THE VIEW FROM HERE:

RECRUITING IN CANADA

While the Canadian economy has suffered less than that of the US in the past 18 months (and the recession was declared 'officially' over by June), almost 85% of Canadian organizations report they froze or reduced hiring plans throughout most of late 2008 and the first 9 months of 2009.

The result, for corporate recruiting professionals, was that after more than 2 years of steady increases (5-20% in 2007; 5-15% in 2008), recruiting salaries remained largely unchanged in 2009.  

Average salaries for corporate recruiting professionals working in industries hardest hit by the recession ...

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A BIT OF HOUSEKEEPING:  A number of readers have asked if they can reprint/reproduce these "Dear Sarah" pieces for use with their own candidates.  The answer:  Yes, absolutely - as long as they are properly credited, with a link to this blog and my email address (sarah@head2head.ca).   Dropping me a line to let me know you're using it would be great, too - I appreciate a good ego-stroke as much as the next person.

Note to recruiters (job-seekers, just scroll down to the next bolded heading!)

This week, Jeff Lipschultz  and I were guests on Daisy Wright's ...

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The more you know about working with recruiters, the more successful your job search will be.

Today, Sarah Welstead, the Director, User Experience at Head2Head was a panelist on Career Coach Daisy Wright's radio show for jobseekers.

We answered questions from real job-seekers about how to get the most out of working with recruiters.

Click here to listen to the show!

And don't forget to follow the host, Daisy Wright, and my co-panelist Jeff Lipschultz on Twitter:

Daisy Wright

Jeff Lipschultz

Think this blog post is 100% wrong?
Tell me why on the "I totally disagree with Sarah" page.

If you're new to the job market - and even if you're not - your biggest source of confusion about recruiters (aka 'headhunters') is probably a simple one:  Who the heck pays them? 

(Yes, if you're a recruiter here on ERE, you - presumably - know all about headhunters and how they get paid.  But as I explained in the first "Dear Sarah" post, this series was created so that the next time you get a  question from a non-recruiting friend or relation ...

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We made another video.  I know, you feel like watching another corporate video about as much as you feel like re-grouting the bathroom tile, but I promise it's funny.  And everyone in it works at Head2Head, so if you've been wanting to put some faces - and personalities - to names, this is your chance.

(I only appear in the bloopers, thank god.  But I wrote and produced, so there you go.  And I'm married to Hour 60.  [You'll understand the Hour 60 reference if you watch it.]  But everyone else is quite funny.)

Doesn't officially launch ...

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Another fantastic guest blog by Maureen Carroll, Manager of Recruiting at Head2Head!

Since Head2Head places more recruiters, with more organizations, than anyone else in Canada, we're often asked for advice on how to move from agency (i.e. full desk, contingency-fee) recruiting to corporate (i.e. working in-house for a client as an employee or on contract) recruiting.  This week, Maureen - who's been recruiting recruiters for almost 10 years now - offers her insights about how to make the switch.

So you want to be a corporate recruiter...

Anyone who's ever worked in a recruiting agency will tell ...

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Think this blog post is 100% wrong?
Tell me why on the "I totally disagree with Sarah" page.

Because I've worked in the recruiting industry for a while now, but am not actually a recruiter myself, scarcely a week goes by that I don't get an email from someone - a friend-of-a-friend, a spouse-of-a-friend, a child-of-a-friend - telling me that they're having unsatisfactory interactions with recruiters, and asking what they should do about it.

The fundamental problem, of course - outside of the current economy, which is making job hunting tougher for everyone - is simply that most job-seekers don't ...

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In this Era of Social Media, the written word is more important than ever.

Part 3 of our 2-part series.  Click here to read Part I.

PART III:  I don't care how cool/sexy/big your corporate brand is.  Bad writing will cost you the candidate.

It's not just personal brands that suffer when bad writing happens - bigger brands have just as much (and maybe more) to lose.

One of the questions I'm often asked, even among senior recruiters and HR-types who've been in the business for 10+ years is:  "I'm a corporate recruiter working ...

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Editor's note:  As you know, from time to time we spotlight guest bloggers.  This week we're featuring a team of 3 new Head2Head-ites:

Emma Scott, Senior Client Relationship Manager

Matt Moloney, Senior Client Relationship Manager, IT

Sachin Sama, Business Development Specialist

As recent interviewees themselves, Emma, Matt and Sachin have some helpful words of advice for candidates.  I know ERE isn't really for candidates, but you'd be surprised how many of them hang out here looking for tips...

ACING THE INTERVIEW:
Interviewing tips by Emma Scott, Matt Moloney and Sachin Sama

As newbies here at Head2Head ...

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In this Era of Social Media, the written word is more important than ever.

Special two-part series!

PART I:  On old English, etymology, and annoying co-workers

The world, it seems, is divided into two groups:

1. Those who think spelling (and grammar, and good sentence structure) counts and are a little fanatical about it
2. Those who think the people in Group #1 need to calm down, because it's not, like, life-threatening or anything

Anyone who's ever read one of my blog posts - or been the victim of one of my late-night Proustian emails - knows which group I belong to ...

