As a recruiter, I participate in several different online professional communities, regularly receiving emails from others all over the nation offering insights into successful recruiting strategies. I had to chuckle when, within just a few minutes, I received the following two email messages.
Barb sent the first email, focused on how to minimize distractions from our daily recruiting tasks. Some of the items on her list were obvious deterrents to effective recruiting, such as working a shorter day than standard business hours or taking frequent breaks for personal phonecalls. But other items that she named as distractions shocked me. Sending or reading emails. What?! That’s how I communicate with many of my clients and candidates! Going on social networking sites. What?! That’s how I increasingly find and connect with terrific individuals, whether employers or employees! I really found it astonishing that a well-regarded corporate recruiter such as Barb would think of sending emails, reading emails, or linking with colleagues on networking sites as interfering with efficiency.
Madeline sent the second email, focused entirely on the unique strengths of e-sourcing for recruiting. Yes, you guessed it: spending time sending emails, reading emails, and cultivating contacts on social networking sites as among the best ways to increase our productivity as recruiters! Madeline is from a different group than is Barb. So it was basically coincidental that her message made entirely the opposite point compared with what disoriented me in Barb’s email.
Recruiters — even the most successful recruiters — have remarkably different approaches to the tools for identifying and contacting outstanding prospective employees. For some, it’s all about social networking, boolean searches on google, and exchanging emails. For others, it’s all about making phonecalls. And then there are some recruiters for whom it’s all — and only — about who they meet in person at different business meetings. In contrast, I like to use a combination of these tools because there’s no single avenue that’s always perfect for finding top-notch candidates.
So I’m just shaking my head, chuckling …. and having a newly refreshed appreciation for the challenge it is to be an applicant. There’s no established, universal pattern among recruiters for finding candidates. So, for applicants, there’s likewise no single, easily identifiable jobseeking tool that will have guaranteed success. Most applicants, like most recruiters, will try to find a blend and balance of jobseeking tools — personal contacts, business associations, a few big job boards, direct application to some targeted companies, and even a profession-oriented online network such as linkedin.
Some days, that huge array of options is what makes the search process maddeningly complex — for recruiters AND for candidates. But most days, that balancing is also what makes the process exciting, invigorating, and yes, …. successful!
