It was two years ago yesterday that I wrote my first blog post.  I thought I was a darn good blogger until about 6 months into it one of my respected peers said “hey, it sounds like you are finally finding your blogging voice!  Congrats!”  I know it was a compliment but I was offended because I didn’t know I had sounded so lost before that :p

Anyway, this week I’ll share some special stuff with you, like I did for last year’s anniversary.  Stay tuned for that.

Today I wanted to share information on something called Sourcing, which is something that recruiters rely on.

If you are a job seeker, check out the description below - you should know what techniques and tactics recruiters are taught so that you can optimize your chance of being found.

If you are a recruiter, fork over the $149.97 to attend this session by the master of sourcing, Shally no-last-name-required.  Shally (okay, it’s Shally Steckerl) is one of the most respected people in the recruiting space, and probably has some kind of super-human abilities.  He is an expert at searching… that is, finding talent.  Whether it’s through LinkedIn or Google, or however he does it, Shally finds hidden talent.  This is a must-not-miss opportunity.

If you are a career professional who works with job seekers (job search coach, resume writer, career counselor, etc.), consider taking the course so you can learn how to better position your clients.

There you go - a two-fer blog post… first, happy birthday to us (yeah!) and second a recruiting event you shan’t miss!

I have really been out of the loop as I try and recover from my trip last week. The good news is, there was a lot of good that came out of that trip. That not-so-good-news is I have a lot of follow-up that I’m doing, which is taking a lot more time than I thought it would.

Many of you have asked about the branding contest deadline… I’m extending it to Monday, March 3rd. We’ll comment on and vote from there, and I still plan on announcing the results on March 10th.

Now, with that out of the way…

Want to hear what recruiters think about job seekers? The Recruiting Animal went off for about 5 minutes - no holds barred. Just be forewarned, he is irreverent. But if you want to know what recruiters think about YOU, and what YOU DO, you really need to take a few minutes to listen to him rant. Listen here, for the first 6 or 7 minutes, as he “delivers a message to all you job hunters out there, to give you a little hope!”

Are you dumb or stupid? Go listen to find out.

I love the Animal. And the fact that he’s laying it all out like this is great, because some people really need to hear it.

Listen here. If you have time, stay for the rest of the show, where he interviews Robert Merrill (of UtahTechJobs.com).

More on the branding contest tomorrow! You can read the first five posts here (Introduction, Q&A, Brand Issues, Education Factor and Tag Lines), and if you want to participate, submit your entries here!

You can see Part I here. Next week I’m going to meet Heather Gardner in person. I’m really excited - I’ve gotten to know her on the MLPF Group and have found her to be genuine and helpful. All of her responses in this interview sound different than most recruiters that I communicate with, but I can say, she is the real deal. Enjoy this the second half of our interview!

We are told to network into our next job. How can I network with you? I mean, you are super busy… is that just going to offend you, or is there a way that I can actually have a healthy recruiter/candidate relationship?

Yes, let’s network together into your next position!

Yes, I am super busy, but never too busy to communicate with you, the candidate. If I do my job, I will set up expectations with you. Since the positions I recruit for change continuously, I may not be the best resource for every candidate all the time. For example, I don’t recruit for Bio-tech positions. I may refer the Bio-tech engineer to a more appropriate career search recruiter. There is generally one recruiter in our employ that I can refer a candidate to if I’m not the best resource.

As a professional recruiter, I am always open to candidates sending me emails or calling me. It doesn’t mean I will have your “perfect” job each time we chat, but it is nice to hear about changes in your job status, receive a revised resume, or discuss an interview you just went on. Sometimes you may want to call for career advice or share with me a few target companies you’d like to work for in the future that I didn’t already know about. Keeping this professional line of communication is important.

As I mentioned earlier, it’s always nice to stay in touch throughout your career. I had a candidate recently contact me after 8+ years. She saw me on LinkedIn and wanted to reconnect. This amazing sales professional was working at the same company I had originally placed her at and doing quite well. Excellent match 8+ years ago!

How many communications (e-mails, phone calls, voice mails, etc.) do you deal with on a daily basis?

How many is endless? Sometimes I am surprised at the sheer volume of communication I deal with on a daily basis.

