This article speaks directly to anyone doing contingency search in a field that’s struggling right now; and that’s probably most of you.

Every week, I talk to one of you on the phone and hear about the drastic shortage of job orders. This may sound a little obvious, but if the ship you’re on is taking on water, its time to jump to a different ship.

Contrary to what I’ve heard from some people, I do not believe it makes you a tougher or better recruiter to suffer in a languishing corner of the staffing industry. Yes, it would be nice to be the last of the Mohicans in your field of recruiting by outlasting all the other recruiters that are trying to stick it out too. But if you’re not one of those that are thriving in your niche now, I doubt its going to change any time soon.

So, what industry is really hot right now? Well, for starters, health care is going through a boom unlike anything we’ve ever seen in the staffing industry. Imagine the dot com craze on steroids. And yet, most of recruiting friends are still hammering away at cold calling for IT jobs. Energy and Gas are doing pretty well, and ‘green energy’ will eventually pick up steam, but these don’t hold a candle to health care staffing right now, or for the foreseeable decade.

Just as you learned your current niche of recruiting (terminologies, candidate databases, etc.), you can easily learn another one. And this time, maybe chose something that’s recession proof for a few decades as opposed to a short term boost.

Ok, enough of my rant. Let the flaming begin.