The future of recruitment - what I said in 1999

An old business acquaintance of mine gave me a copy of a business plan I wrote for my first company back in 1999.  If you think I talk a load of old cobblers now; you should see what I thought when I was somewhat younger!

We will grow from zero to £4m in 3 years (not).
We will be Global by year 2 (yeah right).
We'll do it all on sixpence (what no funding).

But, some of it made sense. (remember, this was 1999 so terminology may not be quite right!)

Job seekers will be able to discuss employment opportunities online with current and ex-employees,
Real information will be available to all online.
Job boards will become interactive portals where job seekers discuss amongst themselves.
Websites will allow job seekers to converse freely and directly; available for all to see!

So, what is the prediction for the next 10 years?

There is much talk of course about social networks, and whether or not I kind of thought some of the functionality would occur, I executed badly which is why I still have to work.  We were even competing with iGRasp at one stage but they remained focused and beat everyone.

So, what next?  By 2020:

Recruitment agencies will offer their services for free and provide 'recruitment par excellence'.

People will stop buying a Sunday newspaper and get all the latest via Twitter - in real time.

Your mother-in-law will stop coming round; instead adding you as a Friend on Facebook and hassling you virtually.

Your teenage children WILL speak to you; albeit via Bebo.

You won't get paid by your company but Google as you run adverts in all of your internal e-mails, presentations, webex demos etc.

Ad agencies will become extinct.

Petrol will be £25 per litre so no-one will drive anymore.

In the meantime, better get on with some execution so I can afford the petrol.