To be quite honest with you, it’s like Christmas to me every time I log in to my email or listen to my voicemail! I am not kidding you… all those emails and voicemails are like getting a ton of wonderful gifts. I never know what to expect. I make so many recruiting calls and when the responses start coming back in, it’s always surprising to me what the results turn into. Christmas every time! I love it!

As a recruiter, I am constantly working, even during my off hours. When I attend a birthday party, BBQ or other social event, I am always networking. I never know when I will meet the candidate of a lifetime or a contact at a target company. Whether the communication is face to face, telephone or email – it’s 24/7. I like to think of it as the “recruiter lifestyle.”

What is your opinion about the resume … what makes a good one? What is a common mistake that turns you off?

The resume is really just the first impression. It’s to get you the interview.

I keep an open mind when it comes to resumes. I will learn more about you and what it is you are looking for in your next position by speaking with you directly, not by your resume. Some of the worst resumes came to produce the best candidates. I use it as merely a “working document.”

If I’m doing my job well as a recruiter, I will pre-screen you so well that I can introduce you more effectively to the hiring manager than your resume ever will.

A good resume is generally one that is written specific to the open position. If you aren’t working with a recruiter, it’s best to tailor the resume to your background that matches the job description – NOT word verbatim. It’s so difficult to list every task or accomplishment in your resume without turning it into a novel, but making sure to select things you know are important to the hiring manger is always a good choice.

The most common mistake that people make on their resume is not using spell check. I have received countless resumes that have incorrectly spelled words or incomplete punctuation. Again, it’s such a simple fix, most people just don’t think to print and proof their resume before sending it off.

Do you ever Google candidates, or look at their blogs, or social profiles?

I have never done a Google search on a specific candidate before, but good idea! I have looked at LinkedIn profiles. It would be a great way to get to know your candidates prior to an introduction call and give you a better snap shot of their professional background before talking.

I am still trying to better understand how social networking can work for me as a recruiter. Let’s talk a year from now when I figure all this new social networking technology and read your new book “I’m on Facebook — Now What???”

My experience with the local branch of an international recruiting firm was lame. It continues to be lame, two years later! Getting these types of responses from Heather, who works at Volt Workforce Solutions is really cool - instead of forcing them to focus on numbers, she is given the latitude to focus on people. And I like that

Note - we are having a branding contest. And it’s exciting! You can read the first five posts here (Introduction, Q&A, Brand Issues, Education Factor and Tag Lines), and if you want to participate, submit your entries here!

I met Heather Gardner online, at the MyLinkedInPowerForum Yahoo! Group. We picked up a discussion outside of MLPF and have begun networking and nurturing a professional relationship. I’ll warn you now, Heather is different. She is not the typical headhunter that you hear about (the one that everyone complains about). I’m not sure how many recruiters would respond the way she has, but this is clearly an example of the type of recruiter you want in your corner.

What bugs you about candidates?

As a professional recruiter, I am nothing without my candidates. Candidates NEVER bug me. I would not be successful in my job without good solid candidates.

What do you wish candidates knew about your job?

Recently I’ve had a few candidates say to me “just send my resume over and see what happens.” I am not in the business of resume pushing. My primary focus is to develop a professional relationship with my candidate so that I know more about their career ambitions, job requirements and what will motivate then in their next position.

The flip side of this is making sure that I send the “perfect’” candidate to my client for their open position, not just a resume. Sometimes candidates may not realize that it’s my job to keep in contact with them over the life of their career. Even if I was not the recruiter to place them at their current company. Just because their job search is over for now, doesn’t mean my job as their recruiter is. I always want to be able to contact you with a great career opportunity in the future regardless of where you are. Building long term professional relationships is my focus.

What do you wish candidates understood better about the job search process?

Searching for that “perfect” job can be time consuming. An active job search is a full time job in itself! Depending on the candidate’s working status, it can be a frustrating experience for them. It’s far too easy to get discouraged and impatient at times.

For the unemployed job seeker it can be an anxious process of finding that needed job. Working with a full service staffing company actually expands a candidate’s search efforts, without having to do much more than they are already doing in their job search process, giving their resume more visibility. With locations throughout the US. I can refer such candidates to a local branch to better assist with ready opportunities while they continue to search for the right long term position. I have had several candidates start on a contract assignment through a branch for one of our clients and then end up getting hired on by the company. It’s a win for everyone!

