I don't care if you are an internal or external recruiter, agency, independent, retained, contingency, contract, permanent, whatever. You're dealing with highly sophisticated and sensitive people if you are placing high level IT talent. They are constantly judging your fitness for your job. You'll need to follow these guidelines if you want to be effective. Like the professional mountain guide the professional recruiter shows people the safest way to the top while minimizing risk as much as possible. If you really want to be the best you can start with this advice. . .
Thou shalt love people and your job. Have you ever bought a cup of coffee and gotten service with snarl? Don't you wonder why on earth someone who seems put out with people is in a position where all they do is deal with people all day? There are better paying jobs where you don't have to talk to anyone. There's no reason to deal with the constant turmoil and pressure of recruiting unless you really love it.
Thou shalt achieve 10/1 and then improve. Quick, what is the definition of world class recruiting? There's not one? Now there is. Call it Dave's law. If you submit 11 people for a job and none get hired, you suck. Period. If you submit 10 and 1 gets hired you have passed. Now try to improve. The best recruiters have a close to 1/1 ratio because they know so much about what the client truly needs. Get better.
Thou shalt not cop a 'tude. There was a time for haughty attitudes. It has passed. Your company is the best. Your company only hires a select few. But every other company is saying that too. The best candidates have limitless options. They don't need to put up with your superiority complex to get a job. Like the mountains, the upper levels of recruiting require a high level of awareness and respect if you want to survive.
Thou shalt learn how to talk to smart people. A person with a Master's degree in Computer Science and 20 years of experience working for the most sophisticated software development shops in the world is a person who isn't going to put up with much. I have gotten results by telling people up front "I have a degree in English Literature and so have no clue about the actual technical details of software development. " However I do understand people and how to meet their needs. I ask people to explain things to me in layman's terms. Quality technical recruiting is a multistep process consisting of asking the right questions. Turn down the sales pitch and turn up the intelligent questions about what the candidate wants to accomplish and how you can help.
Thou shalt not throw shit at the wall. I had a meeting with a manager at a client who showed me a candidate's resume that had been submitted over 300 times to dozens of jobs in the company. He had gotten a couple interviews but not progressed. He had been submitted by dozens of different recruiters as well as himself. None of them looks very smart in the client's eyes. As in the mountains, you need to be an excellent judge of who has the best chance to be successful.
Thou shalt close the loop. In this day and age I don't think any recruiter has time to respond to every person who submits a resume. However if you submit a candidate you should be able to tell that candidate what happened and why. Hiring manager won't tell you? How are you supposed to get better? Stop working on this opening until they are willing to give you real information. It is your responsiblity to assess every situation in which the candidate you put in doesn't get hired and be able to explain why.
Thou shalt slow down. I don't care what anyone else says, quality recruiting is NOT a volume business. Precision is the name of the game. So many engineers are resistant to recruiters because we send lame emails in which we misspell their name, ignore statements made on the resume about what they are looking for (sending a person stating 'no relo' an email about a job on the opposite coast,) and other errors. Before you shoot the email or make the call, think, "Is this the right thing to do right now?" "How do I look to the person I am sending this too?" Mistakes mean death in the mountains and 'no hire' in recruiting.
Thou shalt learn how to spell. Especially the candidate's name. I know Vikas Kamat you can handle but cut and paste was invented for names like Nahasapeemapetilon.
Thou shalt be responsible. Whose fault is it if you put a candidate in front of a hiring manager and the person doesn't get hired? Yours. You are the guide.
"Yeah but the manager didn't tell me . . ." You didn't ask the right questions.
"Yeah but the candidate didn't tell me . . . " See above.
"Yeah but I didn't know . . ." See above.
I'm not saying you need to beat yourself up about it. I'm saying every time a candidate fails to get the job you need to do a postmortem to figure out what you missed. You missed something.
Thou shalt know who your customers are. Who is your customer? The client (or your employer if you are an internal recruiter)? Yes. The good candidates? Yes. The candidates who don't match your reqs? Yes. Everybody? Yes. All of them are your customers. The Starbucks mission statement says, "Develop enthusiastically satisfied customers all of the time." What if we adhered to this philosophy? There would be more of this.
To sum up from what I hear from prospects and candidates I talk with, there are a lot more ineffective than effective recruiters out there. Effective recruiters will adhere to the 10 points above. Go to it! Get your candidates to the top! They will send their friends.
