MY MOUSETRAP WORKS JUST FINE!

It is my observation that the recruiting industry, more so than most other industries or professions, is rife with folks who are hell bent for election day to build a better mousetrap. I think that's great. All professions evolve with time, technology and new ideas. But...only in the recruiting industry does one see the new "Mousetrap Builders" hyping their latest, greatest idea about how to turn the industry upside down by postulating that all life forms in recruiting as we know them are DEAD, DYING, UNSUSTAINABLE except of course their talent community, twitter outreach, social media revolution, niche as an expert in green widgets, analysis of social networks or whatever the hell they thought up when business sucked under like the Bermuda Triangle.

A Flash for you GURUS. My Mousetrap works. It works because i put it in places where i know there are mice. I set it everyday. I put the cheese in it. It's been catching mice for over 30 years. Yours may have more bells, sirens and whistles on it. You may twitter about it, blog about it, throw it in a talent community ( whatever the hell that is). I think that's dandy if it works for you, get after it. Niche it, twitter it, blog it, post it, rave about it. I hope you make as much money as i have over the past 30+ years, enjoy your career and grow up to be one of those pedantic thought leaders who write "how to" books. Or for god's sake, invent the "Hooker" ATS that really is fast, cheap and easy.

Would it be too much to ask that you just hype your revolutionary end all to be all answer to the recruiting world without having to make idiots out of yourselves screaming about how thousands of recruiters are going out of business," sourcing is dead"," job boards are dead"," third party recruiting is "unsustainable", "great candidates don't respond to ads", "passive candidates are better than active candidates". Blah, Blah and more blah. If it works for you...do it.

In the real world, My Mousetrap Works Just Fine. Job Boards are making money, sourcers are making money, thousands and thousands of recruiters are reporting an increase in business.

Until all business grinds to a standstill because global warming melted all the icebergs , recruiting is about a company needing a person that they can't find or don't have time to find. That would be why God made recruiters, or maybe it was the other guy.

However we do it, that would be the basic of what we do. So if you think my mousetrap is dead or dying, lean over here and have a little bite of cheese , it's snapilicious....

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Permalink Reply by Jodi on October 5, 2010 at 3:31pm

Sandra, once again you are right on the money and best of all not afraid to say it. Being new to the industry I almost got caught up in all the things I didn't have when I was making placements and then remembered that if I'm making placements I've got something right and the world won't end if my ATS or ABS or XYZ isn't the latest and greatest. Your best advise to me, make a placement, then make another, then another and the rest will work itself out.

Jodi

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Permalink Reply by Christopher Perez on October 5, 2010 at 3:35pm

That's some good ole authentic Texas plain-talkin' right there. Loved it.

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Permalink Reply by Karla Porter on October 5, 2010 at 3:38pm

Sandra - I can't believe you blew the cover on the Hooker ATS project.

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Permalink Reply by Sandra McCartt on October 5, 2010 at 3:51pm

Beth, thanks for commenting. That is the most gorgeous hair i have ever seen. If mine looked like that i could ditch the hat, well maybe not hats have been my thing since Lincoln was a cadet and tennis balls were square. I agree with the pimp analogy. The only difference between a pimp and a recruiter is that we make a hell of a lot more money and maybe some of those girls (or guys) as the case may be might be a lot easier to deal with than some candidates.

Jodi, great to hear from you hope you are knocking them out one by one. Alaphabets belong in soup not in real everyday language.

Christopher, You got er' son. It takes one of those son's of Texas to really git a hollar out of our lingo sometimes.

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Permalink Reply by Sandra McCartt on October 5, 2010 at 3:59pm

Sorry Carla, it's kind of like my Hooker spagetti sauce, hot, cheap and easy. You knew when you told me about the project that i can't keep my mouth shut. Anybody who depends on me to keep my mouth shut gets what they damn well deserve. Now we can call it HATS. If you can't operate it you can wear it.

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Permalink Reply by Kevin Kirkpatrick on October 5, 2010 at 4:00pm

Technology is only a tool no different then a hammer. If the process is wrong then the outcome won't be there technology or not. Talk to as many people about as many jobs as you can match them and go to it. Whatever tools you use good for you as long as the process is right.

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Permalink Reply by Sandra McCartt on October 5, 2010 at 4:11pm

You got it Kevin. Technology can be sort of like using a howitzer to do what a BB gun can do. It's been my unfortunate experience to discover that a hammer can kill a mouse just like a mousetrap but it sure is a lot messier. Guess it depends on what one has at hand and how well we can use it. But bottom line it has to be a process that whacks the mouse.

I think there is a message there somewhere but right now i'm sitting third chair helping a candidate and her attorney negotiate a divorce settlement. Believe me when i tell you that a recruiter will do almost anything to help a candidate accept a job that involves being able to relocate. I think he just took my last complicated offer that gets her out of the house loan so she can call and accept a job in about an hour. Recruiters do make great negotiators, we are not burdended by what attorneys think will fly. We just throw it out there and see if the fish will bite.

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Permalink Reply by Nicole Dowden on October 5, 2010 at 4:38pm

I heart you - but i do like to add some social cheese to my mousetrap:)

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Permalink Reply by Sandra McCartt on October 5, 2010 at 4:45pm

Me too Nicole. The same old cheese gets boring. Just cause the cheese is different doesn't mean the mousetrap does't work anymore. It's still a mousetrap even if we put wheels on it. It's been my experience that if i can't catch the mouse, i can take a plain ole hungry tom cat, put him in the garage and he gets the mouse. That tomcat doesn't know a thing about mouse traps but he can still catch a mouse cause that's what he does. You are cute. :)

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Permalink Reply by Zahra Sandberg on October 5, 2010 at 6:17pm

Haha - loved this post.

"That would be why God made recruiters, or maybe it was the other guy."

Whether or not we are considered a "godsend" or just a "necessary evil" usually depends on whether or not we fill the job!

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Permalink Reply by Peter Ceccarelli on October 5, 2010 at 6:36pm

As is always the case, you rock lady! Always to the point and always with a blend of humor.

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Permalink Reply by Sandra McCartt on October 5, 2010 at 7:59pm

Zahra, Is that not the most exotic, glamorous name in the world? I agree our name is derived from our results. I prefer a name tag that says, "Handy Gadget" Maybe that would be somewhere in between.

Peter, my sweet friend and talented artist. Most of the rocking i do at this stage of the game is done on the porch where i look up once in a while and say, "Well, that's bullshit." Then go back to my rocking. Congrats on your promotion!