I find that a lot of professionals don't necessarily guide every facet of their careers. Often, when a generalist becomes a specialist or we take on a specific project, we by default become "experts" while learning and implementing our expertise on the project.

Why do I say this? Well, in the course of my career, I have been heavily involved in the technology sector, and as such, I adopt new technology pretty quickly. Not always an early adopter (usually timing is the factor), but effective. Last year I started using Twitter as a professional tool. And I've been ...

keep reading this post...

On one of my many online professional communities, this one being a technical listserv, there has been an interesting discussion revolving around agency requests for creative "projects" for clients, as well as detailed "scenario" questions that are tantamount to "free" solutions to business conundrums. There is the obvious legal copyright question, but also a growing discomfort from the community regarding being taken advantage of.

There is a catch-22 situation here. One of the resident attorneys contributed the "legalese" assuring all creatives that their work is protected by copyright laws. But this assumes a number of presuppositions.

1) That a potential ...

keep reading this post...

I was interviewed on 9/23 for the Helping Friends Career Network on how to use social media as a recruiter, and it was released last week. Within an hour, I got a question on LinkedIn about sourcing as a discipline in the healthcare industry. I've been pondering my particular niche beyond the "understood" function of building a candidate pipeline. A lot of organizations don't want to spend spend valuable dollars right now on headcount to build a pipeline when they are inundated with candidates.

But a sourcer is more than just someone that mines databases and forges ...

keep reading this post...

I've been noticing an unfortunate trend the last year or so. As the role of OFCCP becomes more prevalent in recruiting efforts in the US, and the number of candidates is increasing due to the economy, resume quality has been declining. There are a few reasons for this. Many older candidates are using techniques they haven't had to update since the 80's or 90's. There are so many conflicting "expert" resources available on the web that don't all reflect accurate resume and ATS searching trends that it is no wonder new and experienced candidates are ...

keep reading this post...

One of my professional colleagues posted a question about earning trust over on LinkedIn. It got me to thinking about a conversation I had yesterday with the CEO of a niche recruiting board. He was running through the half-hour sales spiel on the service. And the more he talked, the more of my trust he lost.

He made the sweeping statement that "job postings are the most valuable source of candidates for any organization." Um, not true. When I asked him about the candidate resume database, he dismissed it as being rather unimportant. (He obviously failed to note that my ...

keep reading this post...

The last day or so I've been engaging in and following a LinkedIn discussion started by a third party recruiter about the frustrations he has with getting candidates in front of hiring managers, that there seems to be even more "interference" from the corporate recruiter or HR agents at potential clients.

The discussion generated lively comments from other contingency as well as corporate recruiters, and most of what I would say was already stated in one form or another. *Until* one of the other contingency recruiters asserted that "most" corporate recruiters have no understanding of the agency/retained search ...

keep reading this post...

You know, I was talking to a friend of mine that is a Senior Manager/Director-level IT professional who was recently laid off. He was moaning about poorly written job descriptions, and what he was telling me really bothered me. A lot.

There was the "CIO" position calling for a high school diploma and 2-3 years of experience. He actually emailed the company and found out it was a startup with fewer than six employees. They were really looking for a network admin and thought a flashy title would attract someone entrepreneurial. OK, this is obviously an amateurish company that ...

keep reading this post...

In this economy, most recruiters seem to be overwhelmed with incoming resumes. Unfortunately, when you have almost 700 applications for one job, most of them unqualified (over or under, take your pick), it means that recruiters are left with the standard keyword search.

I recently joined a local Job Seekers' Networking event, and I was explaining the importance and mechanics of keyword searching to the job seekers. The logical question that came up was "how do recruiters construct their search strings?"

The answer is not simple. As I told them, an experienced recruiter will use keywords from the job description ...

keep reading this post...

I read a compelling post over on LinkedIn earlier this week. It was a well crafted argument, supported by valid facts and figures about the current economic crisis, and why in this economic climate sourcing for the passive candidate is *a mistake*. You heard me.

