Internet jobs site looks to Memphis for advice

By SUZANNE THOMPSON

The Daily News

Siskind, Susser, Haas & Divine, a Memphis law firm, now provides information on U.S. and Canadian immigration law for the Monster.com Web site.

Monster.com is a global network used by job seekers and employers using technology in the recruiting process.

Attorneys from the firm host weekly online chats for ’Net surfers at 1 p.m. each Wednesday.

Today marks the fourth weekly chat session Siskind has held since he began providing content to Monster.com.

"Obviously, most of the people asking questions are looking for jobs. They may already be employed in the United States on a visa and they’re looking to ask questions about the mechanics of changing jobs and changing visas," Siskind said.

Other questions he’s fielded include inquiries about the timetable for receiving a visa, how to help family members gain employment in the United States, and how to help a child enter the country.

The chats are held in Monster.com’s international section, which lists employment opportunities for foreign citizens seeking work in the United States or for U.S. citizens seeking jobs outside the country.

Denis Gaynor, senior producer with Monster.com, said the site’s users made it clear expert consultation in the immigration area was needed.

"We definitely saw, from e-mails and responses that we were getting, that there was a lot of need for information on how to get a job in the United States,’’ Gaynor said.

"As the largest jobs and careers Web site on the Internet, a lot of people were coming to Monster to find jobs in the U.S., but they didn’t have any information on how to get visas, how to go through the job application process."

Monster.com first contacted Siskind to interview him for an article the site was producing about the basic visa application process, Gaynor said.

Siskind is the co-author of ``The J Visa Guidebook,’’ an overview of the J-1 exchange visitor visa program. He also is the author of ``The Lawyers Guide to Marketing on the Internet,’’ published by the American Bar Association in 1996, and has been featured in a Wall Street Journal article about attorneys using the Internet to develop a client base.

Gaynor said after interviewing Siskind, perusing his firm’s Web site, and seeing his name in The Wall Street Journal, he was convinced Siskind was the right choice to serve as the site’s immigration consultant.

A longtime believer in online power, Siskind’s firm has a distinct presence on the Internet with its Web site, www.visalaw.com.

The site receives more than 100,000 weekly hits from visitors in more than 130 countries.

"We’ve had weeks where we’ve had a quarter million hits," Siskind said.

His was one of the first law firms to offer an online newsletter, which started in October 1994. Following its launch, the content of the newsletter gradually mushroomed from five to six articles per issue to 50 or 60 per issue.

Nearly 25,000 people subscribe to the online newsletter, and growth has been so brisk that Siskind and his partners decided to make the monthly newsletter into a weekly publication to make the size of issues more manageable, he said.

"We’ve just switched to a weekly format," Siskind said.

The first weekly online newsletter was published Friday, Siskind said.

"Monster.com is really an example of what direction we’re going in, which is to deliver immigration-related content to third party providers," Siskind said.

Other organizations also have contracted with Siskind, Susser, Divine & Haas to provide material or consultation.

Silicon Valley Bank has contracted with Siskind’s firm to provide original content for their Web site, and Silicon India magazine also has asked him to provide material for their site.

"Most of the problem Web sites have is that they are trying to get eyeballs. Everything is dependent on how much traffic that they get on their site, and it’s all about delivering quality content on their site," he said.

Doug Hardy, vice president of content for Monster.com, explained why the site does not hesitate to go to the source for expert information.

"We have a number of contributors that we use in varying degrees. We’ve got 20 experts in subjects like negotiations and resumes, but for very specific types of information like legal status of visas and so forth, we really need to go to expert sources and spend all day doing this. That’s how you get the best information," Hardy said.

Siskind said the Web is an ideal venue for lawyers to provide third party content for other businesses to use on their Web sites.

"Lawyers write. It’s an attractive source of content for them," he said.

Siskind, Susser, Haas & Divine also manages the site www.visajobs.com, which seeks to link foreign workers with American employers willing to go through the visa application process.

"It’s different than Monster.com in that it focuses just on that narrow area," Siskind said.

Employers are required to go through a verification process in order to list their jobs on the site, he said.

"We actually charge the job seeker, not the employer, which is the opposite of what Monster.com does," Siskind said.