Archive for the ‘Recruiting’ Category

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Online Executive Recruiting: LinkedIn or Job Boards?

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

Executive recruiting  has changed over the last 10 years as more recruiters as well as headhunters and job seekers have latched onto the immediacy of online job boards and business social networks. However, how do executive recruiters and headhunters use LinkedIn and job boards such as Monster and CareerBoard.com to locate the best candidates? Here is what some executive recruiters have to say about using one or the other or both online career resources.

LinkedIn for Recruiters

Jason Buss of The Talent Buzz, says many recruiters are using LinkedIn after they meet with prospective candidates and add them to their network. This method of networking allows recruiters to keep up with job changes, transfers and promotions. As long as recruiters are active on their LinkedIn account, they can keep in touch with these top candidates.

From an eBook (2008) by Bill Vick and Des Walsh, “An effective profile in LinkedIn’s elaborately constructed, highly searchable database system will incorporate the key words for the LinkedIn member’s interests, employment history and industry, even casual or vacation jobs.” LinkedIn works very much like the search engines now, you can search for people, companies, answers and yes, keywords. Incorporate your skills and job titles effectively throughout your profile, and recruiters will be able to find you.

LinkedIn Jobs make an executive recruiter’s job just a little bit easier because in each group there is a job board as well as a general job board. Now all that recruiters need to do is search jobs via the LI search bar or through groups which they belong. Not only are job seekers posting, but companies across the globe. This is an easy way to learn more about the company, their network, connect with them directly and add them to your own network. LinkedIn is much more professional than job boards, and you can connect with people via email and/or phone.

Recruiting from Job Boards

One job board lists the advantages for executive recruiters to use their job posting resources:

  • Unlimited searching, only pay for resumes you download
  • Post jobs for free
  • Build filtering questions to qualify applying job seekers

Job boards are good for posting career fairs or open call for resumes because they are able to reach a plethora of people across the world, but recruiters will be filtering through as many as 1,000 candidate resumes or more. It can be timely.

Most job boards do have a fee for posting and/or downloading resumes, check with each site’s guidelines before using as a recruiting tool.

Specialized college career boards such as University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton MBA program offers recruiters to post positions that are exclusively targeted for Wharton’s top MBA graduates. This is an opportunity to connect with recent graduates to network and find not only their skills but also their fields of interest.

Wherever executive recruiters choose to locate candidates online whether it’s LinkedIn or job boards, it’s important to use a variety of tools and also build trust with all prospective candidates.

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Executive Recruiters vs Headhunters: What’s the Difference?

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

Many people think that executive recruiters and headhunters are the same or think they can use the terms interchangeably. However, the fact is, they are similar but not the same. There are differences between the two, mainly in the areas of employment status, job focus and the methods used in the position. Here are some key differences between executive recruiters and headhunters:

Executive Recruiters: Executive recruiters are usually employed by one company, with their primary role being to hire and fire employees. They generally work in the HR department and in small companies they may take on general HR-related tasks. In larger companies, the executive recruiter’s main job focus will be recruiting.

  • They usually follow normal procedures for filling a position – advertising the open position on the company’s Web site as well as other employment sites and in local newspapers.
  • They have the task of going through employment applications and narrowing them down to a select few candidates.
  • They interview candidates and make the decision of who to hire.
  • They’re usually paid an employee’s salary, rather than commission.

Headhunters: A headhunter is usually a third party recruiter, either freelance or an employment agency that pursues candidates for a company. Some headhunters have the job of finding new talent for sports teams, but in most cases, a headhunter’s main job is to find the best candidates for a company out of the many people who apply for any given position.

  • They rely heavily on having a large network of contacts
  • They operate using a retained search (done by high-end executive search firms in which an upfront fee is paid, usually 1/3 of the employee’s annual salary), delimited/engaged search (upfront fee is paid but will be refunded if the search fails) or contingent search (paid only when the candidate accepts the job).

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More Ways to Hide Executive Recruiter Phone Calls From Your Current Employer

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

We’ve found more choices for disguising recruiters’ phone numbers from your current employer or jealous friends. Read our previous post on Little know ways to Hide Calls about other products/services that can mask phone numbers from executive recruiters.

If you find yourself job searching while still working your current position, obviously you don’t want your employer to know that you’re out looking for something better. For this reason, you aren’t going to want phone calls from executive recruiters or companies coming to your desk or cell phone during work. However, if an unknown number calls you and it has a recognizable area code, you’re most likely going to answer it. Answering a call from an executive recruiter or your possible next employer while at your current job is a recipe for disaster. Here’s how to avoid the situation:

Tossable Digits is a virtual number that you can use as long as you need then just “toss away.” It has features like Do Not Disturb, which allows the user to restrict the times that your calls are forwarded to you. It also has Advanced Voicemail which allows you to listen to messages through your phone, Internet or email. If you get a call during restricted hours, the caller will be asked to leave a voicemail. Also there’s a Call Screening feature that asks the caller to state their name so you can hear who is calling you before you decide to take the call. You can then accept or decline the call. Declined calls go to voicemail without the caller knowing they were declined. Tossable Digits only costs about $7 a month for one phone number, which is a small price to pay if its what saves you from your current employer knowing you’re talking to potential new employers.

