Looking for a job? Make yourself easy to find.

Whether you are actively looking for a job or just want to hear from recruiters from time to time, you have to get on the radar of executive search firm and staffing agency recruiters.  Once you are found and entered into the recruiter’s database, you will hear about all those unadvertised  jobs everyone has been whispering about. 

To understand how to be found you have to think like a recruiter.  Recruiters aren’t just looking for people that are looking for jobs.  Recruiters are looking for candidates that are currently working in a job very similar to the one that the recruiter is trying to fill.  So, recruiters search for people with specific titles, from specific companies and industries in places like LinkedIn, ZoomInfo and Jigsaw. 

Most importantly, if you don’t already have a profile on LinkedIn, sign up and create one.  If you do have a profile, make sure it includes:

• Your picture – and make sure it is a conservative head shot.  The picture can be in a casual setting.  You don’t have to be in a business suit.  But don’t use that Facebook picture of yourself on the beach with friends, or hiding behind sunglasses, etc.   Adding a picture gives you instant credibility and makes viewers feel like they already know you.
• Your complete profile.  Treat your LinkedIn profile like an online resume – but make it a short one.  List all of your relevant jobs and a summary of what you did in each role.  Think about the keywords you use when searching for a job, and make sure those same keywords show up in your profile. 
• Your title – this should be a functional title, something that expresses in broad, generic terms what you do, such as “Risk Manager” or “Project Manager” or “Recruiter”.  Don’t use titles or acronyms that are unique to your company like “HR Specialist II”  or  “Account Rep for FSO”.  Remember, recruiters will be searching for keywords in the title field.  So reverse the process and think about  the search terms you would use when looking for a job.  Give yourself that title.

 ZoomInfo  collects information from company websites and press releases, pulls it all together and creates profiles for individuals.  Recruiters regularly search these profiles to find candidates, so you should make sure you can be found here. 

• Go to ZoomInfo and search for your name. 
• If you find a listing, “claim it” and update it. 
• If you are not already listed, you can sign up for a free account and add your information to the ZoomInfo database.  All you have to do is enter your contact info and current employer.  You can add more information if you like. 
• You will also have the opportunity in the “Additional Information” area to add links.  Use this to connect your ZoomInfo profile to your LinkedIn profile, and to your blog or website. 

Jigsaw collects business card type information and publishes it on line. 

• Go to Jigsaw and search for your name. 
• If it is there, make sure it is correct. 
• If not, create a free account and add your name and contact information. 

Good luck with your job search!

A Little Sourcing Yields BIG results!

I just learned what BIG results I can get from just a little sourcing!

The bulk of the “executive searching” that I do is for actuaries.  I have a database of just about all the actuaries in the U.S. and Canada, so the sourcing I do for these projects is typically just slicing and dicing my database.  I search LinkedIN and run a few Google searches for each new search.  But honestly, I typically turn to sourcing when I need a break from the monotony of leaving hundreds of voicemails.  I have accepted that searching for the right actuary is like searching for a needle in a haystack.  I already have tons of names and contact info and lots of notes on prior conversations.  I just need to TALK to them, so I find it hard to justify spending time sourcing when I should be on the phone talking. 

Well, not anymore!   I am a convert!  Yesterday, my FIRST call on this new search yielded 6 referrals – yes – I said 6!  And that was because in my quest to learn more about hedging programs, I did a little Googling.  Okay, to be honest – I wasn’t totally comfortable with my pitch on the position so I was procrastinating by “researching“. 

I found a presentation on line that my first potential candidate had done, so I mentioned it in my message to him.  He called me back in less than an hour!!!  Unless you have recruited actuaries, you might think this is not a big deal.  Trust me, this is like getting George Clooney to call you back.  And then to get 6 referrals? Amazing!

It doesn’t end there.  Today I called two of the referrals from my first candidate, but I Googled them and looked them up on LinkedIn first.  I found out that they had done similar presentations on hedging.  So, I mentioned that as well as the fact that they had been referred to me, in the messages that I left for them. One of them returned my call in less than 5 minutes! 

It gets even better!  Since I was having so much luck sourcing prior to calling, I looked at the “Viewers of this profile have also viewed” section on LinkedIN  for the candidate I had just called.  I found someone else with an ideal title, who is an actuary and was NOT on the list I had created using my trusty database.  I called him and he is IDEAL!

I have to admit, when I wrote a recent article for The Source Newsletter , titled “Is Sourcing the Silver Bullet of Recruting?” my position was that sourcing may be great, but it’s just a part of recruiting.  I love to learn about the latest and greatest tools just like everyone else, but I used to see these sourcing tools as a luxury that I could not always afford to spend time on.  Don’t get me wrong – I believe good sourcing tools and skills are essential to a recruiter’s success, and I have trained many recruiters on how to use these tools.  I guess I was just taking a “do as I say, not as I do” approach because I was not fullly utilizing sourcing in my own searches.

