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Description  |
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BACKGROUND--FIELD OF INVENTION
This invention relates to the process of recruiting new employees,
specifically harvesting email addresses belonging to potential viable
candidates from sites and postings searched for and found on the Internet
and sending specifically related help wanted advertisements via electronic
mail to those addresses then receiving, filtering, sorting and
distributing the response.
BACKGROUND--DESCRIPTION OF PRIOR ART
Classified help wanted advertising in print, television and radio media as
well as postings of help wanted advertisements on Internet web sites are a
common practice. Such mediums for prospecting employment candidates are
passive in the context of the candidate seeker's objectives. They require
the reaction of a potential job seeker who must be reading a specific
periodical, watching or listening to a specific broadcast or visiting a
specific internet web site or requested a specific push technology
internet broadcast. There are too many job opportunity broadcasts and
sites available for any job seeker to peruse even a minor percentage on a
timely basis. A candidate seeker could attempt to advertise through every
applicable site and medium in order to reach every potential candidate
however such a strategy is impractical if not impossible. Even if it were
practical or possible the candidate seeker would not reach viable
candidates who are not actively searching job opportunity advertising
sites. The United States Federal Government predicts demand for technical
labor in such areas as information technology, sciences, biotechnology and
engineering to exceed supply by as much as fifteen percent by the year
2002. In such a situation competitive employers require more aggressive
means to prospect employment candidate than the prior mentioned passive
methodologies.
Bulk electronic mailing is a common process used to broadcast messages to
groups of email addresses collected in databases however the processes
used prior to Candidate Chaser are static and the targeting is dependent
on pre-assembled databases of email addresses. In such cases where email
address lists are procured from a database sources mailers are subject to
limited accuracy on two categories: first, are the addresses still active,
second, are the individuals interested in receiving email related to the
mailers' offerings. Furthermore, the present state of electronic mail
address databases does not permit the targeting of addresses based on the
individual owner's experiences, interests, capabilities, professional
titles or talents.
While bulk electronic mailing is unquestionably legal, there is a powerful
lobby opposing general broadcasts of large untargeted and unsolicited bulk
electronic mailings which consume huge amounts of internet communication
bandwidth causing system delays, increased cost without benefit and mail
server failures. Such mailings are broadcast to high quantities,
50,000-200,000 addresses at a time, in the hopes that a fraction, perhaps
one tenth of a percent will reach a viable and interested audience. Most
of the bandwidth consumption would not be necessary if a more targeted
approach was used.
Employers spend over a billion dollars every year in the United States on
employment agency fees, classified advertising costs, recruiting staff,
the design of recruitment programs and software and referral bonus
programs. Many of those employers are large companies that have invested
tremendous development resources into solving their recruiting problems
and cost reduction yet not a single one of them has created an automated
recruiting system like the Candidate Chaser machine and process patented
herein. The articles attached and labeled as Prior Art Documents #27, 34,
35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41 and 42 indicate a recruiting industry searching
for internet solutions to recruiting difficulties yet none suggest a
solution similar to that presented by the Candidate Chaser machine and
process supporting the position of unobviousness relating to the Candidate
Chaser machine and process.
Most workers would like to be informed of employment opportunities with
quality of life improving advantages including but not limited to
compensation increases, advanced training, enhanced benefits, more
challenge, diversity and improved career path provided notices of such
opportunities were made at the workers' convenience and that workers are
not overwhelmed with non-applicable job offerings. Employment agencies and
headhunters serve such a purpose but they are prohibitively expensive. No
automated and more cost effective alternative was available until the
herein described Candidate Chaser was invented.
Present job opportunity advertising systems take days and weeks to reach
potential candidates.
While my research indicates no present use of bulk electronic mail for
targeted help wanted advertising, use of available bulk email systems
would result in "bad address" responses from servers, remove responses,
and revenge "flames" from anti-spammers burdening and crashing the
advertisers' incoming electronic mail system.