There are also similar products to Tossable Digits with varying features. 3jam for instance can route calls to multiple phones or Skype/IM, has voicemail with transcription that lets you read voicemails, lets you block anyone you want and allows you to choose custom messages. It allows your calls and messages to remain yours, has group texting, and allows you to talk to anyone anywhere in the world. Best of all this service is only about $5 a month.

Another great service is call Magic Jack. Features include free International calling, voicemail, music on hold, transcription voicemail sent to you in the form of an email, and you can pick your area code. Magic Jack costs $40 initially and then about $20 a month after that; however, they’re currently running a free trial special.

Bottom line, there are many services out there that will help you hide your job search or relationship with an executive recruiter from your current employer. Don’t make a bad impression at work and earn a place on your boss’s bad side when you don’t need to. Clearly there are plenty of inexpensive resources that allow you to look for a better career option without putting your current work situation in jeopardy.

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Top Do’s and Don’ts for Executive Marketing Recruiters Attending a Networking Event

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

Executive marketing recruiters, like all recruiters rely on the connections they make. If you are a recruiter, the larger your network, the easier it will be for you to fit the right people with the right position openings and keep your clients satisfied. Attending networking events is one way to meet new people and expand your contacts. However, just attending a networking event is not enough. You need to be in the right state of mind and really know what you want to accomplish. Read over this list of do’s and don’ts before your next networking event and you’ll leave confident that you’ve expanded your pool of connections.

Do prepare an “elevator pitch” to introduce yourself. A networking event is for expanding your network, not hard selling your recruiting services to others. Make sure you prepare a short introduction and your recruiting specialty in less than a minute. That way, business professionals get to know you, your expertise and if they are interested, they can talk further about working with you now and in the future.

Don’t attend a networking event without specific goals in mind. Having goals will keep you focused. However, as stated above, your goal should not be to sell yourself, it should be to make connections. Before you attend the event set some goals that include how many contacts you want to make as well as how many business cards you wish to give out and receive. Specific goals in mind will keep you motivated and on track, so you won’t leave feeling like you wasted your time.

Do follow up on leads, referrals and potential partnerships. When you leave the event, make an excel sheet of all the people you met and what you talked about. It’s best to do this immediately when it’s fresh in your mind, so that when you get a call, you’ll remember the person’s name and other particulars. Also send an email to every contact you made at the event and add them to your LinkedIn network.

Don’t look around the room for your next target while you’re still talking to your current one. If you don’t make eye contact with the person you’re currently talking to and you’re busy scoping out who you’re going to talk to next you can’t possibly be paying attention. This reflects poorly on you and you will definitely miss out on possible business connections.

Following these tips before attending your next networking event will help you leave with a whole new world of contacts and open the doors to new leads, partnerships and clients.

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Revealed: Top Secrets of Executive Recruiters

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010
A recent article on Forbes.com states that over 14 million Americans are currently out of work while millions more are currently searching for a more favorable career path. With the large number of job hunters out there, it can be extremely tough to prove yourself worthy of an open position. If you find yourself sending resume after resume without any call backs, it’s time to get help from a professional. Executive recruiters make a living out of finding the perfect person to fill a position for a company, so why wouldn’t they have tips and tricks of the trade to share with others?

The Forbes article outlines top tips for getting headhunted. Here is what they are:

1. Make a plan to target the your job search and the hiring managers you want to meet instead of blindly applying for jobs.

1. Show the company how you can make or save them money. Quantifying your work at your previous jobs is a step towards making yourself appear to be the best candidate. Don’t just state on your resume that you were “responsible for ____.” If you developed a product that saved your company millions of dollars, you need to put the exact dollar amount you made or saved your company in order to stand out from the crowd.

2. Understand supply and demand. Identify a company’s demand or what they want, and once you know you can meet that demand, supply yourself as a candidate.

3. Use your personal network as well as social networks like LinkedIn to find people in your targeted companies. Call them, introduce yourself and learn more about the company by engaging in casual conversation with them.

4. Make a one-sheet, direct mail piece that has bullet points outlining what you can bring to the company and why. Send it Certified Mail. Adding a postscript to a one-sheet increases the chance that the hiring manager will read it. Include the date and time that you will call to follow up. Make sure to do so.

