Search Results - reality

Blog Post: Measuring Quality of Hire in Recruiting: Per the…; Added by Eric Putkonen at 1:44pm on December 21, 2016

Blog Post: The Game Changers: When Authenticity Goes Wrong in Recruitment Marketing: Authenticity is a word that is probably said too often in the marketing world.…; Added by Cullen Robertson at 3:54pm on March 9, 2017

Blog Post: How to Effectively Manage the Creative-Minded Employee: Added by Ryan Mead at 8:34am on February 11, 2016

Blog Post: Virtual Career Fair: Definition, Best Practices and Case Studies: The unprecedented pandemic…; Added by Ngan Pham at 7:39pm on March 13, 2021

Blog Post: Re-Inventing My Best Recruiting Self in Tahoe Again: 14 Years after finding my Niche: I couldn't help but be at ease -…; Added by Mike Rasmussen at 11:51pm on July 12, 2022

Blog Post: Virtual Career Fair: Definition, Best Practices and Case Studies: The unprecedented pandemic Covid-19 leading to worldwide quarantine has created a visible shift in how businesses operate. As the world’s entering the “New Normal” and everything is slowly…; Added by Ngan Pham at 11:41pm on October 8, 2021

Topic: The Truth About Hiring Recruiters …….At Least.... My Version Of The Truth: …the question is…How do you separate yourself from the sea of competition? AND for the record…there is a SEA of competition. I recently posted a contract recruiter position and within 4 days I got over 400 submittals. Ugggggh. Now I know how my clients used to feel before they met me Unfortunately, here is a look into what I saw….typos and misspellings on resumes, zero mention of accountability, inconsistent information, absent information from previous jobs, half completed resumes and 6-1 resumes were from recruiter wan-na -bees. The sad part is, some of the wan-na-bees took more time to position themselves than some of the veterans. If you are a serious player, and you want to separate your candidacy from the sea of competition I suggest you take your job search seriously, even if it is for a contract recruiter role. You may be asking yourself, what does she mean take it seriously? First of all, to me seriously means…..take your time; who you are being in your job search IS a reflection of who you will be on the job. First and foremost, Read the ad or job posting in full. If asked, answer the questions concisely and accurately, in recruiting; time is money, get to the point. If there are instructions to follow, this is not the time to demonstrate what a rogue you are, these days recruiting has lots of processes and the bigger the company the more risk involved, if you cannot follow the application instructions, you are sending a message that you can’t assimilate to their ways of doing things. On the other hand if you follow the instructions verbatim and don’t do anything above and beyond, like using some creativity in your communication or application you may be sending a message that you give just what is asked and nothing more. If you are applying to me, look me up, find me on google, face book, linked in, talk to me in my language; don’t address me by Dear Sirs when my name is Margaret. When I get resumes like that I can them immediately, first of all I have never met a dude named Margaret and second of all it tells me you don’t care. After all, typically a person hiring a recruiter is someone who has done the job before, and done it well, so they are expecting you to blow them away with knowledge, pizzazz, terminology, technology, etc. If you are applying with me and I am a recruiter and we both share a common recruiter language and use the same type of vernacular, I expect you to use that to your advantage. Recruiting is a form of sales..show you know that by positioning yourself in the right manner. Seriously also means doing your homework. Find out what company you are applying with, go to your browser and type in www.whotheheckamiapplyingfor.com and look at who is requesting your services and tailor your application and response to the buyer. Job searching is a sales process; YOU are SELLING me on WHY I should INVEST in YOU. That takes positioning, discernment, listening, questioning/probing and salesmanship. Remember, who you are being in your own search process IS indicative of how you will conduct your searches for your new client, or if you are a rookie, who you are being in your job search is an indicator of how you will function in this role for others….seems easy enough to understand, however sometimes when we are too close to something we catch a case of running on automatic, or worse, a case of entitlement and we forget the game we are playing. We also forget that in THIS game, it is always about winning. Winning the game means working. Losing the game means keep looking, or keep on trucking to the next gig, until that gig runs out. A real recruiter in 2008 lists accomplishments, numbers of jobs filled, time to fill measurements submittals or interviews to hire. Great recruiters know their retention rates and their percentage of good hires. In 3rd party recruiting, a real recruiter knows their billings, per month, per quarter, if not per week. They also know their send out to placement ratio and their job order to fill ratio. In Staffing a solid recruiter knows their fill ratios and their (fall off ratio)misery index. The name of THIS game is numbers, the