I also want to encourage job seekers to have patience with the job search process. There are so many new job search tools. JibberJobber is one of the latest tools out there that can really help out the active job seeker.

I understand your client is the company that has a position open. Can you help me, as a candidate, understand where I fit in?

As the candidate you are also my client. Just as I would qualify the needs of the company with the open position, I need to qualify you as the candidate. I need to know what you are looking for in your next position and see if it’s in line with what the hiring manager is looking for. I’m like a professional match maker.

Often times, you as my former candidate, become the hiring manager with an open position for me to fill. I can’t tell you how many times it cycles like that. As long as I’ve done my job well as a recruiter, you will call me first with your open headcount needs.

I’ve heard tons of horror stories about recruiters who forget their customer service manners and mistreat the candidate. That’s a foolish, short sighted approach. I would not be nearly as successful if I didn’t treat my candidates as clients and provide you with the same level of good customer service.

Different, right? Part II is tomorrow… stay tuned!

I agreed to host a blog carnival today but I did a really bad job promoting it! So, hopefully the following bloggers are cool with me pulling in some of my favorite links. I’m only going to do five because my last carnival had way too much reading, plus I have a business to run and a book to sell! Here’s the first carnival and today, at JibberJobber, is the second carnival! These are some of my favorite posts…

John Reinke is one of my favorite off-topic bloggers - he is smart and unafraid to say what he thinks. His post about the recruiter from Hell makes me laugh, my worst recruiter was never that bad, but I’m sure there are punks out there with complete and utter disrespect for the anxious, hungry job seeker! Read about his experience here. (John, by the way, is the only person that reacted to my quiet call for posts for this carnival - thanks John!!)

Carl Chapman wrote So how did you think I got to be a recruiter? last November, and explains his very interesting story. I love this post because it helps remind that, for all the no-call-backs, no-e-mails, and all that other stuff we endure when we are desperately looking for help in a job search, recruiters are human too. They aren’t our silver bullets, and they aren’t our whipping boys (and girls)… and sure there are things that are broken and that suck about the process, but they are human. And they deserve our respect.

Harry Joiner got kicked off of Facebook, probably because he’s a no-good, degrade-the-quality-of-our-network recruiter. He did nothing wrong, really. Well, he only did what Facebook designed into the system, which was upload his Gmail address book and invite his contacts. Over 4,000 contacts. FB got ticked and kicked him out, for using the tools they made. Harry wasn’t aware he was doing something wrong. But they kicked him out. Here’s the kicker. Harry is one of the more popular recruiters that I know. He has a super-strong network, and is connected to a lot of bloggers (and non-bloggers). He got slapped in the face and wondered what the heck went wrong - so he went to his network. Bottom line: Keith Ferrazzi says that recruiters are power connectors. Two lessons here: 1. don’t offend a power connector. 2. Try and network (and build a relationship with) a power connector! If you can help a recruiter NOW, when you don’t need it, imagine how they will help YOU when you do need it!

So now we know recruiters are human, and they are connected, and they can be absolutely rude. I’ll tell you what, when you are looking for a recruiter to develop a relationship with, the one that you don’t turn requests down from, you want to find a smart one. This will vary depending on what your profession/industry is, but let me give you an excellent example of a recruiter who is very smart in his space: Rob Merrill. How do I know? His blog drips of IT geekness. It may be a turnoff for the non-techie but guess what, Rob is developing relationships with techies. And when they can come see that he knows something about design (like calling LinkedIn out on bad design) or marketing and personal development (like getting excited that Guy Kawasaki is coming to Utah, and tickets are only $10!!!), or something as techie and abstract as the hCard format, you know he is going to be seen not as the clueless tech recruiters, but as a guy who knows his stuff. All recruiters can blog if they can do it like Rob does.

Dave Lefkow further proves that recruiters are human. How human? So human that there is turnover in recruiting. He was a recruiter until last month when he invented Bacon Salt (you gotta read about it here), and sales took off to the point where he decided to move on and, well, push fake bacon! Dave, best wishes to you as you try out this new venture! If nothing else it’s a great experience! For the rest of us, it’s a good reminder that aside from pushing papers around, calling people to only hear “NO!” and doing all that other recruiter stuff, they have a life, with dreams and ambitions, just like we do!