5. Make contact once a week over a 10-week period. Do this by sending a relevant news link or other information to keep yourself on the hiring manager’s radar.

6. Once you get a chance to interview, make sure to communicate your value to the hiring manager and these three things: that you can do the job, you want the job and you’re a cultural fit for the job.

Following these tips provided by executive recruiters, will get you a chance to show the hiring manager of your target company why you would be a good fit and greatly increase your chances of getting the job of your dreams.

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How to Make Your Executive Recruiting Process More Successful

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010
According to the blog, “8 Questions About Your Hiring Process” by Stephen Balzac, organizational culture is the most important factor when trying to successfully recruit top candidates. How a company treat candidates and takes on the whole executive recruiting process shows the candidates how the company operates.

For example, if your company’s executive recruiting process is long including multiple interviews with candidates then weeks passing by without a response, they’ll get the impression that the decision-making process is made slowly with many different employees’ input. While on the other hand, if the candidates who are constantly calling and pestering the person in charge of hiring are the first to obtain interviews, they’ll learn that being passive isn’t the way to survive in the company. Both of these extremes could be trouble, and some companies do not realize the cultural vibe they a putting out until it’s too late. According to the Balzac’s blog, to avoid getting stuck with employees who don’t fit the culture of your company, ask yourself these questions before beginning the recruiting process:

  • What are the values of your company?
  • What does the perfect employee look like and why?
  • How will you know when you’ve found the right person for the position?
  • How does your company’s hiring process reinforce the behaviors you value while discouraging the behaviors you don’t value? How might it do just the opposite?
  • How will you know if the people you didn’t hire were actually the people you should have hired?
  • How are you measuring the success of your executive recruiting process in the short and long term?
  • Do you think your company has a culture problem and if so, what resources can you use to deal with it?

Although there are no correct answers to any of the above questions, they are necessary to ask in order to figure out whether your company is sending out the right cultural vibe to its candidates. If you aren’t happy with recent hires and haven’t been able to figure out why, this may be your answer.

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Little Known Ways to Hide Calls from an Executive Recruiter at Work

Thursday, July 15th, 2010
Now that you are working with an executive recruiter whether it’s in Detroit, Pittsburgh, Columbus or Cleveland you have to be discreet while you’re working at your current job. Without letting the cat out of the bag, by answering your cell phone during an important client meeting or sneaking a peek at your personal email on your 4th coffee break, you’ll need another avenue to assure you can access messages without giving away your chance of obtaining a better job.

Here is an idea from Wireless Executive Recruiter that you really should invest in, if you’re serious about being in touch with an executive recruiter.

Temporary Phone Number - Tossable Digits provides a temporary phone number for an executive recruiter to call you whether you’re at work, on the golf course, or meeting a client for dinner. Others won’t know who is calling and you can program the number to alert you of messages on your time. When you’ve landed the job, just toss the number and you’re good as gold. With just a little investment, about the price of a good cup of coffee and a bagel, you can use Tossable Digits to avoid suspicion from your current CEO or manager and still reach your executive recruiter in Detroit, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Columbus or Des Moines!

Call Forwarding Service - Many cell phones and land-line phone companies offer this type of service for little to no additional monthly cost. Just enter a couple numbers to get connected, enter the number where you want your calls forwarded and relax. If you’re going out of town, have all your calls forwarded to your cell phone or a trusted friend or family member, so you don’t miss any calls from your executive recruiter while you’re away.

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4 Ways to Build a Relationship With an Executive Recruiter

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010

Building a relationship with an executive recruiter before you begin job searching is crucial. In order to get the attention of a recruiter you need to either be recommended by co-workers or other influential people who admire your hard work and career contributions or you need to be discovered by a recruiter. It can be a long wait, so to speed up the process and begin building a relationship now to help yourself in the future.

Follow these 4 easy steps:

Get connected with an executive recruiter. Get referrals from co-workers or a former boss that will grab the recruiter’s attention or approach a recruiter yourself through email or phone, when you aren’t looking for a job. Offer them help by sharing your connections and they will remember your help down the road. Get in touch with a recruiter through social networking site, LinkedIn. Build an impressive profile and make yourself visible within your industry by speaking at conventions or other industry events then posting about it online.

Once you have the recruiter’s attention, make sure the relationship is beneficial for them. Become their resource for recommendations and information in your particular industry and help connect them to candidates they need. Always take your recruiter’s calls and be polite and professional. Treat them as you would a future boss, because they may be the ones between you and your future boss someday and they do have some amount of pull as to which candidate gets hired.

Don’t email or call a recruiter every week, even if you think you have information that will help them. It’s good to check up every once in a while if you do have a great candidate lead for them, but mostly it’s best to let them come to you. Remember that recruiters are very busy so if they don’t get back to you right away, don’t call repeatedly.

