When your pipeline runs dry.. what heavy artillery do you bring out?

When you hit the wall recruiting on a tough position, what are some creative ways you go out and find new candidates?

I'd love to hear your ideas!

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Permalink Reply by Thomas Patrick Chuna on October 15, 2010 at 8:12am

I put on a pot of coffee, fire up the search engines and look for companies to extract people from, that I have overlooked.

Back when I was recruiting for ERP & supply chain software sales reps, I was spinning my wheels on a particular position..I kept digging and digging on the web until I found a nice little company I had never heard of, yet sold the correct software to the same vertical as my client..not wanting to deal with gatekeepers, I dialed the main number after hours..I listened to all of the extensions and their outgoing messages, and I picked the guy who sounded most like a salesman.. left a message of my own, and it turns out he was DYING for a new opportunity.. had him in front of my client in about three days, and they took him after one interview.

I've never had a problem in this business I couldn't solve with more coffee, creativity, and relentless hustle.

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Permalink Reply by Philip Foster on October 18, 2010 at 6:46am

I always keep moving on trying to think what I have missed. Nothing is impossible you just need to do the basics.

Referrals, have I asked everybody I know that might know somebody?
Have I been lazy and taken any short cuts and missed good people?
Have I used the search engines properly?
Who have I tried but not got hold of who I can go back to?
Do I have everybody in the market place. There is always somebody that has not been approached by me.
I just need to remain calm, persistent and professional.

I always try to remember that we get paid to do a job that others can’t do. It can be quite tricky at times but if it was easy we would not be needed. It is our job to make it happen. Keep at it, it will come together for you.

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Permalink Reply by Jessica Nicholas on October 18, 2010 at 1:44pm

Whenever I get into a rut, I turn to more research. Finding competitors to the primary target companies, learning alternate job titles with each company, looking for new/fresh LinkedIn groups...Then I begin my whole process again using the new info. Sometimes running through everything from a new perspective turns up a whole new group of people - and builds my pipeline in new ways for the future!