Recruiters are ultra-clever, and always on the lookout for new tools. Jim Stroud shows us non-recruiters what one of the common problems are, and how they are handled (this post is about Sullr, something useful for you when you don’t recognize a caller ID number). Yep, recruiters have problems and challenges and are astutely looking for solutions. Just like the rest of us.

Okay, so this is sappier than I meant it to be - I wanted stories (good or bad) or your recruiter experiences but since I didn’t advertise you are stuck with links to things that show that recruiters are human, too

Pursuing a home based business opportunity is not worth the effort if you see imminent loans or mortgages right in the beginning. Granted, that personal loans are oft involved during startup, but in limits only. One should first have a look at the free insurance quotes before going ahead with the deal. Prevention is always better then looking for an effective debt management solution.

Today is the very last day of the lifetime for $99 special offer. If you haven’t taken advantage yet I suggest you login and upgrade now - you’ll get lifetime premium features for just the price of 10 months. After midnight tonight the offer goes away

… and, a quick welcome to CareerJournal.com readers!

My final post during this one-week crazy special offer is to explain a bit more who could/should use JibberJobber. So here we go…

The working professional. Statistically speaking you will be looking for a new job in the next 3-5 years. And your success may have a lot to do with the network you nurture now. Use JibberJobber as a relationship management tool to know whatyour network looks like (breadth/depth) and work on those relationships. While you are at it start listing the companies that you might be interested in working for… these could be companies you read about, interact with, sell to, etc.

The business owner. What role do relationships have in your business? If it’s anything like my business, it’s a huge role! Your business is your career, and JibberJobber will help you take care of important relationships to help your business.

The student. Wondering what you are going to do once you finish school is scary (been there, twice!). Students should walk out of school with at least 200 network connections - here’s a post I wrote on CollegeRecruiter about WHO you should add to your network.

The journalist. As a journalist you have “sources.” Use JibberJobber to list your sources, log communications with them, schedule action items (”reach out to Jason to ask him about…”). Even if your company has a CRM tool for you to use, you should have your own contact management system to manage your personal contacts (you will transition too, won’t you?).

The freelancer. AKA consultant. JibberJobber allows you to manage relationships with customers, prospects, etc. Manage information on current and prospective customers. Use the Interview Prep area to develop your own “me in 30 seconds” statements to help people understand what you do, and what you can do for them. Use the Expense Tracker as a simple tool to keep track of revenues and expenses.

The power connector. Keith Ferrazzi calls you out - headhunters, realtors, etc. Perhaps you don’t even know your value as a networking power connector. How are you nurturing your relationships? Are you ranking the strength of relationships? Are you logging important communications and keeping track of opportunities to reconnect (ie. birthdays)?

The recruiter. I have an entire post on JibberJobber for recruiters here…

The job coach. Every one of your clients should use JibberJobber in their job search and then for relationship management. You should use it and know how it works, so you can help them optimize it. But you need to be a “coach” in the system so that you can interface with your client in a richer way.

The blogger. One of my little marketing secrets this year has to do with my relationships with other bloggers (which probably isn’t much of a secret). I use JibberJobber to keep track of who the bloggers are, where they blog, what communications I have with them, when I need to reach out to them again, etc. If you want to grow your blog you need to have a strategic plan in place and JibberJobber was a big part of the execution of my plan.

The grandma. Grandmas do things like send out Christmas cards, easter packages, birthday presents and cool stuff like that. Hip grandmas have some cool tool (like JibberJobber) to help keep dates, addresses, etc. all organized ;).

The event planner. Coordinating an event means knowing who does what, where and when. Using JibberJobber you can categorize groups of people (vendors, exhibitors, participants, people on your team, guest speakers, etc.) and manage the tasks and communication around your event. And use the “share contact” feature to send important contact information to people on your team.

The Job Seeker. Of course. If you are a job seeker and don’t think you need it then I’m guessing that your job search is either just beginning or not that complex yet. Is it worth it to switch from your Excel spreadsheet to JibberJobber? Absolutely, for one simple reason: once you land your job you should have all of your job search information at your fingertips - Excel, the sticky notes, the spiral notebook … it will all look like chicken scratch after a few months (if you are anything like me!). JibberJobber will be used even during you land your dream job!

There’s more… I’m sure you get the idea

Don’t forget - today is the last day of the $99 for life upgrade! Just login to your account (or get a free account here) and then click on the upgrade link at the top of the page!

