Hello! It's been awhile but my blog will be coming back active again very soon - only under a different name - "Transplanted".  My wife and I are about to embark on quite a journey as we are relocating to Belgium next month (this transition has been the main reason this blog has been so quiet over the past few months).  My wife was recruited for an opportunity and we just couldn't pass it up. 

So - I am now starting the process of no longer being a recruiter here and learning what it takes to be a recruiter in Europe ...

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I am incredibly addicted to my Nintendo Wii - I'll admit it!  I grabbed one of the few Wii Fit available last weekend and have only increased my addiction.  When my wife convinced me try one of the yoga exercises yesterday - well... lets just say... yoga and I do not seem to get along.  As I was told - the pose I did was a relatively easier one - but that did not matter... my back is killing me now.  I need to stick to positions my body was meant to be in.  Well - what does any of this have to do ...

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The more and more I hear from my candidates about their experiences with other recruiters the more I think some recruiters have the 'blob' mentality when it comes to candidates.  "If I just push hard and fast enough they might land somewhere good". 

Please take some time to get to know your candidates - what they are looking, where their true skills are... and you will be amazed at how little force you need to help them land in the right place!

On a side note - this blob thing looks fun!!! 

I've recently had a few questions come up related to what makes a good recruiter. I've decided to make my answer as simple and open as possible.

PASSION

What is your one (or two) word answer?

So many blogs, discussion groups, linkedin group, ere forums - are people actually working?

I am shocked everytime I click on LinkedIn Answers and see the top "experts" of the week.. well over 100 answers each week. 

I am surprised at how much time people spend on responses on ERE groups.  I think some people might be spending hours writing emails.  (if you are in my group - Ethics in Recruiting - please.. continue to spend as much time as you like!)

I have to blink twice when I see people with 20+ linkedin groups on their profile

I'm not sure on ...

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I am just wondering if anyone else has noticed a drastic increase in their LI visibility numbers lately.  I've been using the status update feature (changing it daily) and have seen impressive results..

Your profile has been viewed by 20+ people in the last 1 day. In the last day, you've appeared in search results 97 times.

I've even gotten a few candidates already from this new feature.

This was a rather interesting recruiting related spam I recieved today...

Dear Scott Axel,

My name is Adam Mack. I came across your resume on Monster.com. Our Company would like to offer you a job of a customers account manager Work in this position assumes availability of Pay Pal account registered not earlier than 3 months ago. For detailed information in this issue, please emial me.

Sincerely yours,

Adam Mack

Maybe I should have this guy write a job description for me - this paypal account needed to get a job is pretty neat - maybe he is on to something ...

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Today I am having a little fun with my blog posting. There is nothing recruiting related - I just thought every now and then we all need a little break. So - enjoy the Ohio State University Alumni Marching Band with the current band performing the Quad Script Ohio. Quite a sight to see!!!! (I was not performing this year).

Go Bucks!!!!

Ethical level of LinkedIn Invites falling?

Who knows - I can honestly say - I am starting to get very annoyed with the quality of LinkedIn invites recently. I can no longer count how many requests I get that list me as “business partners” from companies I’ve never worked with (or in most cases, even heard of). What happened to one recruiting just wanting to connect with another recruiter? All of the phony “Larry has indicated you are a business partner at widget company” requests come from recruiters. Is this a hint of things to come? I know I haven’t ...

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Today I had a candidate ask me this question.  Needless to say - It's rare that I have a candidate who actually wants to find out more about me in the first call (most just want to know how much more money I can find for them - even if they are afraid to admit that is their biggest concern).  I taken by surprise a little as I was ready to find out more about the candidate so I gave him the canned recruiter answer "I like to help people out".  But is that really the main reason why I like ...

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Internet-Less Recruiting September 10th, 2007

I know - some out there probably thinking I am crazy for even thinking it.. but... If you ask yourself - honestly - how much time do you really spend online... do you like the answer?

I feel like this poor pooch most of the time...

So today while looking for Simon's LI question to see more user stats - I noticed that there are a lot of people that seem to answer a ton of questions.  People are also asking a lot of questions.  I'm part of two LI yahoogroups than get dozens of the same ...

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Maaaan  - I have really been slacking on my blog this year.  Sorry about that guys.  But I am running into a very troubling (as far as blogging is concerned) roadblock....  I am actually happy at my current job.  It seemed that in earlier position ideas for interesting blog popped up almost daily because I just wasn't happy with how something was going.  Now - I am actually pleased with the process and the strategy my company uses.  So.. now my blog ideas are running thin.

So my question is for you happy blogging recruiters (or happy blogger readers) - what is ...

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So I was sitting at my favorite bar this week drinking a nice smoked porter  and I was trying to come up with what I wanted to accomplish in the upcoming year (okay.. I typically don't try to think about work too much while I am drinking, but as it turns out the beer I tried previously was very bad and I was doing as much as possible to remove it from my memory.

I decided to try to come up with my resolutions of things that I was not going to do this year.. Here are a few ...

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Okay - so we are getting into the Holiday Season now.  I just left so many voicemails I feel like the puppy above - and I know it is going to get worse!  I'd like to get your thoughts on fun ways to make this time of the recruiting year worthwhile to pick up the phone!  I know this is a great time of the year to work on next years business/recruiting plan, but I am interested to find out what fun things you guys out there might be doing to try to generate some candidates / interviews this time of ...

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I think we have the kinks worked out now.. Thanks to the ERE team for helping out!

For those of you not addicted to YouTube there has been a very interesting series of videos posted within the last month or so. It is a 5 part series of a 94 year old WW2 vet. I've listed the first part of the series here. Each of the other parts last about 8 minutes and pretty much take the viewer through his experiences from the first bomb at Pearl Harbor to post-war Japan. It is definitely worthwhile to listen

Part 2 ...

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Oh boy am I really slacking on my blog!  It wasn't intentional I promise.  I recently made a change of office scenery and now I find myself a dedicated candidate sourcer!  Pretty fun eh?  For me it is.  I decided to make the change and (attempt) to become specialized in one are of the process as opposed to having my hand in all aspects of full cycle recruiting and selling.  Am I in the minority of noticing a trend that some companies (obviously not all) are just asking way too much of recruiters?  I know? some of you might ...

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Again, sorry for the delay in writing for this blog.  It has been a very hectic time here and I will talk more about that in postings to come.  You will just have to wait!!

I was thinking about this over the past few weeks as I have been talking to a lot of recruiters all across the country.  Job boards.  Why are we really spending, as an industry, a large chunk of our money on them?  Do people truly find candidates from searching their resumes?  Do postings really generate worthwhile candidates?  For me, the answers to both questions are ...

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