A search of the IBM Patent Server at http://patent.womplex.ibm.com looking
for the following words individually in the "abstract" field: recruit,
recruiting, hire, hiring, job, candidate, classified, position, bulk,
addresses, and recruitment turned up no relevant matching or related
patents. A search on the same database for the phrase "electronic mail"
turned up no apparently related patents except those patenting the process
of sending and receiving electronic mail itself. The patent information
and abstract which appear most closely related are attached and labeled
as: Prior Art Document #28 U.S. Pat. No. 5,245,532, Prior Art Document #29
U.S. Pat. No. 5,040,141, Prior Art Document #30 U.S. Pat. No. 5,632,018,
Prior Art Document #31 U.S. Pat. No. 5,408,334, Prior Art Document #32
U.S. Pat. No. 5,487,100, and Prior Art Document #33 U.S. Pat. No.
5,613,108.
A search for articles and publications discussing "recruiting on the
Internet" turned up two hundred forty nine separate documents. While
discussing the use of electronic mail for the circulation of resumes and
discussion of job possibilities, no reference is ever made to any
recruiting solution that even remotely resembles the Candidate Chaser
machine and process. I believe this supports the unobviousness of the
Candidate Chaser machine as a solution to recruiting difficulties. Those
articles which best represent present art on the subject of "recruiting on
the Internet" are attached and labeled as Prior Art Documents #27, 34, 35,
36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41 and 42.
There are a good number of commercially available computer software
programs which can perform certain functions of the Candidate Chaser
machine. However, none of them alone or in obvious combination accomplish
the task of the Candidate Chaser. The said commercially available computer
software programs are described in the attached Prior Art Documents #1, 2,
3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is an overview of a computer local area network suitable for
practicing my invention.
FIG. 2 is an overview of an alternative computer system suitable for
practicing my invention, where a local area network is optional.
OBJECTS AND ADVANTAGES
The Candidate Chaser machine automatically locates Internet site pages and
web postings which contain operator specified keywords or Boolean
combinations and then extracts all email addresses from those pages as
well as linked pages to as many linking levels as selected by the operator
and then sends a job opportunity description enclosed in an electronic
mail message to each of the extracted addresses then receives responses
from recipients of the job opportunity message then filters those messages
by reading their text and forwards only desirable responses to the
candidate seeking client's electronic mail address thusly sparing the
client interaction with large amounts of irrelevant response while
presenting viable candidates for a given job opening.
The Candidate Chaser machine operator inputs keywords then commands the
Candidate Chaser machine to interact with the infinite number of interface
possibilities available on the Internet. The operator is not required to
conduct or observe the cumbersome, tedious, frustrating and agonizingly
slow task of reviewing data contained on Internet web sites, newsgroup
postings and other data sources that may exist from time to time on the
net. Once started the Candidate Chaser machine conducts the Internet
search without operator intervention.
The Candidate Chaser process does not use a static database as its source
of addresses but instead takes advantage of the dynamic properties of the
Internet where new information is added every minute somewhere on the
planet. Candidate Chaser does this by reading internet sites online and
extracting email addresses as they appear on targeted sites, postings and
broadcasts just prior to broadcasting a job opportunity advertisement
Job opportunity announcements are communicated to potential candidates
within hours.
Candidate Chaser job opportunity advertisements are delivered directly to
the worker's email box therefore she/he is not required to search for
applicable job offerings.
Workers view the Candidate Chaser job opportunity advertisement by choice
at their convenience any time night or day since the advertisement arrives
and resides in the email message box until they take an action or their
software automatically discards it based on their previously set filters.
Job opportunity advertisements broadcast by Candidate Chaser stimulate
workers to consider new career opportunities even when they are not
actively seeking new employment thusly expanding the universe of
candidates beyond those available to the employer through passive
advertising methodologies.
Specific job opportunity ads are only broadcast to specifically applicable
individuals who made their email addresses available on their resumes, on
web pages indicating subject matter related to the job opening or on new
group postings where subjects related to the job opening were specifically
discussed.
Individuals adverse to receiving additional job opportunity advertisements
easily eliminate their addresses from any potential future mailings by
typing "remove" into the message subject heading and executing their mail
programs "reply" command.
The customized harvesting of email addresses focused on the specific needs
of each job opportunity advertisement individually results in relatively
low quantities of advertisements broadcast. And much less broadcast
bandwidth waste due to non-applicable recipients.
The Candidate Chaser process costs less per hire to operate than other
recruitment methods.
