Entries Tagged with how

Wednesday July 1st, 2009
Now Not to Recruit

There was a great post on blog The Anti-Pimp recently, 7 Things Recruiters Do That Irritate Me. I had to laugh -- so many of the things listed are complaints that I've heard from quite a few candidates myself.

So I started speaking to contractors that I know to see what other things irritate and annoy them -- sometimes to the point of refusing to work with a particular recruiter or company. In this far-from-scientific survey, I've spoken to a few IT consultants (business analyst, systems analyst, technical writer, and a programmer), as well as a contract HR specialist, a recruiter, a travel nurse, and a proposal writer.

Perhaps the most common complaint (and I've experienced this one a time or two myself!) is recruiters not listening to what the candidate is telling them -- whether it's about what sort of position would be a good fit, salary and compensation, or just that they're unavailable to talk at the moment.

A technical writer complained: "I was recently in the check-out line at the grocery store when a recruiter I'd been speaking to called back with some feedback from a recent interview. ... Despite the fact that I told him that no, this wasn't a good time, and could we please speak a little later (like when I'm not bagging groceries!), this guy just kept right on talking."

In addition to the rudeness of such situations, many also commented to the effect that if they can't trust a recruiter to respect that they are unavailable at the moment -- whether it's due to an important meeting or a family dinner -- how can they be sure that they'll listen to anything else?

But the complaint that surprised me was the idea of recruiters attempting to build rapport by talking about how hard it is to be a recruiter right now. I spoke to a nurse who frequently works with agencies for travel nursing positions. One of her worst experiences, she said, was with a recruiter whose skills were apparently not quite up to the recent challenges posed by the economic slowdown:

"Literally, about the first five or ten minutes we were talking, it was all about how hard her life was these days. How she used to have dozens of open jobs on the go at any one time, and now she only had one or two at a time -- if she was lucky. Better yet," the candidate added, "this recruiter actually told me that these days the candidates she sent rarely got interviews."

Not exactly a confidence-booster. (Not to mention unprofessional.) It can be great to build a personal rapport with candidates -- but that doesn't mean that recruiters should vent to their candidates, whether about job orders or a client, no matter how frustrating things can get.

Another concurred. "I don't see why recruiters are asking me to sympathize with them. You don't have lots of orders? Honey, I'm the one looking for a job."

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Tuesday March 31st, 2009
Today is Our Blogging Birthday!

One year ago today the first post of this blog (cross-posted on the Head2Head site) went live. It's been an exciting year from a recruiting perspective, an economic perspective and a talent perspective. There's also been the occassional blogging controversy to comment on.

Blogging those topics has been nothing less than mind blowing.

Figuring out what you like to read from among those topics has been almost impossible!

Looking over the statistics tracked via our Head2Head blogging tool, it's interesting to see how that diversity of topics appeals to bigger and more niche audiences.

Here are a few posts that stuck out for the recruitment community:

Demographics, especially surrounding Generation Y, is of interest to the recruitment community. Generation Y: Full of Youth & Promise? attracted more than 700 readers.

Almost of many of you read about Experimental Philosophy for Recruiters before returning to the Generation Y interest. 432 of you have read about On-Boarding Gen-Y. That makes the people themselves slightly more interesting than their job interviewing clothing choices.

Since our profession is results-oriented's not surprising that more than 600 readers are searching for the gold via Treasure Mapping for Mutual Rewards. 

The wider community outside the recruiting blogosphere gave us some attention too. We're all still obsessed with brands. Especially new-ish brands. 2546 people have read NOTE TO GOOGLE: Your employment brand is weakening your share price.

Our most-read post? It has had 3509 readers so far and is titled Help for Immigrant Job Seekers with a link to CanadianImmigrant.ca.

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Tuesday March 3rd, 2009
7 Attributes of Highly Attractive Candidates

Job applicants love to complain about recruiters. They say that their online applications end up in a cyber black hole and are never read, responded to or recorded. While that might be true in some cases, there are candidates who always get a response and this is what they do to help us out as recruiters with limited time to fill specific positions with highly qualified candidates.

1. They save us time. They write their applications to be scanned. Qualifications and experiences are listed up front using the language used in the original posting.

2. They solve our problems. Recruiters, like employers, aren't interested in what a job can do for you. We're interested in what you can do for the company. Good candidates know what the pitfalls are and have thought about how to bridge them.

4. They are excellent at doing researchers. They are up-to-date on major events, performance issues and current trends in their industry.