numbers tell the story. No numbers always means NO results and no results are simply put ….zeros and zeros indicate a performance issue....and anything else is JUST a STORY. As with every profession, people are evaluated by their performance; our performance in this industry is about quality of hires within a given time frame. There are a few other important metrics yet none as important as, did this person fill the jobs with good people and did the hiring manager/new employee get served within an acceptable time frame. Another element of taking your search seriously is the level of effort you have put forth in personal /job/competency development. What have you done to increase your awareness of the marketplace? What have you done to improve and expand your capacity to identify passive talent? If your biggest claim to fame is running an ad on Career Builder, scanning the resume and forwarding it to your client, you are in a bit of a pickle. While that might work, sometimes; that is nothing to be all that proud of, unless you are spending a significant amount of time screening, assessing, and evaluating that talent, with considerably more tools than your gut instinct. Also, consider if that IS your claim to fame, charging 30% or $100.00 per hour for that will soon become a distant memory; frankly companies have more than 25 different alternatives to find candidates THAT way. Also, to add a little more rub to the wound….that is not really considered recruiting in my book, sourcing resumes, is sourcing resumes and whether I like it, believe in it or not, I CAN get that done through the Philippines for $2100.00 per search through Velocity resources, or $2500 per month through PSG. When more and more companies realize that there are alternatives, the easy way will become someone else’s cheaper way. On the other hand, if you know how to and enjoy (well forget about like, you need to be good at it, if not great) sourcing passive talent through using social networks and internet mining tools, like broadlook or jigsaw then that is something to brag about, and I recommend you brag loud and clear. Include your percentages of hires using passive candidate streams and social networks. If you are a farmer of people and you use your personal and business community to continually generate passive candidate flow and you have your very own ‘affinity network’ then brag about that as well. If you have a list, a data base of candidates, live and usable candidates, hell that is something to brag about, you come armed and prepared to generate maximum results in a minimal amount of time. Taking your job search and your career seriously means continually upping your level of service offering and depth of service. As I have mentioned if your thing is sourcing, do it fabulously. Invest in your own development, learn the systems, learn the technology and apply it. After all, you buy clothing, fine wine, jewelry, so go buy a new way to source candidates, sign up for that $500.00 training, and then learn everything you can and apply it the second you get out of training, then brag about the results you produced. Tell the world. If your bag is full life cycle recruiting, take that seriously and learn about the new wave of candidate selection tools that are being adopted into many company’s hiring processes. At the On-Rec conference a group of English business folks told me that 85% of all companies in their countries use behavioral interviewing, as well as competency and personality assessments to validate their hiring choices and create new employee development programs. I do not think the US is there yet, and due to the financial and business strategy consequences of poor hiring practices, I believe many more are on that path. An excellent way to differentiate you from the sea of recruiters looking for work is to capitalize on ANY training you have taken and applied successfully. Leverage that through personal career positioning. Lastly, no matter what your age, unless you create a cure for some major problem and land a plentiful sum of millions, you and I are probably going to be working for a living, if we like this type of work, we all need to be getting better all the time. We all need to be deepening our capacity and competency level to do more and better in less time, it is the way people do business. A good or bad example of doing more for less is this ‘bounty’ jobs types of site. It is a place where companies name the price for the candidate, and recruiters…out bid each other to get the work/placement. If that is not the industries response to our industry commoditizing ourselves and our service, than I am from another planet. The reality of being in the recruiting job market in 2008 is…. if you are not getting better, you ought to think about getting out, because before you know it you will be replaced by someone who is a lot more willing to do the same job for a lot, and I mean a lot less. If you like the business, live like you will be engaging in a job search and stay ahead of the curve. Keep track of your results, operate with integrity, don’t make placements you know won’t work out, create solid contacts and networks and learn everything you can, and always be positioning yourself the way you want to be perceived.…; Added by Margaret Graziano at 1:57am on September 18, 2008