Responses to electronically mailed advertisements are automatically
processed through software filters: protecting job opportunity advertisers
from "flames", storing removal committed addresses into a universal
database, and sorting qualified responses to the appropriate hiring
authorities email box.
SUMMARY
The Candidate Chaser process uses a combination of publicly available and
proprietary software computer programs and generally available computer
hardware and computer peripherals to operate as a single unit as a means
to harvest email addresses of specifically targeted individuals based on
their work experiences and interests, then broadcasts a job opportunity
advertisement to the recipients at the harvested addresses and then
appropriately sorts and redirects consequential response to remove
databases, or to quality control functions or to clients' electronic mail
addresses and deletes responses from the virtual mail server.
DESCRIPTION FIG. 1 and FIG. 2
The Candidate Chaser machine hardware description herein is for
illustration purposes only. It should be noted that the number of general
purpose computer processors and the method for interfacing them, for
example KVM's (Keyboard, Video, Mouse switch) used, may vary depending on
the required capacity and improvements in hardware available. Factors that
would affect required capacity include but are not limited to the number
of outgoing mailings projected on a daily basis, the size of the address
collection lists to which the messages will be directed, the frequency of
mailings and the number of responses expected.
While the number of general purpose computer processors included in a
single Candidate Chaser unit may be increased, perhaps infinitely, the
unit always requires at least one general purpose computer processor unit.
The Candidate Chaser machine unit always requires the same types of
software working in combination as described herein as the candidate
chaser process.
The first Candidate Chaser unit constructed and described herein was
assembled from single general purpose computers installed with the Windows
95 Operating System.
Systems other than Windows 95 could be used to conduct the candidate chaser
process. Other widely accepted operating system platform such as Unix,
OS2, and Macintosh as well as any operating system platforms that may come
available from time to time could be used provided they meet the ability
to allow for the operation of computer software programs necessary to the
outcome of the Candidate Chaser process.
The Candidate Chaser machine presently in operation consists of ten general
purpose computers manufactured by the Compaq computer company each
equipped with a 150 mhz pentium processors by Intel, 24 megabytes of ram,
a 1.4 gigabyte hard-drives and 28.8 k internal modem. The units are
stacked together one on top of the other, held together by a computer rack
that is attached to a platform with four sets of swiveling wheels.
Attached to the rack above the ten general purpose computer processors are
two video monitors one placed above the other. The computer monitors are
also manufactured by Compaq computer company. Above the monitors are three
switches commonly known as KVM's manufactured by a company called Belkin
which are used to switch the keyboard and monitor and mouse interfaces
from one general purpose computer to another. The purpose of the KVM
configuration is to reduce the need for monitors, mouse's, and keyboards.
The operator of the Candidate Chaser machine unit and process requires the
use of a monitor and keyboard to interface with the individual general
purpose computers only at certain times during the process. Therefore, it
is not necessary to have a number of keyboards mice, and monitors equal to
the number of general purpose computers.
Specialized cabling connects the computers to the KVM switches and the KVM
switches to the monitors, mice, and keyboards. The RJ11 modem ports are
connected by cable to ten separate telephone trunk lines installed by the
telephone company on the walls of the facility where the Candidate Chaser
machine is operated.
A substitute for the modem connections could be a network connection, such
as ethernet, to a router and subsequent ISDN, T1 or fraction thereof, T3
or fraction thereof, or any other telecommunication link to the Internet
that may be available.
Attached to the front of the Candidate Chaser machine is a platform that is
approximately 36 inches by 12 inches providing a flat surface on which the
two keyboards and two mice can rest. The platform is attached to a swivel
mechanism so the keyboard height may be adjusted for the comfort of the
Candidate Chaser machine and process operator.
To provide for a means of organized reference and procedure manuals, during
communication regarding the process and descriptions the individual
general purpose computers are labeled as follows: chaser 101, chaser 102,
chaser 103, chaser 104, chaser 105, chaser 106, chaser 107, chaser 108,
chaser 109, chaser 110.
