Here’s Why I’m Joining RecruitingDaily.com

When are you bringing Cheezhead back?

I get this question regularly. For industry vets who are old enough to remember Cheezhead, you probably get it. For those who aren’t, Cheezhead was a blog I wrote from 2005-’09 that can be best explained as TechCrunch-meets-TMZ for the employment space.

I covered layoffs, launches, startups, dead pools, rumors and speculation. Although I’ve enjoyed occasionally writing on platforms like LinkedIn, Cheezhead, the daily chronicle of the employment industry, has been dead for a long time. Life moved on.

The joy of writing and the passion for this marketplace, however, never died. And this brings us here now and the opportunity to join RecruitingDaily.com.

A couple of months ago, Noel Cocca, RecruitingDaily.com’s CEO, reached out to me and basically said, “Wanna come write for us?” His timing was perfect, as I had recently been an acquisition casualty a few months before and was busy getting a start-up off the ground.

After a few phone calls, we hashed out a deal to bring me on part-time as a contributor on RecruitingTools.com. Here are a few reasons I found the opportunity so appealing:

• The team. RecruitingDaily.com’s about page reads like a who’s who of industry thought leaders and know-it-alls. The platform reminds me of a radio station complete with a variety of personalities who all bring their own style and expertise. Collaborating and engaging with this group on a regular basis can only make life more interesting.
• The market. Let’s be honest, the employment industry died for a few years following the Great Recession. Money wasn’t coming into the market and almost no one was doing anything interesting. Events like Microsoft buying LinkedIn exemplify the energy that’s going on, and that vibrancy is exciting to cover.
• The void. The industry is underserved. Too many good companies, ideas and products get lost in the everyday. Too many rumors aren’t investigated. And too many opinions fail to get shared. I’d like to help change that.
• The vision. RecruitingDaily.com has big plans and they’re doing interesting things. I’d like to come along for the ride. Hopefully, I can also add some value and bring some new ideas to the table.
• The pressure … as in, the lack thereof. The idea of relaunching a Cheezhead-type blog gave me an anxiety attack. “Anyone who would start a standalone blog today is nuts” I would say to myself. With publishing platforms like LinkedIn, starting a blog from scratch seemed insane. RecruitingDaily.com is an established content machine, so I have the luxury of standing on the shoulders of giants.

So, here we go. Expect a minimum of three blog posts every week. We’re also bouncing around ideas to create different kinds of content on a variety of different platforms and technologies. It should be fun, but most importantly, stories will be told that otherwise wouldn’t be.

About the Author

Joel Cheesman has over 20 years experience in the online recruitment space. He worked for both international and local job boards in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s. In 2005, Cheesman founded HRSEO, a search engine marketing company for HR, as well as launching an award-winning industry blog called Cheezhead.

He has been featured in Fast Company and US News and World Report. He sold his company in 2009 to Jobing.com. He was employed by EmployeeScreenIQ, a background check company. He currently runs Hire Daily, a site for recruiting news and is the founder of Ratedly, an iOS app that monitors anonymous employee reviews. He is the father of two children and lives in Indianapolis. Yes, he’s on Twitter and LinkedIn.

By Joel Cheesman