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This promotion has been sponsored by Career Solvers, providing career coaching and resume services. For a free resume assessment please contact Career Solvers today!

There are 5 days left before the lifetime upgrade for $99 expires. Login to take advantage of it today!

Want to read the latest testimonial on this? Want in on a “little secret?” Carl Chapman is reading our minds and calls this the “Ultra Platinum Lifetime Upgrade” - and is the latest to take advantage of this screaming deal…

Let me caveat this post with this: I have never been a recruiter. I don’t think I ever will be a recruiter. Most of what I’m saying below is based on my assumptions of what you do, could do or should do. Now, having said that, here’s why I think that every recruiter needs JibberJobber personally and as a tool in your trade.

When I was looking for a job I had contacted 29 recruiters. And I’m sure I was a pest. My skills were too general, and I didn’t find a recruiter that had any job opportunities that matched my skill level. I listed each recruiter in my cool spreadsheet and tried to keep tabs about once every two weeks. There was either no response or “I don’t have anything yet - check back later.” It was very discouraging and I felt that all of the recruiters were letting me down.

I really didn’t understand how you work, what your role was, and what my role was. And no one really explained it to me (seriously, a ten-minute talk on “how things work” would have been so helpful - perhaps at your company you can call it “the talk” and clue the candidates in).

This is where JibberJobber comes in. When you explain to me that you have opportunities, and you are trying to find the right candidate for current opportunities, I begin to undersand that I have a lot of work to do also. I need to understand that you aren’t going to list my target companies for me, and that you aren’t going to manage my network for me, and that you can’t sit with me for 3 hours and put together my elevator pitch and answer all of myinterview questions for me. I realize that some of you do this with some of your candidates but really, the ultimate burden of getting a job falls on me - and you need to let me know this (because I assumed you were going to be my silver bullet).

Tell me to sign up for JibberJobber - and manage all of this on my own. I will appreciate the fact that you gave me something of value - a tool that I didn’t know about before. I can get rid of my spiral notebook, my dozens of 3×5 cards, the sticky notes, my convoluted Excel spreadsheet. You may not have an opportunity for me but at least now I understand what your role is, and what my role is. And for that I’ll be forever grateful.

So please, Mr. or Ms. Recruiter, do me a favor and tell me about the tools and processes. Teach me. Shoot, if you want a cheat sheet go to Harry Joiner’s MarketingHeadhunter.com site and steal his stuff (you’ll have to send him an e-mail to get the 28 tips - but isn’t it cool that he’s educating his candidates?). If you want another idea on how to add value and educate me go check out Carl Chapman’s blog. He is an executive recruiter that speaks to me - here is a wrap-up of his 10 ways to make rectuiters love you series (here it is on PDF).

Educate me. Give me something of value. And I’ll be indebted to you.

Now, on a personal level. Did you know that Keith Ferrazzi (the Never Eat Alone guy) calls you a power connector? “Headhunter” is one of the few professions that he names as power connector. That means that you know a lot of people, and are very well connected. He says that the rest of us need to develop relationships with you.

But what happens to all of your connections when you transition? Because you aren’t immune to the turnover cycles, bad bosses, changes in economy, etc. All the stuff that plagues us can bite you too. So what happens to all of those connections you’ve been developing?

Well, the truth is, you still own the relationships. Maybe not the business relationships - but you own the personal relationships. Is all of the important data on each of your personal relationships sitting in your employers ATS (that’s Application Tracking System for us non-recruiters)? When you leave (on happy or not-happy terms) do you think they are going to let you download your relationship information to take with you? Not likely.

I am a firm believer in tracking your personal relationships. This is your career - you need to treat it seriously. I’m not suggesting that you steal employer data. Or that you breach confidentiality or trust. But if you have a personal relationship with someone then you should manage that on a personal level.

In my humble opinion you should have your own personal ATS. Let’s just call it JibberJobber. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t sign up for JibberJobber and use it to manage your personal career information.

So there you go - that’s why I think every recruiter needs JibberJobber:

1. To recommend it to your candidates, and
2. To use personally.

Have I crossed a line? Do you agree or disagree?

Yesterday there were 14 (and counting) excellent comments on my post about what I wish recruiters knew. Most of them were from recruiters and all of them were thoughtful. Its obviously a sore spot for lots of folks, which seems to stem from misunderstandings about the roles. I’ll follow-up on various points in different posts but I wanted to highlight one specific issue - having a recruiter follow-up.

