Today on GreenJobs.com continuing interview series we have Harry Joiner with us. Harry is a veteran recruiter in the e-commerce space having started when his firm when buying stuff online was not as common. Now who doesn’t order online now?
His career has taken many interesting twists and turns. From commodity trading to trailblazing with online recruiting.
Through EcommerceJobs.com and his latest project, NextGig.com, Harry is empowering job seekers in marketing and e-commerce while offering unmatched recruiting for those in the e-commerce and marketing industry.
In this interview we discuss the current job market, the rise of AI in recruiting, and premium domain names such as GreenJobs.com and EcommerceJobs.com can do for your business. As well as job search advice in this new age of AI.
GreenJobs.com – Tell us a little bit about your background and experience in recruiting Harry?
Harry Joiner – For much of the 1990s, after business school, I was a commodity trader for a company in Atlanta. I left that company after a successful career there to become director of trading operations for
globalfoodexchange.com. GFE was founded during the dot.com boom, and we raised $30 million from divoli ventures, bain capital, and others.
Really interesting experience: the company was founded by 2X mckinsey consultants, and we ended up hiring a bunch of super smart people to work in that business. Eventually, GFE was sold to I-Trade Network on the West Coast. That was in 2003.
There was a recession, and I was unemployed for quite a while, trying to figure out what’s next in my life. My brother suggested Recruiting, and for the heck of it, I interviewed with some recruiting agencies in Atlanta and was offered a job by a few of them.
I worked for the search logix group for about a year, then founded my own business, marketingheadhunter.com — which later changed its name to ecommerceRecruiter.com. since 2005, I’ve been working from home, running four sites:
EcommerceRecruiter.com
EcommerceJobs.com
CMOSearch.com
CMOJobs.com
Recently, I founded an online coaching platform for marketing and e-commerce job seekers. NextGig.com. That’s been great.
There are 33 people in the group and we do two zoom calls a week, ask me anything AMA format. I imagine that group will grow very quickly as I promote it. So far, I’ve only promoted it in one LinkedIn post. It’s encouraging to see the same people come back week after week. I haven’t lost many people at all.
So much fun. I’ve really enjoyed Recruiting. There’s nothing I would change about my career.
GJ – What do you think of the current job market? Good, Bad, Ok?
HJ – Not great. Like I said, I am in ecommerce, and the Trump tariffs had a crushing impact on that business.
Add to that the effects of AI, and this year has been as much of a challenge as Covid. At least in my business.
It’s not uncommon for me to have several hundred applications for a single job. My model is not post-and-pray, but we certainly are inundated with applicants for our searches.
GJ – AI is being used a lot in recruiting these days. Not only on the Recruiting side but by Job Seekers as well. Do you see AI as a Pro or Con for recruiting?
HJ – At Harvard business school, Michael Porter talks about the effects of competitive convergence: this idea that if I take my family to a parade where everyone is standing on tiptoe to get a better view, now I must also stand on tiptoe to see the parade. Nobody’s really better off, although in the short term, somebody might have a slightly better view.
We’re seeing that with candidates and employers regarding AI: a candidate will use it in a novel way, and before long others are knocking him off. Same with companies. Somebody will do something innovative, and before long that innovation just gets baked into every firms operating model.
I think ultimately, AI will be fantastic for America and a nightmare for any country that doesn’t use it to drive competitive advantage: American industry is giving you a good idea of what happens when companies introduce innovations en masse at the same time. It’s chaotic at first but great in the long-term. I remain bullish on America.
GJ – What tips do you have for job seekers on how to best utilize AI in the job search?
HJ – Honestly, I would use AI to spend more time researching companies: How do they make money? Who’s their target customer? What keeps their target customer up at night? Is the company making money? What could they do to improve their margins? How can they use the technology to learn about their customers to improve inventory velocity?
And so forth. The level of research I can perform on a company is mind blowing.
GJ – Do you think it’s hypocritical for recruiters to tell job seekers to not to use AI? Especially when AI Tools are so widely used in recruiting now.