Chaser 101 is used to receive mail forwarded from chaser 110. Chaser 110
forwards certain pieces of received mail to chaser 101 so that a program
installed on chaser 101 can extract the address from the any received
message then store the address in a text file so that it may be imported
at another time into a file labeled the "remove file" that is referred to
later in the process. Chaser 101 is programmed to use an Internet
connection to a mail server so it may download electronic mail messages
sent to said server by chaser 110. A software computer program called
"Replyman" manufactured by ExtractorPro (see Prior Art Document #7) is
installed on chaser 101 and serves the purpose to extract the addresses
from the downloaded messages and store them into a text file. It is not
required that the software "Replyman" be used to execute this process. A
programmer experienced in this technology could write a simple program to
perform this task using any of an assortment of language compilers such as
C, Basic, Assembler, or Cobol.
Chaser 102 is configured to establish a connection with a server providing
smtp access for the purpose of delivering electronic mail. A software
program called "ExtractorPro Mailer" is installed for the purpose of
importing data from text files created by the other chaser harvesting
units which are installed on chaser 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109.
Chaser 102 is equipped with the mailing program so that it may import the
addresses from the text files, provide for the compilation of a job
opportunity advertising message, a subject and a from field. The software
also completes the broadcast of the message to all the extracted addresses
through a smtp channel or multiple smtp channels over the Internet. In
addition to ExtractorPro mailing program there are similar computer
software programs available to accomplish the same purpose as
ExtractorPro's. Those computer programs included but are not limited to
computer software packages called Mach10, Stealth, and NetContact. The
capabilities and details regarding these computer software programs are
included in the Prior Art Documents attached to this application. Chaser
units 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, and 109 are installed with computer
program software called "WebWeasel" which is described in the attached
Prior Art Document #7. Based on operator commands, the WebWeasel software
executes a search of the Internet seeking web sites that contain the
keywords entered by the Candidate Chaser Machine and Process operator and
then download the text of the discovered web sites into the memory of the
general purpose computer and then compare the text of the web site to an
algorythm that recognizes a combination of characters which represent an
electronic mail address and then store the electronic mail addresses into
a database or text list for export to the mailing broadcast computer
software at a later stage in the process. The Candidate Chaser Machine
must be installed with computer software program that will enable it to
search for web sites containing operator entered keywords and extract
electronic mail addresses from the discovered web sites. It is not
necessary for a Candidate Chaser Machine to be equipped with "WebWeasel"
computer software. There are other computer software programs available
including but not limited to: Sonic, Web Collector, and Net Contact which
are described in the Prior Art Documents attached to this application.
OPERATION AND PROCESS DESCRIPTION FIG. 1 and FIG. 2
The typical Candidate Chaser machine consists of one or more general
purpose computers equipped with microprocessor, ram, hard disk drive, a
communication interface that links the computer(s) to the Internet, one or
more keyboards and mouse interface, one or more monitors, and software to
be described later. If one monitor is used with multiple computers then a
KVM keyboard mouse monitor switch box is employed so operator may switch
monitor and keyboard interfaces between computers.
The general purpose computers are physically connected to a network router
that can consist of simple analog modems connected to simple telephone
lines or more complex digital routing methods but in all cases access to
the Internet is necessary.
Installed commercially available "offline browsing" computer software
enables the operator to instruct the machine to locate websites and
postings, accessed via the internet, which contain operator specified
keywords or Boolean combinations and then to download and store the
address of the located matching websites and postings into memory. The
address is in the format of the URL (Universal Resource Locator)or other
address indicator protocols used on the Internet. The machine immediately
or at another time downloads the text from the files at the addresses
which were located and stored in memory.
The keywords and Boolean combinations entered into the machine should be
closely related to the experiences, interests, capabilities, professional
titles or talents desired in applicable job candidates.
The operator may instruct the machine to locate Hyper Text Markup Language
Links, which are embedded addresses to other files on the Internet, on any
of the website pages or postings turned up by the search. The operator may
instruct the machine to follow the Links to their respective sites and
locate more links at those sites. The operator may instruct the machine to
follow the links as many level as desired. The number of link levels to
search are determined by the focus required of the collection of addresses
sought.
Once the text of a site or posting is downloaded the machine searches the
text of the downloaded file for character strings representative of
electronic mail addresses and saves those addresses in memory or disk
storage. Presently, the electronic mailing protocol dictates that a
filtering algorithm be used as follows: extract any string of characters
that fits "space"_*@*.*_"space" where "*" is a wildcard variable
representing any combination of characters.