My frustration was that I would get no e-mail reply or returned phone call from most of the 30 recruiters that I had initiated a relationship with. It was so frustrating and not what I expected from people who I thought were in the people business. It didn’t help that in my last job I was high enough up that I always got replies from everyone… and now I was less than a nobody. Poor more salt in my wound, please!

What do the recruiters have to say about the follow-up? Here are 4 quotes from the comments yesterday:

Carl Chapman, Executive Restaurant Recruiter: The fact is that they do have a follow-up system. You see there are three piles - Can use right away, maybe later, and Can’t Help. The can’t help pile is the circular file…

Harry Joiner, the Marketing Headhunter: I liken being a busy recruiter to being a triage nurse in an emergency room: It’s tough to be the one to decide who gets treated and who dies in the waiting room, but that’s my job.

Rob Merrill, Utah Tech Recruiter: The hard thing my candidates don’t realize sometime, is that we receive about 200-300 emails a day from candidates.

Lucas Arnold, People Driven Solutions: “I think i am looking at it from the wrong way from the jobseeker…” (Jason comment: I hope that recruiters never stop looking at it from the jobseeker perspective. I’m not sure what expert recruiter and Big Biller Bill Vick has to say about this, as his emphasis is teaching recruiters to be more successful than they can imagine, but I hope that there is some emphasis on developing long-term relationships with candidates.)

Harry’s analogy (the triage nurse) helps me get it best. But it sure sucks when you are the one that gets neglected. So, here’s an excellent example of follow-up that I saw from Harry after I e-mailed him. Its an auto-responder. Note the content of this e-mail is much more than just “I’ll get back to you when I can”… check this out (I’m only linking out to one link, because it is awesome):

Thanks for your email. I will respond to it shortly.

Please Double-Click here to Download my vCard:
http://getvcard.com/dogetvcard.asp?UID=n5u3c6R

… then forward this email to a talented colleague.

Kind regards,
Harry Joiner
www.MarketingHeadhunter.com
As seen in the WSJ’s “Career Journal Online”

NEW for Candidates: www.28-Job-Search-Tips.com

28 Job Search Tips? He is already doing what I wrote yesterday… if I wanted to work with Harry (I’m not a marketer) then I could read his blog and see his tips… awesome! He is sharing relevent tools, techniques and information to help me understand “where we go from here.” Kudos Harry, for having this in place already! And its in an auto-responder, so everyone that e-mails him gets it!

Recently I had the opportunity to be interviewed for another podcast, but this one was a twist as it was 100% for recruiters. I had a few questions sent to me before the interview but of course we didn’t get to everything… so I wanted to have some follow-up thoughts here even though the podcast isn’t live yet Remember, these answers are for recruiters, and I was representing “the job seeker”… so these aren’t typical answers that I’ve give to Joe Job Seeker.

Why did I start JibberJobber?

You have to realize that when I got laid off I went into high gear on my job search. I worked about ten hours a day, six days a week for at least two months straight. During this time I developed “relationships” with about 30 recruiters, and I quickly learned that most recruiters had no reason to follow up with me. I used my pre-JibberJobber spreadsheet to keep track of who my recruiters where, log any activity with them, and set up action item dates.

This system (which would soon become JibberJobber) was very useful to keep track of where I was at with each recruiter and ensure that (1) I kept in touch with them regularly to see what opportunities might have come up recently, and (2) stayed fresh in their mind so that hopefully they’d think of me first when something came up. There’s now way to keep track of these 30 very active relationships without some kind of system like JibberJobber.

Did I work a lot with recruiters, and how did I find “the process?”

Kind of! I say I had 30 recruiters but the truth is it was a lot of Jason sending out e-mails and leaving voice mails… and not getting much in return. It was common that I wouldn’t get a return e-mail or phone call, to the point that I wondered if they were full-time, or on an extended vacation, or just didn’t work their business that hard. Granted, I didn’t understand the role of the recruiter, and my role. I had been accustomed to the basic courtesy of getting a reply back on my e-mails - even if it was one or two words - so to switch to no replies at all was really weird.

What have I heard from candidates (that’s recruiter-speak for “job seeker”) about working with recruiters?

