The economy is recovering, but there are still millions of people desperately searching to find a job.  The irony is that many jobs are remaining unfilled.  Why?  The employers say that it is because they cannot find enough qualified applicants to fill them!  The recruitment vendors say it is because the good people are hard to find and they have responded by developing a wide assortment of cutting edge tools to help employers find the good people.  On the other hand, veterans from the old…

4 years ago this month I was asked to leave one of the largest contingency recruiting firms that I’d been with for 10 years. I had reached burnout and the grace to carry struggling recruiters had ceased regardless of past success as my company went from 40 recruiters to 10 in no time. As I sent my resume out to sales gigs I had offers left and right for jobs that paid $35k-$40k plus commission to sell a widget.

An independent recruiter and friend called me and reminded me that I…

They say that cold-calling is dead, but if you received a recruiting call from me; I was simply engaging in referral   marketing!

Wikipedia defines referral…

Employers seldom complain about the services of headhunters, it’s the headhunters’ fee that has become their pain point.

A few months ago I was a presenting at a seminar to about 35 business owners and HR professionals.  The topic of the presentation was “How to Recruit like a Headhunter” and during the presentation I made the statement “if you are not using headhunters as your primary recruitment weapon, then you are not hiring the best talent in-the-market”…

After more 10 years in the staffing industry in various operational, managerial, and corporate roles and in different countries, I have interviewed, coached, and trained hundreds of recruitment consultants from all over the world. Though local differences must be taken into consideration, the characteristics that make you a top performer in Salt Lake City also work in Singapore or in Paris. Based on what I saw, heard, and learned, here is my quintessential list of the 5+1 habits that…

Since I started writing this "How to Choose a Headhunter" series in 2008, the world of recruitment/headhunting has turned upside down. Back then, my first post was the top questions I'd advise anybody considering engaging a headhunter for the first time, but time has moved on and the questions have changed - although not all of them!…

Evernote makes it easy to remember things big and small from your everyday life using your computer, phone, tablet and the web. I personally have used Evernote for over 6 months. I use it as a Recruiters ongoing diary. Making your daily plan, tracking resumes, by clients and searches. Make notes on all my candidates, as I am talking to them. Completely searchable. All of your contacts at your fingertips. Web clipper is a great tool for clipping resumes on the fly…

So, I posted this originally back in 2009 on my bloodspot blog "The Recruiter Chronicles"  Updated it again a bit essentially the same.  The reason I posted this was to help non recruiters appreciate and understand the different forms of recruiting and their individual strengths and weaknesses.  Also, for recruiters who have had a singular track, perhaps they could consider switching it up if they feel their strengths are better utilized in a different version of what they are already doing.…

So you’ve lost your job because the economy tanked; now you’re beating the pavement in the clouds searching for work and discovering that the job search rules from way back in the 90’s have all changed.  It’s a whole new ballgame and no one has told you about it.  

Talk about being frustrated.  You now realize that you have to shoulder some of the blame and take responsibility for your own career.  What were you thinking-leaving your own career in the hands of an employer! 

If…

I recently received a call from a $100mm medical device company wanting me to help them find a new Marketing Director. They told me that they were referred to me by a few executives within their company as “the recruiter of choice.” The first 30 minutes of the call was me asking questions to determine their ideal profile and how they envisioned attracting that caliber of talent to their company. I am quite familiar with their company and in the past have  recruited from them for some of my…

A start-up Web Design Firm needed to hire a UX Designer for their rapidly expanding portfolio. After being reasonably impressed by an array of recruiters, they "authorized" one of the recruiter’s named Tom to find a talented programmer to add to their team. Tom is a solid citizen who does his best to perform well for his clients. With the job specifications fresh in hand, Tom quickly prepares his plan and begins scouring an array of tech job sites and crafts a few boolean searches and…

Here is an Irony for you: The Contingency Recruiting Industry has the Highest Turnover Rate of any industry. It is a well-kept secret because of the obvious implications. With an approximately 90% recruiter turnover within the first year, recruiting has to be one of the toughest things in the world to do, intellectually speaking. So, I’m not comparing it to the military or being a fireman or police officer, but in terms of the amount of disappointment that a person experiences at work. Many…

The problem with recruiters is that most of them are focused on “closing the deal”and all else is just details. They will do anything necessary to simply make a placement and invoice their customer. They don’t have their customer’s best interests at heart. His only concern is getting paid and getting past the guarantee period!

Sad, but true for many, if not most recruiters. Oh sure, they “care” about the outcome. But not more than they care about submitting an…

This was a question on LinkedIn a few weeks ago; I thought it was interesting; unfortunately it didn't get too many responses. I have pasted my answer below. What would you say?

[here's my answer:]

LinkedIn is the top resource. It is even more useful when it's part of your sourcing strategy, i.e. is not the only social media source. …

Recently I was asked by a press contact to provide some "expert" insight into how a candidate's web 2.0 presence can make or break the candidacy's perceived legitimacy. Since our practice focus is in Software, Internet, Mobile, Digital, and bleeding edge technologies, nearly all of the candidates we work…

In times of change, positive or negative, I always preach professionalism and respect in the process. Of course, my opinion does not always prevail. I’ve been witness to some outrageous parting tactics. One particularly outrageous circumstance is shared below.

 

On a relatively uneventful Friday afternoon I received an email from a gentleman that I’d communicated with in the past on a Recruiter/ Candidate basis.  I, along with 1,214 other people were CC’d…

In the off season leading up to the 2011 Major League Baseball season, Clifton Pfifer Lee shocked the almighty bottomless pocketbook bearers of the New York Yankees and the down home, feel-good Texas Rangers by signing a below-market-value deal to pitch for the Philadelphia Phillies. The move was not solely motivated by money or warm fuzzy feelings. He took less money and moved to a city with a traditionally aggressive fan-base where players with large contracts who don’t meet…