The machine continues to download and store site and posting addresses and
download and store text into memory and extract addresses without
continued operator action until all applicable extractions are completed
or the operator instructs the machine to stop.
Collections of addresses may be stored in separate electronic storage files
for repeated retrieval at later times.
Since the collected addresses are extracted from sites and postings
containing the specified keywords or Boolean combinations, it is
reasonable to predict that a consequential number of those addresses will
belong to individuals with experiences, interests, capabilities,
professional titles or talents related to those keywords or Boolean
combinations.
Installed commercially available electronic mailing computer software
enables the operator to instruct the machine to deliver a specific job
opportunity advertising message to each address collected into a specific
file. The operator types the copy into the machine keyboard interface and
then instructs the machine to send the message to a specific collection of
addresses at a specified time.
Each message has a "From" field and a "Reply to:" field in addition to
others. When electronic mail messages are received, recipients look to the
"From" and "Reply to:" fields for instructions relating to sending
response messages. The operator of the Candidate Chaser machine and
process may insert any electronic mail address into the "From" and "Reply
to:" fields as she/he may desire. The Candidate Chaser machine is designed
to handle many mailings at one time and could be used to serve multiple
candidate seeking hiring clients. In the case of multiple clients, the
"From" and "Reply to:" fields could contain the electronic mail address of
the client for each given job opportunity message. Thus, each client would
receive response to their message directly.
There are reasons why the operator of the Candidate Chaser machine might
want to filter responses before received by the client. First, a
significant percentage of the response is error messages due to the fact
electronic mail addresses are terminated often without forwarding
instructions. Second, a percentage of responses are requests to be removed
from future mailings. Third, a significant percentage of messages are
"thanks but no thanks but keep me notified of other stuff" responses.
Fourth, a percentage of responses are notifications that the recipient is
forwarding the message to someone that might be more interested. Fifth,
only a small percentage of responses are from candidates that are
interested in applying for the job.
In order to filter responses before they are directed to the client's
electronic mail address the following procedure is used: A domain name is
registered with InterNIC and the IP address location of a virtual mail
server is designated. The virtual mail server is programmed to deliver all
mail to one user logon at a specified POP3channel. A single "Virtual Mail
Server" (VMS) can be maintained on an Internet Service Provider (ISP) host
for each Candidate Chaser machine or on a private server. The VMS is
designated by a domain name registered with Internic, for example
"abcd123.com". Candidate Chaser clients are assigned Mail Accounts to the
domain by the Candidate Chaser machine operator, for example
1001@abcd123.com. A Master User Name (MUN) for the domain on the VMS, for
example smr@abcd123.com, programmed to download all mail received into the
account no matter what the prefix, is programmed into the server.
Electronic mail messages to potential candidates contain the client's
assigned VMS mail account in the "Reply" field so that responses are
directed to the domain and received into the virtual mail server's
storage. Consequently, the "To;" field in the response message contains
the client's mailing account address at the Candidate Chaser virtual mail
server domain. Mail, directed to different clients based on the address in
the "To:" field, is downloaded from the VMS in a single COMBINED batch
using the mail computer software program to accessing the MUN account. The
mail program filters and redirects the electronic mail message based on
the filters and filter actions listed in the paragraphs that follow.
Mail containing spam complaints or requesting removal from lists are
directed to the Candidate Chaser machine's remove list creating computer
software program, which presently is ExtractorPro Reply Man but can be any
similar performing software package, so the addresses are automatically
added to the Candidate Chaser machine's remove list and NOT forwarded to
the client. Error messages indicating non-deliverable messages are deleted
and NOT forwarded to clients.
Messages containing resumes and curriculum vitae are forwarded to a
designated resume collection electronic mail address. Any messages that
were not forwarded to the remove site or deleted for non-delivery are
forwarded to the client's personal mail address at their mail server, for
example: sally@aol.com. Mail that doesn't match any filter is forwarded to
the quality control staffs' mail address so they can inspect it and
determine whether filters need adjustment.