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In this Era of Social Media, the written word is more important than ever.

Part II of our 2-part series.  Click here to read Part I.

PART II:  Social media, personal branding, and yes people really do notice

For all the Chicken Littles who lament that our kids are being made stupid by the internet, the truth is that the average person today is reading and writing a whole lot more than ever before, both online and off.  

Thanks to Oprah, we're reading more books; thanks to email, we're writing more letters; thanks to social media, we're ...

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Think this blog post is 100% wrong?
Tell me why on the "I totally disagree with Sarah" page. 

The recruitment lifecycle starts with sales.
So why aren't we talking about it? 

Thanks to the mainstreaming of social media, any wingnut with an opinion and a keyboard can set themselves up as a recruiting guru these days.  Google virtually any recruiting lifecycle stage or buzzword and you're guaranteed to turn up hundreds - if not thousands - of blogs, articles, templates, tweets, whitepapers, discussion groups and god knows what else by legions of recruiting 'experts' who've managed to convince everyone ...

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ERE's requirement to register before posting comments on blog posts ensures that you don't have to deal with 83 zillion spam, phishing, or gratuitously nasty comments every time you post something is great.  

However, it does have one drawback:  The people with whom you are most likely to engage in a lively discussion - i.e. the people who hate what you've written - are reluctant to say anything because it's not anonymous, and we all know that what's said on the internet stays on the internet, forever. They resist saying what they'd really like to ...

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Think this blog post is 100% wrong?
Tell me why on the "I totally disagree with Sarah" page. 

So I was reading Sarah White's blog post about how the industry talks a lot about, but doesn't actually deliver, great candidate experiences. 

And she's right:  For all the hundreds (thousands?) of blogs, articles, whitepapers, media features and god knows what else about candidate experience in the past few years, the truth is that most organizations are still woefully inept when it comes to actually delivering anything approaching a 'great' candidate experience.

But I disagree with Sarah when she ...

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Think this blog post is 100% wrong?
Tell me why on the "I totally disagree with Sarah" page. 

As you know, Mike Stearns, the MyHusbandNeedsAJob.com guy, sent me an email in response to my blog posts about him.  He wasn't particularly happy about the posts, of course - he used words like "angry", "presumptuous", "outlandish and unfair" and capped it with the popular  accusatory "people like you" statement.  

48 hours later, the original MyHusbandNeedsAJob.com site turned into a blog, ostensibly so that Mike can capitalize on the traffic his site has generated to create a community of job-seekers ...

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In a lot of ways, you've been social networking since you were a kid.  Facebook helps you leverage those relationships.

Social media has gone mainstream, and the 30+ demographic has stopped dismissing it as 'some fad for the kids' and are ready to start using social media tools a little more enthusiastically.  But given that the average 30- or 40-something is in their peak work/family years, the last thing they need is to get sucked into a social media vortex.


Just because it's 'fun' doesn't mean it's not 'productive'

One of the questions I'm ...

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UPDATE September 12:  I received an email last night from Mike Stearns regarding my blog posts about him and his site. Needless to say he wasn't best pleased with some of my comments.  But as I've said before on several occasions, I think a more open dialogue between recruiters and candidates - with recruiters providing more constructive feedback - would deliver benefits to everyone involved.  So I've invited Mike to post his comments here in response to my blog.  I hope he does...

ORIGINAL POST:

Regular readers will recall my blog post of July 31 about Mike Stearns, the ...

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First off, the usual writer's apology for a 2-week absence. Not a day goes by that I don't wish for a technological advance that would allow me to dictate blogs from my brain to my computer telepathically.  This would make my shower time much more productive, since I currently waste that 7 minutes of my day singing old Mental as Anything songs (from the seminal Creatures of Leisure album, in case you're interested).  

I'd probably blog more if I weren't so bloody verbose.  Thank you, grade 9 typing!

Anyway.

The other week I was asked ...

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[To the serious HR-types who will read this blog post and immediately become incensed at my lack of knowledge about anti-oppression legislation in the US:  Before you comment, please remember that I am a recruitment marketing consultant whose job is about ensuring that the employment brand delivers positive experiences.  So my perspective is about how this situation contributes to a positive work environment, not how it might get us into legal trouble.]

Every Friday, staffers at Head2Head take turns to do 'Friday Treat Day'.  The tradition - started by President Paul Dodd back when H2H wasn't much more than "2 ...

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[Names and identifying details have been changed to protect the bitter.]

The other day I overheard some grumbling between a couple of colleagues, aged 28-32 and with about 5 years' experience in their current profession.  "It's not fair," one said.  "Bob's only been here a year and he's already had a raise, a promotion, and even an award.  And now he gets to head up his own project!  I have more experience, have been here longer - and I definitely work harder."

To which the other replied:  "I know!  I don't see him working at his desk ...

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