Topic: What do you think about this article in the Boston Business Journal?: By Mary Moore Kim Dukes-Rivers has expanded a Cornell University diversity program to Boston. A new diversity certification program being offered in Boston by Cornell University highlights the business case for encouraging differences in the workplace, including how generational differences can affect a company’s culture. Diversity can mean differences in race, economics, marital status, job status, age or sexual orientation — and each of these can affect a worker’s perception. To date, 13 executives from local companies and organizations are participating in the $9,000, five-month program, including Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Tufts Health Plan, Putnam Investments, Sun Life Assurance Co. of Canada, University of Massachusetts Lowell and The Home for Little Wanderers, among others. The classes finish with an exam, and participants who receive a passing grade end up as certified diversity professionals. From February through May, another 28 people from area companies and organizations are taking an additional set of shorter diversity seminars, also offered through Cornell’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. Cornell expanded its diversity program to Boston — only the second time the program is being offered outside New York — through the finesse of Kim Dukes-Rivers, founder of Diversity Staffing Pros, a year-old Boston firm. Dukes-Rivers said she knew of the program’s national reputation, and from her experience matching diverse candidates with employers, she was well aware of the need for Boston-area companies to deepen their understanding about diversity in the workplace. “This issue has moved from affirmative action to diversity to inclusion. It’s the difference between someone being invited to have a seat at the table and inviting them to be part of the conversation,” said Dukes-Rivers. And a business case can be made for workplace diversity, said diversity experts, centering on the fact that competitive companies and organizations are those that reflect the communities and markets they serve. “If we look at this only through the lenses of companies, they’ll say we’re all compliant and we’re very inclusive. But if you have a sales team that’s not reflective of the market, how successful are you going to be in penetrating a target market?” asked Darnell L. Williams, president and CEO of the Urban League of Massachusetts, which hosted a recent daylong seminar on diversity. In addition, it is more costly for a company to recruit and hire a new worker rather than make the environment comfortable enough for workers to stay. That’s among the reasons Blue Cross has four employees participating in the Cornell program, said Joyce Beach-Small, the health insurer’s director of diversity. Blue Cross wants to build a “workforce that reflects communities we serve. We want to be seen a market leader and an employer of choice,” she said. Most important, said Beach-Small and other workplace diversity experts, the Cornell program underscores the reality that workplace diversity has shifted from a conversation about compliance and the legal requirements of affirmative action to a deeper discussion about how to create an inclusive working environment. “There’s been a lot of talk about companies saying workers are their most important asset. How do you treat a best asset?” asked Robin Vann Ricca, senior director of workforce learning and development for The Home For Little Wanderers. “People respond to different things.” To that end, age and generational differences have become critical issues for employers to consider, complicated by the fact that, when groups form in the workplace, “age trumps ethnicity,” said Beach-Small. Younger workers of different races and ethnicities tend to bond and have more in common with each other, especially around technology, than with their older counterparts. “I wouldn’t say we should lose sight of other diversity issues we focus on,” said Beach-Small. “But the generational realities are phenomenal. Just phenomenal.”…; Added by Kim Dukes-Rivers at 4:59pm on February 16, 2010

