Changes since 1991, or its 2013!

Since writing “How to Work with a Recruiter – Part 1 on 11/7/2011, things have changed! The principles elaborated on in all three parts, 1, 2, 3 are still the basic and maybe they should be referred to as Recruiter / Candidate courses 101. Like a line in song written and recorded by Kris Kristofferson “he’s a walk ‘in contradiction, partly truth partly fiction”, I don’t like change but then I will move to “Office 365” from “Office 2010”, from IE8 to Firefox, Chrome, when my daily computer involvement depends on “sameness”. Maybe I should say “saneness”. In a short 23 months my understanding of the market has changed. This after I built an understanding on more than 30 years of industry experience. Early in my career the emphasis was on “doing the numbers”. If you talked with enough Applicants, called enough Employers you would arrange interviews. If you arranged enough interviews, you would make placements (get people hired, collect a fee, make a commission). Later I began to understand the importance of relationships on both sides of the desk, Candidates and Clients. I guess one could say, I became more of a Professional and less of a door to door salesperson. Nothing wrong with the latter, there’s a need for both. Position descriptions used by corporations, employers, recruiters no longer work. We have become a world of connections, social media driven, networked to the brink of overload. Ours is a “click it and scroll” or “touch it and slide it” world. Employers report that they cannot find the type of talent they need in some of the more “hands-on” type of vacancies, yet they still use Job Boards, media advertisement with the same concept of “If you advertise it, they will come”. Likewise they are marketing their brand, which includes employment opportunities on the web in places like Facebook, LinkedIn, etc., a “Post n Pray” approach. It seems to me that being as specific as possible in describing requirements in Position postings is a smarter way to go. After all a Position posting is an electronic sales brochure. Potential Candidates spend hours searching for the “Ideal Position”. Everyone wants to take “what they know” and use this knowledge as a spring board to a better situation. Is this what qualifies you for the opening that a potential employer may or may not have available. I think not! It will never be just a matter of qualifications or skills. Rather it will always be a matter of motivation. I’m not talking about being motivated to respond to a Position posting or a Job Board listing. That sounds more like the lottery approach to a Position search. Smart employers who post Positions on the web using Job Boards, their own web site, etc. often have their applicant tracking system on auto-responder with automatic messages that tell the applicant nothing. It’s like having your resume caught in a “resume black hole”. In the real world, “Application” overload is a serious drain on the productivity and effectiveness of recruiters. “What’s the answer?” you might ask. Move away from the crowd. Pause to reflect on your career. Where have you been? What have you learned along the way? You have to work at your career goal, plan it, and drive it where you want it to go. It’s not something you outsource to someone or some process. Your career will be what you make it. No more, no less. Playing the game designed by someone else is outsourcing. It’s your ship, be the Captain!