Opinions wanted

I am a RL recruiter for direct hire and contract IT, Finance, Engineering, and HR jobs. I am looking into setting up shop in SL to find applicants for RL jobs. Some questions I would like help with:

Is this feasible?

Is it best to set up a SL office with hours and such or just mill about and meet people and chat?

Are there enough serious type folks in SL to make this worth the time/effort/money I would need to put in?

Is this being done already in some form (SL being a conduit for RL jobs)?

I am not all that familiar with virtual worlds and will take some time to get comfy. How long is normal for a relatively techie person to acclimate enough to SL to not look dorky?

Any other issues I'm not thinking about?

I want to pitch the idea to my boss but I need a little better feel about if this could work on some level. i would like to be able to spend half my work time on the grid doing business but I may start slower - 5 hours/week. I think the key will be the ability to effectively screen serious job seekers from the crowds.

What are your thoughts?

There is one RL job Kiosk system being distributed in SL. They pay people to drop the web launcher Kiosk in high traffic areas. You may want to start out in a similar fashion. Rent inexpensive vendor spots in high traffic areas and put your kiosks that launch a web page. There are voice-enabled conference centers in SL that you can use to hold a bi-weekly real job hunt seminar to see who you attract. And the posting of this discussion group will bring you yet more publicity for your service.

Two thoughts from me:

1) Spend at least a month or two familiarizing yourself with SL before making any serious pitch to your boss. Frequent these forums, but also spend time at third-party forums where participants are not subjected to Linden Lab's rules. A good site would be Second Citizen... a bit chaotic and unruly, but a good place to get the low-down.

Once you know more and have more experience inworld, you will be in a much better position to decide if your idea is workable, and to advocate knowledgeably for it if you decide to move forward.

One thing in particular to keep in mind is that SL is largely uncontrolled. Stuff goes on here that many conservative people aren't comfortable with. There are frequently sensationalistic news stories "exposing" sexual degeneracy rampant throughout SL, possibly tainting any business operating here.

2) Many people feel SL as a platform is not the best when it comes to connecting people with the information they seek... in other words, the search facility sucks. Making a large number of desired people aware of your service is far easier to do by having your own web site, and by posting information on web forums frequented by the type of people you are seeking.

So you could spend a lot of time and a lot of money to make contact with a few hundred people in SL, or you could spend almost nothing to make contact with tens of thousands of people on the web.

Also... 2a) Communication systems are also a bit buggy, so missing messages from potential recruits could be a regular occurrence.

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Just out of curiosity, what was it initially that made you think of using SL?