I now believe that even if you have a great list of names, and even if you have spoken to those people in the past, you can still get BIG results by spending a few moments researching your key potential candidates to learn just a little bit more about them!

Is Sourcing the Silver Bullet of Recruiting?

This post is a little longer than usual, because it is actually an article I wrote for the January issue of The Source Newsletter  http://www.thesourcenewsletter.com/

The proliferation and accessibility of sourcing tools and techniques is exciting and fun and exhilarating. Who doesn’t want to have the most followers on Twitter or the biggest network on LinkedIn? But is sourcing the Silver Bullet of Recruiting? Are all these tools really helping us do our jobs or just distracting us? Are there really a lot of candidates out there using these cool new tools, or are we just running into other recruiters? If recruiters are spending the majority of their time on sourcing, who is talking to the candidates?

It wasn’t too long ago that only retained executive recruiters actually did proactive sourcing for candidates. Corporate and contingency recruiters were “inbox recruiters.” They were focused on screening the candidates that came to them in response to ads or employee referrals or those that they met at Career Fairs. That approach worked pretty well for a while. But now that social networking sites are gaining in popularity, classes on Internet search techniques are more affordable and recruiting budgets have been slashed; everyone seems too focused on the hunt for candidates!

It’s as if sourcing is a totally new concept – a silver bullet that will solve all recruiting problems! Recruiters are posting on multiple niche boards, searching Craig’s list and user groups, growing their Linkedin and Facebook networks and Googling for candidates. These are all great techniques, except that this has lead to the belief among sourcers, recruiters and hiring managers that if we just look hard enough we will find that purple squirrel at just the right price with just the right combination of skills at just the right time with no compromise necessary!

Don’t get me wrong, I believe that sourcing skills are important. Someone in your organization should be on top of all the new tools out there. I just don’t believe every recruiter has to be an expert in every new technology. I also believe that sometimes sourcing should be left to the outside experts. Recruiting has not really changed just because there is more information out on the Web. Technology and searching tools are necessary, but they will never replace the need to TALK to your candidates, find out what they think of the job, the compensation you are offering and who they know. You still have to get hiring managers and clients to compromise occasionally and you can’t do that till you can tell them what potential candidates have told YOU about employment market conditions.

My recruiting career began in Retained Executive Search where the distinction between sourcing and recruiting was very clear. “Recruiting” was the total process; Candidate ID and Candidate Development were separate and distinct parts of that process. Sometimes the recruiter did both parts of the process and sometimes the Candidate ID portion was outsourced. We didn’t call it “sourcing” though, we called it Candidate ID and it was narrowly defined as searching for names of people doing the job for which we were recruiting – it did not ever involve looking for posted resumes. Let’s face it – why would corporate clients pay huge fees to an executive search firm just to get a candidate that had posted their resume online and could have been found with a few clicks?  We did purchase directories, search for attendee lists and look for associations that our candidates would join. 

When we needed deep sourcing for hard to find individuals, we contracted that out to someone who specialized in Candidate ID. The recruiters did the upfront research on the companies to be targeted and the desired titles and the outside professionals usually did the phone sourcing. Those professionals utilized phone sourcing techniques to deliver org chart type documents listing the person heading up the department we were interested in along with all of that individual’s direct reports. The recruiters and outside sourcers worked together on developing and fine tuning the sourcing strategy. 

The goal in any search is to get on the phone and start Candidate Development as soon as possible. In a retained search firm, this involved contacting the candidates, selling them on the opportunity, assessing fit and negotiating. Because we knew we had a limited number of names from the Candidate ID phase, we had to be sure that we made the most out of each interaction with a potential candidate. We asked for referrals and industry information so that we could go find more candidates if needed. If a potential candidate was not interested, we found out why. If a number of candidates expressed opinions about the pay being too low, or all the skills not typically existing within one person, we reported back to the client with that information. We partnered with the hiring authorities to develop a realistic position description with an attractive compensation package so that we could fill the position to their satisfaction while addressing the needs of potential candidates.

So what can we learn from retained executive search?

• The best Candidate ID (sourcing) won’t help you fill a position without good recruiting skills as well. 
• If the Candidate ID requires specialized skills (phone sourcing, deep Internet searching), outsource it or develop an internal sourcing group.
• Successful recruiting and sourcing require good communication between all members of the team – sourcers, recruiters and hiring authorities. Sourcing, in and of itself, is not the answer.

A good sourcing strategy coupled with good strong recruiting skills and good relationships with the hiring authorities – that will seal the deal every time!