Comments on: the Proactive-Reactive Search

By: JibberJobber Blog » Blog Archive » This recruiter’s input made me do a double-take

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 20:23:47 +0000

[...] In yesterday’s post one of my readers made a comment about whether they should deactivate their Monster profile… since I’m no expert I threw it to the recruiters. I got two great replies, one from Carl Chapman (in two parts – check the comments) and an e-mail from Dave. Here’s his e-mail, it is very very very interesting (I learned a lot from this e-mail)… I bolded what I wanted to and my comments are in red: [...]

By: Jason

Jason — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 15:10:42 +0000

Carl, thanks for the follow-up… I would have been confused by your comment as I am leary of getting into an exclusive relationship, but I got another recruiter to comment (via e-mail) who posted the same idea… again proving I don’t know much about recruiters :p So go check the blog post from today (10/27).

By: Carl Chapman

Carl Chapman — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 14:19:45 +0000

I negelected to mention, that if I were marketing a candidate on an active basis, then I would require that they deactivate their profiles on any job boards for the agreed upon period of time that I was marketing them. Restaurant Recruiter | Restaurant Jobs | Restaurant Recruiters Blog

By: Carl Chapman

Carl Chapman — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 21:52:08 +0000

I don't ever have a problem with someone having a resume on line, active on Monster, a profile on LinkedIn, ZoomInfo or whatever. I just don't want to se them submitting their resume for every single job posting that I make, or sending it to me once a month. THAT is overexposed. Active on Monster is OK with me. Now, if you are active on Monster, and working with OTHER recruiters, that's OK too... just be honest when I ask you about it. If you aren't, you will go onto the black list.... and you don't want to be there. Restaurant Recruiter | Restaurant Jobs | Restaurant Recruiters Blog

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 21:06:15 +0000

Tim, interesting question. My profile is still on Monster for a few reasons: (a) I’m lazy (that’s the biggest reason), (b) I find it interesting that I still get e-mails from the boards (got one from Dice yesterday) and I want to know if they will ever catch onto the JibberJobber thing (like, announce they have built their own version – copycats! you heard it hear first :p) and (c) I like to get calls from recruiters… it gives me something to blog about – I really like to stay “in touch” with the real job seeker and hope to not get too far away from the real issues.

I know some recruiters talk A LOT about using LinkedIn to find candidates… I’d love to hear what some of them have to say also… hopefully someone will chime in.

By: Tim Elliott

Tim Elliott — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 20:59:45 +0000

Some good food for thought here, Jason; thanks.

One thing that had me scratching my head on was your point that you were still searchable on Monster. Since I’m going to a proactive phase in my job search which includes networking with recruiters, I have turned off my online profiles on the job boards thinking recruiters would be more inclined to work with me if I wasn’t overexposed. So my question for you and your recruiter readers is if this is a good move or not. BTW, I’m still online at LinkedIn and my resume is open at emurse, but the other accounts are now in stealth mode.

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 18:28:49 +0000

Kent, your post reminded me of something… when you do get your target companies, LET OTHERS KNOW! It is powerful in a conversation to be able to say “do you know anyone that works in x, y, or z at American Express” or something like that.

Another take on it is, maybe this VP position will be a great role… for 2 or 3 years! You still network, and work towards your target company, while your resume and skillset improves and your network circles expand.

By: Kent Blumberg

Kent Blumberg — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 18:13:21 +0000

I’m with you – be focused in your proactive search, and open to opportunity in the reactive part of your search. And every job seeker needs both elements.

You can’t proactively research and link into 1000 companies per week (at least I couldn’t) so focus helps you make progress on the proactive side. (And a short, focused target list helps your network help you.)

AND, you can’t possibly proactively find all of the organizations that would be great fits for you (unless you are a misfit, in which the list might be pretty short), so you need to be open to opportunity when it knocks. Even here, though, having some focus on what criteria a potential employer must meet will help you decide whether or not to respond to queries.

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 16:31:06 +0000

In Never Eat Alone he notes 7 different types of power connectors, and recruiters were the 2nd… I’m not sure if he has them ordered by power, but its right up there because of the nature of your work.

I’m glad to hear that you can tell what the companies are… I think it is kind of hokey not telling but understand there are confidentiallity issues, especially if the incumbent is about to get the boot

By: Carl Chapman

Carl Chapman — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 15:52:44 +0000

Wow! I’m a power connector… yippee! I am somebody. LOL.

OK, there have been only a few times in my medium lengthed recruiting career when I “couldn’t” tell a prospect who the company was. Usually because an incumbent was being transitioned out. At all other times, once I pre-qual a candidate, they get all the details. My job is hard enough with out wasting people’s time sending them on interviews for companies that they wouldn’t work for.

Keep up the good work Jason. BTW, I still have a guest host spot open.

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