After reading the LI post I started mulling it over and based on the outlook in the posting, I happen to agree with Mr. Caro. I will say, however, that I am vastly disappointed to find that his well crafted argument was just a long drawn out sales pitch for his company. I understand that ...

keep reading this post...

keep reading this post...

Lately I've been seeing an *awful* lot of compensation openings (Director of, analyst, specialist, etc.) coming across the wires around the country. With the recent economic fallout I think a lot of executives aren't going to be happy with comp restructuring in the next 12 months. Not only that, but I wonder if compensation model numbers in general are going to fall? How many companies will have wage freezes on? Interestingly, these openings haven't been in the financial field. Manufacturing, health/bio, some technology.

Let's be honest, it isn't exactly the *best* time to be ...

keep reading this post...

I've said it before and I'll say it again. We, as an industry, need to guard our employment brand, especially in how we treat our candidates. Today's candidates may be tomorrow's business partners.

I recently had phone conversations with: a staffing lead; a staffing manager; an HR Manager; and a VP of HR for a company looking to establish an office in Seattle in response to being added to the Microsoft Vendor Umbrella. The last bit of my conversation with the VP was that  I could expect to receive communication for a live meeting in the ...

keep reading this post...

keep reading this post...

keep reading this post...

Video resumes seem to be a "hot" topic in recruiting these days. Recruiters and, yes, employment attorneys are polarized on both sides of this very controversial fence. I received an email from a journalist I have worked with in the past on my opinion on video resumes and video conferencing for interviews, and how a candidate can best prepare for both/either of those.

The detractors have a couple of basic rallying cries regarding video resumes:
-It is too likely to open my company up to discrimmination claims.
-Viewing videos takes too long in comparison to reading a resume.

On ...

keep reading this post...

We all strive to go after the "passive" candidate. That person, who is happily and productively employed already, isn't interested in leaving his/her current employer. The rationale is that the passive candidate is obviously a valuable asset where they are. The more effort it takes us to convince them to consider and pursue *our* opportunity, the better and more motivated they will be to work as hard and loyally for us as they did for the company we lured them from.

 I would put to you that in this troubled economy, the passive candidate may not be the ...

keep reading this post...

How, you may ask, am I going to tie my collegiate Greek experience with recruiting? Well, my friend, with two small words: "rush party".

I'm involved in planning a recruiting event with one of my teams, and we are discussing the format that has worked well in the recent past. As the other event planners are going over the event, I'm struck by the realization: Oh, my, gosh, it's a  RUSH PARTY.

Now, for those of you that lacked the Greek experience or scoff at it and considered yourself a "Gamma Delta Iota" (otherwise known as "Go- ...

keep reading this post...

Most corporate recruiters (and some agencies, I'm sure) get bombarded with "new", "innovative", "money-saving" recruiting products and services. I've looked at a few lately, and seen some innovations so I'm going to examine a few of them.

I recently tried BountyJobs.
https://www.bountyjobs.com/

Basically, it is an online recruiting marketplace connecting corporate recruiters with agencies/independent recruiters. The nice thing about it is that it allows corporate recruiters to interact with agencies to fill positions without having to put a contract in place, and to set the direct placement % you are willing to pay. It ...

keep reading this post...

I've been pondering the myriad industry pieces of knowledge needed in a recruiter. Account management, marketing, sales, industry analyst, legal, human resources. Our profession truly does touch on many aspects of any given business model.

In the last five years or so, I have seen a proliferation of recruiting and HR titles, some of which seem redundant to me, and some which are way too broad. So I posed a couple of questions on LinkedIn Q & A just to see what people had to say, and the responses were very interesting. The first was generically about "titles". Let's ...

keep reading this post...

How do you, as a recruiter, define "thinking outside the box" in the recruiting realm? In my recent rounds of interviews, most of the questions were pretty stock and I could answer many of them "in my sleep", as it were.

Tell me about your most difficult hire. Tell me about the worst hiring manager you have had; why was s/he the worst and what did you do about it? Whiteboard diagram for me: how you would source for xyz position; the recruiting lifecycle; a search string for abc position. What ATS have you used? Tell me about a ...

keep reading this post...