HJ – I think it’s super naïve for recruiters to tell job seeker to do anything. Job seekers have families to feed. Job seekers don’t even like recruiters. If I’m a job seeker, why would I ever listen to anything a recruiter says unless that recruiter is known to be both credible and trustworthy.
GJ – What are the most common resume mistakes you see people make?
HJ – A couple at least: you should always put live links in your resume. When I look at your resume, I want to understand first and foremost what your company does. Who does it sell to? How does it make money? I want to know something about the context of your career. Your resume is about you, but I can’t fully appreciate you unless I appreciate the context you’ve been operating in.
Next, I need to get a sense for how you have driven real value in the business: I don’t give a hoot what you’ve done. I care a lot more about what you’ve built. How did you improve sales? How did you make the business more efficient? How did you improve the sale-ability of the company in the event of an exit? Why should someone hire you versus any option available to them, including not hiring anyone?
GJ – What should people do with resume tools and AI to make them stand out and more original?
HJ – I think I would spend less time shotgunning resumes out to recruiters and HR departments, and more time reaching out strategically to the companies you really want to work for. What’s your ideal outcome for the next chapter in your career?
People think I need a job. But they don’t really think about the strategic context of that. How would the job help you get the job you want after this next one? Describe in detail, the ideal company, the ideal industry, the ideal operating environment, the ideal tool set you’d be working with, the ideal team you’d be leading, and so forth.
Recently I heard there were 190,000 businesses with more than 100 employees in the United States. Are you telling me there’s not one place for you in all that commercial activity? You’re not thinking hard enough. You’re not thinking strategically enough. You are a company. Think like one.
GJ – What is one interview tip you would tell your kids before an important interview? Why this advice?
HJ – If the company ran a job posting and they received several hundred applications, you won’t be the best, and you won’t be the worst. There’s a very high likelihood that you’re not the most highly qualified person for that job.
So don’t worry about it. Don’t worry about being likable … don’t worry about anything. Research the company and take the interview seriously. You have a responsibility to yourself to bring your A-game.
But use every interview as an opportunity to practice, drill, and rehearse your method of picking apart companies Shark Tank style. When you sit down in an interview, get in touch with your inner Mark Cuban or Barbara Corcoran to figure out what the business is about… Who the business is for… How they make money… And why should the customer do business with them versus any option available to them including doing nothing.
Ask yourself during the interview, “if i were a private equity investor and with $100,000 to invest in a business of this type, would I invest in this company? Do I like this business? Do I want to be in business with these people?”
GJ – You own EcommerceJobs.com which is a great premium and exact match domain. How did you acquire that?
HJ – Honestly, I paid a ton of money for it to a guy in Taiwan about 15 years ago. I think I went through a domain broker on that. I own more than 250 domains, including.
ceojobs.com / ceosearch.com
cfojobs.com / cfosearch.com
cmojobs.com / cmosearch.com
creativejobs.com
analyticsjobs.com
ecommercejobs.com
ecommerceconsulting.com
NEXTgig.com™
And many many worldclass domains that end in the word “___recruiter.com”
GJ – Those are great domains. Why do you think owning and operating on a category killer or better domain makes it worth it?
HJ – Exact match domains are not about SEO. They’re about facilitating word-of-mouth. All selling is the transfer of confidence, and the twin engines of that are trust and credibility. Category killing domains telegraph commitment and competence on the part of the recruiter. At least that has been my experience.
GJ – That’s an interesting take. Does using EcommerceJobs.com making marketing and talking with customers easier? People know exactly what you do.
HJ – hell yes — and it makes it brain-dead simple for people to refer their friends to me. And here’s another benefit: very few companies call me with the wrong kinds of searches. Any HR VP can understand the kind of recruiting I do. So it attracts more of the right kind of recruiting activity, and repels more of the wrong kind of recruiting activity. My domains are the hardest working sales people I have.
GJ – Where can people contact you Harry and find out more about your business? Or hire you for recruiting services.
Email: Harry.Joiner@EcommerceRecruiter.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harryjoiner
Or Google me. I’m extremely findable on the web. Thank you so very much for having me.
End of Interview