5. They know how to leverage social media. All of their contacts know they are looking for work, what they want to do and how they intend to get it.

6. They're passionate about their work. A dedication to their careers shines through difficulties. Further education, training and involvement in industry associations are listed on their CVs.

7.They give our clients a reason to feel inspired. Clients can tell when fresh blood is going to bring fresh thinking. When you're a special candidate, it shows in your CV in your cover letter and, most importantly, in how you STATE YOUR GOALS. Ambition, combined with practical steps toward achievement, are the most attractive qualities in any candidate anywhere.

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Friday January 30th, 2009
7 Habits for Effective Relationships Blogging

Blogging, like any other exercise recruiters engage in, is all about the people you meet. The people we meet via this platform express their opinions, talk about their experiences and reveal themselves. That openness itself is brave and worthy of respect. Like any other blogger, I've been depressed by the recent drop in the number of comments. More recently, I've realised that I can do something about it!

Here are seven rules I now follow in the hopes of creating highly effective relationship blogging. Call it a manifesto for relationship-based recruitment blogging, if you will.

1. The golden rule of blogging is: you comment, I follow. If you leave a comment on my blog, I will return the favour by visiting your blog. It builds community, introduces us to new voices and perspectives and is just polite. Comment spammers, however, just don't count.

2. If you inspire me, if I am referred to information resources via your blog, or pick up a thread or discussion topic as a result of your work, I will credit you and link back to your source.

3. I recognise that writing for interactive media means using interactive tools. Polls, surveys and other tools help ensure that we keep in touch with our audience. Without that feedback from the wider community, internet content might as well just be a paper bulletin circulated by homeroom teachers.

4. I will try harder, to respond to comments the way I respond to prospective clients or candidates: to learn more about them, about what they want, what they can do and how I can help them do it. Too much of the Internet world is rife with trolls, argument, and one-up-man-ship. Recruiters do better than that on the phone, they can do better than that through blogging.

5. I recognise that creating opportunities for discussion is not entirely my job. Sometimes, I need to take on the less important role of referring others to existing discussions. Since I am used to competing with other recruiters for the best placements, it is difficult to hold back when it comes to blogging and embrace the cooperative nature of interaction.

6. I believe that traffic must flow. I do not own my readers. I do not need to fear that, if they read another blog -- or write their own --that they have somehow cheated on me. By providing them with links to other interesting voices, I create opportunities for the traffic they generate to flow in both directions.

7. I comment on others work before I expect comment on my own.

Simple, really, isn't it?

link to image source

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Friday January 9th, 2009
Job Tips Group Writing Project

Our friend Jacob at Job Mob has been hosting a Group Writing Project in which bloggers submit their best post from 2008 that contains job search tips. Reading over the comments on the post, I was surprised that more recruitment bloggers didn't submit tips.

The public needs our advice. Let's give it to them. Our blogs are the perfect tool to help those facing the most difficult challenges in this changing economy.

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Monday December 29th, 2008
Job Search Tips: The Top Five From 2008

Job Mob recently asked for our best job search tips of 2008. While most of our complaints about job seekers have fallen under the heading of "what not to do" I think we can reverse engineer some tips from the heartbreak.

1. Build your brand, know your message.

2. Know what you want and express it. Remember the guy who offered a $1000 reward to the person who could find him the perfect job? Too bad he didn't mention what he does or what kind of job he was looking for.  

3. Make sure you're actually qualified and communicate your qualifications properly. If you haven't been getting any calls for interviews for jobs you are qualified to do, then you aren't expressing your qualifications clearly enough. The easiest way to do this is ensure that the language used in the job post is used in your cover letter and C/V.

4. Follow the directions. If a web site says that the recruiter only wants to be contacted via their on-line application tool, respect their processes. Don't make a bizarre phone call that will only cause confusion and make you look bad.

5. Don't underestimate the power of excellent social skills. Always searching for new opportunities. Start when you are in school and make as many friends as possible from as broad a spectrum of interests, generations, ethnicities, etc.

If you're older and you've missed out on the social opportunities of school, get involved in your community through volunteering, evening classes or interest-based groups. While you're there, ensure that you're listening skills and manners are in perfect working order. For example, for every five minutes you spend in conversation with someone, you should learn three things about them.

And, this shouldn't have to be said, but try to self-edit inappropriate comments. No one wants to work with ageist, sexist or racist job searchers.