Be honest and open about your career and credentials. If a recruiter suggests a job to you that isn’t necessarily right for you, be honest and say you aren’t the best choice, and give them a suggestion on who might be a better candidate. They’ll appreciate your honesty and are more likely to get on your side when you’re competing for a job down the road.

Following these easy tips for building a relationship with an executive recruiter before you start job hunting will help you tremendously down the road if you do find yourself looking for new career opportunities. Nurturing the right relationship with a recruiter will get you on the right path for finding the career you really desire.

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Executive Recruiters Confident that the Employment Market Will Improve in 2010

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010
According to an article in The Wall Street Journal, it is expected that many employers will begin adding staff members within the next six months. Thirty-five percent of the 1,625 employers who responded to a March survey by the Society of Human Resources Management said they expect to add full-time workers in 2010, which is more than double last year’s 16% of participants who said they would add staff.

The article says that according to experts, the increase may be due to a “renewed sense of calm about the business climate.” The Bank of America is one business that has already begun to add employees. The Wall Street Journal says the firm currently has 6,000 open positions that range from human resources to investment banking. The company also has doubled graduate hiring since 2009 and doubled the size of the intern program.
The Wall Street Journal also interviewed Mark Anderson, president of ExecuNet, a network for business leaders that provides recruiting, research and advice. Anderson states in the article that executive recruiters and companies have been talking about the improving market for the past six months and now companies are finally beginning to act.

ExecuNet’s May Recruiter Confidence Index, a monthly survey that measures the executive job market shows that 65% of 185 participants are “confident” or “very confident” that the executive employment market will improve over the next six months.

Looks like job hunters out there will have a much higher chance of landing a great position, and executive recruiters are going to start getting very busy over the next six months. Get the rest of the details on The Wall Street Journal.

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4 Things You Should Never Do When Working With an Executive Search Firm

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010

Although many people think executive search firms and recruiters are there to help you find a job, it’s important to remember they are working for a client, who may or may not hire you. The executive search firm’s main goal is to satisfy the client, not you. Many people make the mistake of treating recruiters like employees when they should really be treating them like an employer. This will make you look unprofessional and hurt your chances of getting the current job you want. It will also damage the relationship with the recruiter, which could keep you from hearing about future job opportunities. In order to keep this from happening to you, here are four “don’t’s” many people should follow when working with an executive search firm.

  • Don’t Over-share. As stated above, many people tend to treat recruiters like employees rather than employers. For this reason, they often reveal too much personal information or get too emotional when speaking with an executive search firm, especially in this economy, where people have lost their jobs and may be desperate for a new one. However, it’s extremely unprofessional to get too personal or emotional with a recruiter. When speaking with the recruiter, you must act like you would in a job interview, because the recruiter is essentially pre-interviewing you for his or her client. If you can’t hold it together for a 10-minute talk with the recruiter, he or she will not want to pass you on to the client. Keep in mind that if you don’t impress the client, it not only makes you look bad, but it also leaves a bad impression on the recruiter.
  • Don’t be Uncooperative. This seems like a no-brainer but many people think the recruiter is working for them to find them a job and for this reason, if they feel like blowing off the recruiter they will just assume it’s okay. Many people often think they can dictate the interactions on their own terms with an executive search firm. This is never the case and if a recruiter tries to contact you to see if you are interested in a position, you need to act professional, set up a time to talk and then treat that time like you would an interview. If you make a bad impression on the recruiter, he or she will not give your resume to any employers and they will find someone else who will cooperate.
  • Don’t be a stalker. Executive search firms are often working with many candidates at a time, so sometimes the response time will be longer. The proper etiquette for reaching a recruiter is as follows: If you’ve submitted your resume to an executive search firm and haven’t heard back, wait a week then call or e-mail them. If you still don’t hear back, wait another week then try again. If you’ve been sent to an interview by a recruiter to see one of his or her clients, wait at least two or three days before you ask about any news. Never call or e-mail multiple times in a week, if you annoy the recruiter they will be less likely to work in your favor or ever work with you again.
  • Don’t fly off the handle if you don’t get the position. If you get a call from the executive search firm and the news is not good, don’t throw a tantrum. Express your disappointment but remain calm, cool and collected. Recruiters are constantly receiving new job listings and they might find another one that’s right for you within a couple of weeks. However, if you act crazy and burn the bridge with the recruiter, you will never see another job offer from them again, which won’t help you find your dream job.

The bottom line is, you must treat an executive search firm as you would an employer because that is who they are working for, your potential employer. If you are unprofessional, they will not want to pass you along to an employer because it could have a negative effect. If you do act professionally and you have the correct credentials needed for the open position, a recruiter will work to get you the position. So remember to always act professional, don’t over-share and if the position is given to someone else, remain positive because another one may be coming along for you sooner than you think.

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