding themselves with more time to do this, but the days of coming in to 30 plus jobs on your dashboard is still a recent memory. Utilizing a feed reader like Google Reader saves you precious time. Knowledge is power, but time is money. Using Google Reader to subscribe to RSS feeds and stay on top of the latest developments in recruiting, IT, engineering, etc. could keep the COBRA paperwork from finding its way into your mailbox. When looked at from this perspective, it would seem that RSS is not only related to recruiting, but is deserving of a role in any good recruiter's recruiting strategy.