Thou shalt love people and your job. Have you ever bought a cup of coffee and gotten service with snarl? Don't you wonder why on earth someone who seems put out with people is in a position where all they do is deal with people all day? There are better paying jobs where you don't have to talk to anyone. There's no reason to deal with the constant turmoil and pressure of recruiting unless you really love it.
Thou shalt achieve 10/1 and then improve. Quick, what is the definition of world class recruiting? There's not one? Now there is. Call it Dave's law. If you submit 11 people for a job and none get hired, you suck. Period. If you submit 10 and 1 gets hired you have passed. Now try to improve. The best recruiters have a close to 1/1 ratio because they know so much about what the client truly needs. Get better.
Thou shalt not cop a 'tude. There was a time for haughty attitudes. It has passed. Your company is the best. Your company only hires a select few. But every other company is saying that too. The best candidates have limitless options. They don't need to put up with your superiority complex to get a job. Like the mountains, the upper levels of recruiting require a high level of awareness and respect if you want to survive.
Thou shalt learn how to talk to smart people. A person with a Master's degree in Computer Science and 20 years of experience working for the most sophisticated software development shops in the world is a person who isn't going to put up with much. I have gotten results by telling people up front "I have a degree in English Literature and so have no clue about the actual technical details of software development. " However I do understand people and how to meet their needs. I ask people to explain things to me in layman's terms. Quality technical recruiting is a multistep process consisting of asking the right questions. Turn down the sales pitch and turn up the intelligent questions about what the candidate wants to accomplish and how you can help.
Thou shalt not throw shit at the wall. I had a meeting with a manager at a client who showed me a candidate's resume that had been submitted over 300 times to dozens of jobs in the company. He had gotten a couple interviews but not progressed. He had been submitted by dozens of different recruiters as well as himself. None of them looks very smart in the client's eyes. As in the mountains, you need to be an excellent judge of who has the best chance to be successful.
Thou shalt close the loop. In this day and age I don't think any recruiter has time to respond to every person who submits a resume. However if you submit a candidate you should be able to tell that candidate what happened and why. Hiring manager won't tell you? How are you supposed to get better? Stop working on this opening until they are willing to give you real information. It is your responsiblity to assess every situation in which the candidate you put in doesn't get hired and be able to explain why.
Thou shalt slow down. I don't care what anyone else says, quality recruiting is NOT a volume business. Precision is the name of the game. So many engineers are resistant to recruiters because we send lame emails in which we misspell their name, ignore statements made on the resume about what they are looking for (sending a person stating 'no relo' an email about a job on the opposite coast,) and other errors. Before you shoot the email or make the call, think, "Is this the right thing to do right now?" "How do I look to the person I am sending this too?" Mistakes mean death in the mountains and 'no hire' in recruiting.
Thou shalt learn how to spell. Especially the candidate's name. I know Vikas Kamat you can handle but cut and paste was invented for names like Nahasapeemapetilon.
Thou shalt be responsible. Whose fault is it if you put a candidate in front of a hiring manager and the person doesn't get hired? Yours. You are the guide.
"Yeah but the manager didn't tell me . . ." You didn't ask the right questions.
"Yeah but the candidate didn't tell me . . . " See above.
"Yeah but I didn't know . . ." See above.
I'm not saying you need to beat yourself up about it. I'm saying every time a candidate fails to get the job you need to do a postmortem to figure out what you missed. You missed something.
Thou shalt know who your customers are. Who is your customer? The client (or your employer if you are an internal recruiter)? Yes. The good candidates? Yes. The candidates who don't match your reqs? Yes. Everybody? Yes. All of them are your customers. The Starbucks mission statement says, "Develop enthusiastically satisfied customers all of the time." What if we adhered to this philosophy? There would be more of this.
To sum up from what I hear from prospects and candidates I talk with, there are a lot more ineffective than effective recruiters out there. Effective recruiters will adhere to the 10 points above. Go to it! Get your candidates to the top! They will send their friends.
We are professional technical recruiters. Our job is not to source resumes and candidates. A mountain guide's job is not carry supplies, fix ropes, or any of the other details they have to attend to. It is to get clients on top of the mountain. Our job is to PLACE people on the top.
Think I'm wrong? Tell me why.
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