Filters are set up using the "Filters" command language of any commercially
available filter capable mailing computer software program. The following
filter program is designed for a Candidate Chaser machine using ten
general purpose computers where the computers are referenced by a
sequencial labeling system with the labels as follows: Chase101, Chase102,
Chase103, Chase104, Chase105, Chase106, Chase107, Chase108, Chase109,
Chase110, where the unit referenced as Chase101 receives messages
containing electronic mail addresses designated for addition the remove
list
1. Checking Mail option=leave mail on server (Mail will be removed from
server by filter actions only.)
2. Every filter is programmed to execute on "incoming" mail only.
2.1. Filters
2.1.1. Removes to Chase101
2.1.1.1. Subject contains "remove" or "spam" action equals make subject
"Remove" then action equals redirect to chase101@domain.com then server
option equals "delete" then action equals "Skip Rest".
2.1.1.2. Subject contains "unsubscribe" or "junk" action equals make
subject "Remove" then action equals redirect to chase101@domain.com then
server option equals "delete" then action equals "Skip Rest".
2.1.1.3. Subject contains "garbage" or "trash" action equals make subject
"Remove" then action equals redirect to chase101@domain.com then server
option equals "delete" then action equals "Skip Rest".
2.1.1.4. Body contains "remove" or "spam" action equals make subject
"Remove" then action equals redirect to chase101@domain.com then server
option equals "delete" then action equals "Skip Rest".
2.1.1.5. Body contains "garbage" or "trash" action equals make subject
"Remove" then action equals redirect to chase101@domain.com then server
option equals "delete" then action equals "Skip Rest".
2.1.2. Undeliverables Deleted
2.1.2.1. Subject contains "deliver" or "error" then action equals server
option "delete" then "Skip Rest"
2.1.2.2. Subject contains "unknown" or "bad" then action equals server
option "delete" then "Skip Rest"
2.1.2.3. Subject contains "illegal" or "fail" then action equals server
option "delete" then "Skip Rest"
2.1.3. Resume attached
2.1.3.1. Subject contains "resume" or "vitae" then action equals redirect
to resume@domain.com
2.1.3.2. Body contains "resume" or "vitae" then action equals redirect to
resume@domain.com
2.1.4. Forward to customer everything not deleted and matching their
address
2.1.4.1. To contains XXX@abcd123.com then action equals redirect to
user@theirdomain.com and server option equals delete and action equals
"Skip Rest" Notice: every client requires one of these filters
2.1.5. Forward non filtered items to Quality Control Person--Theoretically
nothing should be available to filter and forward to the Quality Control
Function at this point unless there is a filter programming oversight.
2.1.5.1. To "appears" then redirect to qc@qcdomaine.com then server option
equals delete and "Skip Rest"
Each Candidate Chaser machine is designated its own Master User Name at a
Virtual Mail Server where a domain name specific to each machine is
registered, for example "abcd123.com". ALL mail sent to any variation of
XXX@abcd123.com, where XXX represents any designated client address
assigned to that domain, is downloaded in one batch to the mail processing
computer software program by accessing the assigned user name via the
assigned POP3 channel. For example the user "SMR" may download all mail
sent to the domain "abcd123.com" through the POP "mailhost.yourisp.net".
In this case the ISP maintains the server on its domain called
"mailhost.yourisp.net". Often the ISP will use the MUN domain as the POP3
channel so that it is possible to download the mail using a user name such
as "SMR" through the POP3 channel "abcd123.com" or whatever other domain
name is assigned by the ISP.
The ISP that provides the Virtual Mail Server is not necessarily the
provider of dial-up access to the server. Therefore, one might dial-up the
internet using one ISP such as Netcom to get onto the Internet Backbone
and then access the Virtual Mailserver at a different ISP. The DNS
settings in the dial-up program (usually entered in the TCP/IP settings of
the dial-up) can be from one ISP while the POP3 settings can be from
another.
CONCLUSION, RAMIFICATIONS, AND SCOPE
Accordingly, the reader will see that the Candidate Chaser Machine and
Process automatically locates Internet site pages and web postings which
contain operator specified keywords or Boolean combinations and then
extracts all email addresses from those pages as well as linked pages to
as many linking levels as selected by the operator and then sends a job
opportunity description enclosed in an electronic mail message to each of
the extracted addresses then receives responses from recipients of the job
opportuni | | |
