A few years ago, I sat in front of the CEO of a small company that called itself a start-up for start-ups. I was new to this type of organization, a technology-based company. I had worked for the whole of my career, up until that point, in the dental and health care fields. He, the CEO, held a book in his hand, The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge, and asked, "Have you read this book?" I looked blankly at the book and thought, "Oewh... this job is not for me." I then shook my head and answered truthfully, "Nope." He said, "You will."


That was a first step toward further understanding business and, really, expanding my horizons beyond cold calling and four- to six-month long searches. I joined this young technology company as the Manager of Recruitment and Retention and I became educated rather quickly that my days of retained search and taking my sweet time were long over. I also learned an incredibly valuable lesson that has become embedded in my psyche and stays with me still today. I learned to be flexible and recognize that what always worked before may not work any longer. And that's ok. Better yet, you can teach an old dog new tricks.

I learned the art of executive recruitment from an old-school recruiter that felt sixty to one hundred cold calls a day was the only way to get the word about a new position and that you had to suffer and suffer hard to garner a slate of only mildly acceptable candidates. I wanted there to be a better and easier way. I wanted to be able to just go to the ACT! database we had built over the last several years and filter, filter, filter... but every new search brought an empty access search record dropped on my desk. Equipped with several thousand hospitals' names and numbers, a pencil and pen, a telephone, came the order to, "Smile and dial."

The different media available today has changed the face of this job. Human Resources is no longer the organizational function in the basement. Recruiting is no longer the "wicked step child" of HR. Social media continues to re-shape the face of how we interact with people we do know, why wouldn't it alter the way we interact with those that we don't know?

Social Media Experts. Is there such a thing? I think we are all still in the infancy stage of fully grasping its capability and impact. It's a crazy ride but I plan on holding on. I can now sit across from that same CEO and say, "Yes, I have read that book." And then I'll send a tweet stating, "But the system is bigger than ever before."

by rayannethorn