Observations from the Internet Recruiting Trenches

As a Managing Partner of Recruiters-Aid, I still try and spend a good portion of my time sourcing and screening candidates for my clients. I am in the trenches of Internet Recruiting and in fact am alternately titled ?Senior Recruiter? and known as by that title by all of my candidates and most of my clients. I do the searching mostly because with the rapid changes of the Internet I want to know first hand where it?s going and how I can adapt and adjust alongside of those changes. I do the searching secondly because practice makes perfect and it?s easy to get rusty in this business. Of the many hours spent in the trenches, I have made some important observations about the art of Internet Recruiting:

Turn Over Every Stone ? I can?t tell you how many times a client has said, ?don?t search this database we have already covered that area with no results.? Nine times out of ten we will source that area and find results for our clients. Why? Just because we have access to the same database does not mean we are accessing the same results. Successful searching turns over every stone and tries several searches before giving up on an area. I generally try over 10 different search strings in an area before I give up. This does take time but the rewards are tremendous as well as the satisfaction of finding the right key words that will take you to the right candidates!

Less is Many Times More ? A detailed, targeted search that pin points perfect matches is the best way to start your search. The resume results are less but the fit is much better. Instead of going back 30 days on the Internet, go back 14 days to hit those with a better availability ratio. Even though you may be willing to pay relocation, search your city first. Most of the searches I source will pay relocation however many of my interested and qualified candidates end up coming from the client city location anyway. Why? Because most individuals do not want to relocate or go through a difficult interview process for their position.
Be Different in your Contacts ? Candidates tell me they receive several emails of different job opportunities within hours of placing their resume on the net. Candidates also say that many of those emails are not personalized thus untargeted and those they delete right off. Of the remaining, they look for those that require little initial effort on their part (since their time is limited) and give a lot of information up front. Sending candidates questionnaires, or asking them to apply to your site online before even speaking with them, will lose a good portion of them. Being ?cloak and dagger? about an opportunity i.e. not giving company name/contact information or responsibility details or salary range/benefit information may loose a good portion of them as well. Set yourself apart from all of the other contacts by personalizing the email, creatively describing your organization as well as the responsibilities of the position. Simply ask them to simply reply to your email to hear more about the position and definitely respond back to your interested candidate in a timely manner!

Thorough, targeted searching with creative, personalized contact is key to initial sourcing and screening success. Good luck!