Most candidates that I talk with are really excited excited to establish a relationship with a recruiter, and I think they usually see this recruiter as their savior that will lead them out of unemployment into a bigger and better job than they left. Later I hear about the regular frustrations of recruiters not getting back to the candidate (there is a difference in sense of urgency for sure) and bad advice (I heard of an executive recruiter that advised a candidate to get a low-paying step-job while she searched for a higher-level position (the candidate was furious)).

My favorite advice (not because I agree with it, I really don’t, but it was funny) was from a senior executive that said “spend two days shooting your resume to as many recruiters as you can and then don’t even look back.” So basically he’s say get your name out, see who bites, and then spend your time in more productive areas of a job search!

What can recruiters do to improve the process?

I can tell that there will be other blog posts spinning off of this one, so I’ll keep these short. I’d really like to get some dialogue here from recruiters and candidates… and we’ll go from there. Here are some of my ideas:

• Please have some kind of system for follow-up. I know you are busy but so is everyone else. At least let me know that you got my resume (or whatever) and if something comes up you will call me - at the very least. (candidates, realize that some recruiters get over 100 new contacts a day, and following up to 500 every week could be… impossible?)
• Please tell me what your role is, and what my role is! The best feedback I got was: “Jason, you’ll find a job for yourself quicker than I’ll find a job for you.” This made me rethink our relationship, and start to reevaluate my strategy. If you are not my silver bullet, please don’t lead me to believe that you are.
• Please inform me that I am not your client. I need to understand this so that I can understand your job, what makes you tick, and perhaps how to work with you in a way that you appreciate me more (like, opening my network to you).
• Please tell me what I should be doing aside from talking to you. Perhaps an article (or a series of articles) on your website that I can learn about this job search process, and avoid pitfalls. This can include things such as how to use job boards, how to use LinkedIn, how to use JibberJobber, how to format e-mails when approaching a potential hiring manager, recommended books, networking events I should attend, etc. I know this sounds like a lot but I bet you can put together short, valuable primers in less than 30 minutes (for each one).
• We both know that I’m talking with other recruiters… let me know how you feel about that. If you think I should be then tell me to… don’t try and hoard me as “yours.”
• Please treat me as a valuable long-term relationship. You never know if I’m going to be in a position to bring you in, or open my network to you later. If you are serious about being a recruiter, why do you want to show me how bad you treat me as a job seeker?

Now, this is not a bash on recruiters post - I can name some recruiters that I had an excellent experience with, or those that I have a ton of respect for. This post is direct response to a recruiter asking me what I think about the process and how to improve it, from my perspective.

Why don’t you tell me what YOU think about the recruiter/candidate experience?

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Recruiters know who Jim is, he has been a blogger and podcaster for quite a while and has a great show called “The Recruiter’s Lounge” … I had the honor of being a guest on his show last week and he posted the podcast early this morning. It was the first interview I’ve done with 2 interviewers at the same time (Jim Stroud and Karen Mattonen) I encourage you to listen to it if you have been curious about JibberJobber - especially from a recruiter’s perspective.

I really encourage you to listen to it if you want to hear Jim’s first on-air prophesy (hint: it has to do with JibberJobber’s future).

I’ll have to say that we chatted before and after the interview and it was an exciting, high-energy discussion. Many thanks to Jim and Karen for the time they spent with me, the probing questions, and the great discussion after the interview!

Click here to listen!

Here are the highlights:

0:38 My blog was nominated for an award by Recruiting.com! (Yay!)
0:50 Pleeezzz vote for me!
1:44 And now a word from our sponsor - Online Recruitment Magazine
2:30 I just love the way it sounds!
3:55 As soon as heard the name, he too fell in love
4:08 So why do this in the first place?
6:31 Name the bells and whistles
8:20 From jobseeker to entrepreneur in one fell swoop
10:26 JibberJobber is for the people, for a lifetime
12:55 Just getting in the game and he already has bragging rights
15:35 In the future, a yacht in the carribean
16:33 JibberJobber goes beyond jobsearching and into networking
17:10 JibberJobber would be a GREAT complement to LinkedIn (see breaking news about LinkedIn Founder)
19:15 Jim Stroud makes his first (on-air) business prophecy
20:36 Karen chimes in with a YouTube comparison
21:15 Shocking stats don’t surprise Karen at all.
22:45 Tune in next year to hear how accurate Jim was today