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Thursday October 16th, 2008
Generation Y Needs Early Job Search Support

Between posts about Gen Y, their communication styles, their lack of job satisfaction, and this month's poll, I've been trying to get my head around how best to support this generation so that they can take on more responsibility earlier and fill shortages in the workforce.

What I'd forgotten, is that starting a career is one of the most stressful times in a young person's life.

Matthew Brink of Saint Joseph’s University’s Career Development Center reminded me. In his experience, most students avoid thinking about the real world until their third year of university and put off visiting the career center as long as possible.

Sometimes, Brink says, it’s the waiting itself makes the task overwhelming. An earlier start gives students the tools to start preparing for a career. Brink says that student should actually start their career planning in their first year of university.

“While adjusting to college life can often be enough for freshmen to handle, there are plenty of services offered at SJU to help them get grounded and thinking about the future,” Brink said. “For example, freshmen often haven’t declared a major and may need help figuring out what they’re best suited for.”

Employers look at more than grades and want to see a well-rounded person who has been involved in clubs, sports or student government. That involvement should be encouraged from the very first year.

In the second year, Brink says that the job search résumé should already be in the works.

“By junior year, students should be working to secure internships, researching graduate school options and networking with alumni,” he says. “Senior year can sometimes be too late to start gaining real work experience.”

It's obvious to me that recruiters can and already do play a pivotal role in helping university career centres. Many participate in résumé clinics and share networking tips. Brink's plan, though, offers more opportunitied to network with students and to help them learn how to network. What do you think a brief course in networking would look like for 18 year-old first-year students? 

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Tuesday September 23rd, 2008
CU L8er -- Not

The introduction to this Wall Street Journal article says it all:

• After interviewing a college student in June, Tory Johnson thought she had found the qualified and enthusiastic intern she craved for her small recruiting firm. Then she received the candidate's thank-you note, laced with words like "hiya" and "thanx," along with three exclamation points and a smiley-face emoticon.
• "That email just ruined it for me," says Ms. Johnson, president of New York-based Women For Hire Inc. "This looks like a text message."
• Hiring managers like Ms. Johnson say an increasing number of job hunters are just too casual when it comes to communicating about career opportunities in cyberspace and on mobile devices. Thank yous on paper aren't necessary, but some applicants are writing emails that contain shorthand language and decorative symbols, while others are sending hasty and poorly thought-out messages to and from mobile devices. Job hunters are also using social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace to try to befriend less-than-willing interviewers.

It's often occured to me that the "job search tips" we're given in high school and toward the end of university are deeply, deeply inadequate. Most young adults haven't developed the social skills to network in real life without exploiting their parents' contacts.

And strangely, we do tell them about "building relationships" with recruiters, with former employers and with colleagues, but we also don't tell them "relationship" is not synonymous with friendship.

Not that the rules are at all clear for anyone. In this article, it's the hiring manager who doesn't want to be "friended" on Facebook. In a study I posted about earlier this month,  it was hiring managers who were using social networking to vet candidates.

I really do think that recruiters need to play a larger role in grooming candidates, especially young people. Good manners, decent communication skills, and setting realistic expectations are all skills to be learned. It may just be that recruiters are the only qualified teachers.

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Monday August 4th, 2008
Top Four from the First Fifty

Springtime brought sunshine, flowers and -- in our case -- a new blog. We launched on March 31st with these three posts.

Starting a new venture that can only be successful if people stay indoors to read it, is a pretty tough thing to do when the sun beckons everyone outdoors...especially here in Canada. On the other hand, it also gives us a few months to hone our techniques and find our audience of die-hard fans.

I am now writing our 50th post and wondering what we can do to better inspire discussion and interest in recruiting based on what's been successful so far. According to the number of comments received, these are the four posts you've liked best.

4. Everyone wants to know more about social networking sites. This post on user stats back in April attracted three comments.

3. According to the 5 comments our June Poll, you probably can lose a great candidate over a cup of coffee.

2.With six comments, a study about working 4 ten-hour days instead of 5 eight-hour days has us speculating about making cross-cultural analysis and if it is even possible to do so.

1. Flip-flops aren't just for politicians anymore. Our post on the topic garnered 11 comments and left us wondering if flip-flops are for anyone at all.

And, let's not forget that interactivity isn't just about comments. Our quiz for recruiters has now been taken 26 times.

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About the Authors

Paul Dodd
Co-founder and President
Head2Head Canada

Paul has one simple goal: To help companies hire great people - and get the most out of every recruiting dollar they spend. That's why he's recognized as one of the best recruitment-industry thinkers in Canada.

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