Topic: The Longest Deal: job by default” At some point in every professional recruiter’s career, there is a certain deal that will be the defining moment in his/her career. A few will survive the experience and become great recruiters, while most will leave the profession, as a result. Here is the story of my defining moment; a deal that took two years to close. In November of 2009, a candidate, whom I have known for 15 years and have placed with her last two employers, sought my expertise in finding a suitable role in another country. I engaged in this search because her motivation to return to her homeland was a sincere one and there was a need for her skill-set in that part of the world. However I had no international recruitment experience and I was unfamiliar with the Asian business culture-but I thought the exposure could possibly lead to a new market for our services. MARKETING STRATEGY I went above and beyond my usual candidate marketing process on this particular assignment. I invested a significant amount of time in creating an on-line profile that would be accessible on the web. She has lived in the US for 20 years, so to market her international attributes, I created a profile that consisted of her resumes, photograph, personality test results, yearly sales performance graph, and a listing of countries in which she had reside. I also created a Twitter account, which was linked to her profile. The marketing strategy was to research/identify and follow executives/recruiters/employers; anyone on Twitter with a China interest or connection. I asked questions, participated in discussions on Asian oriented LinkedIn groups, created Google Alerts and RSS feeds for activities in that part of the world and learned as much as I could about China, as a market. In addition, I researched Asian niche job boards, created job alerts to email a link of her profile to potential hiring contacts. INTERVIEW PROCESS Two months into the strategy, one particular job lead prompted me to make phone calls to multiple people across the US in hopes of identifying the right person in China to present the candidate. I discovered that the right person was the head of the entire Asian pacific region for this global employer. The break came when one individual indicated that she would send an email along with my contact information to that individual. The challenge was to operate with a 12hr time difference; coordinating telephone interviews with folks in Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore, Australia and the US operations to move this 3 month interview process along. Looking back, all that effort was the easy part, because the problems started after the hiring manager decided to make an offer. CLOSING THE DEAL I learned that this particular hire would be the first of its kind for this particular region. This meant that new processes had to be created and implemented on the fly. It was also more challenging because China’s technological advancement was definitely about 10 years behind what we are accustomed in the United States. Also, the candidate’s demands from an acceptable offer perspective were even more challenging. (compensation, relocation, cost-of-living, retirement) as we had to take into account the before & after taxes, currency exchange rates, fluctuation in exchange rates and reporting responsibilities. I suggested that the hiring manager and candidate negotiate directly on these offer issues because the candidate certainly had more expertise on than I. During that period of time I received numerous phone calls of an urgent nature from the candidate -what’s taking so long? I really need to get out of here, dadadadah! After a few days without a call, I followed up with the candidate and I was shocked to learn that an unacceptable offer was verbally presented, but it didn’t matter because her current employer became aware that she was seeking to leave and is now trying to create a role for her in their China office. (A recruiter’s worst nightmare) A month later there was an announcement that her company was acquired by a competitor. I followed up with her and learned that her internal transfer was put on hold as her company now needed her skills to assist in the integration of both firms. Playing an instrumental role in the transition would create more meaningful opportunities for her career, she was told. SAVING THE DEAL She contacted me 3 months later and informed me that she is now willing to accept my offer if it was still on the table and if it was an improvement above the initial offer. I contacted the hiring manager and the offer was increased, plus a huge upfront and back-end bonus .plus relocation and living allowance; everything that the candidate asked for. She verbally accepted the offer and requested a start date of 4 months; because the Christmas holidays were approaching and it would allow her to collect her bonus that was not yet paid. And also to follow through on her present employer’s planned trip to China. Another purpose of the trip was to meet with the hiring manager, who would travel from Singapore to China to sign the offer letter and discuss plans and strategies. Upon her return to the States, she indicated that she had some concerns about the healthcare delivery system in China as she had a health related emergency which the medical professionals suspected to be cancer. Follow-up test were done in the US and thank goodness, all results were negative. That’s the good news; the bad news was that she was so concerned about her health while in China; she returned home without connecting with her new boss. (Who can blame her, given her state of mind!) Now that her health was no longer an issue, she needed to resign from her current employer and begin making plans to start her new job with her new employer in a new country. However, the hiring manager has not contacted her or retuned her phone calls. (My calls to the hiring manager were also unreturned) The candidate was devastated as she told me (90 minutes conversation) that her new boss was unaware of her health issues and totally mis-read the situation. (Since she left China without signing the offer letter; it was portrayed as not only as a turn-down, but she (hiring manager) was played for a fool after putting her neck on the line to get her what she wanted in an offer) But upon hearing the actual story, the hiring manager expressed sorrow because she had extended the offer to another member of her team-who was not qualified to handle the job done. (At that time I realized that after 20 years in recruiting, this was the worst deal of my career; one in which everyone involved came out on the losing end, including the individual who was given the job by default.) Three months later I received an email for the China HR Director indicating that we needed to discuss my placement fee. I contacted my candidate and learned that the hiring manager had kept in touch with candidate, made some changes in the division and had re-extended the offer-which she has accepted. Also, she had turned in her letter of resignation; a start date had been determined and the relocation process was in progress. Fast forward, a few days prior to her departure to China, I received an email from the candidate, indicating that the work-permit was declined as she had failed her physical examination. (A work permit is a requirement for non-citizens to work in China) Instead of getting on a flight to leave the country, she was checking into a specialty hospital for further evaluations. The candidate called a few days later to inform me of her specific condition (it was serious) with also a dose of reality. She was unemployed, unsure of her own health situation, paying expensive cobra health insurance premiums and not knowing her next step in life. For a period of six months, the hiring manager, as well as myself continued to keep in touch with the candidate, providing guidance and support. Follow-up test were conducted and happily, the results were favorable which led to the issuance of a work permit. After another month of internal red tape and new batch of signature authorizations, I received a voicemail from the candidate (Oct 21 2011) thanking me for my efforts and that she will reconnect when she get settled in China. What have I learned from this experience? Nothing new, but this experience certainly solidified many things that I have heard before. Technology, specifically social media tools in the hands of a good recruiter, will make that recruiter more effective in creating placement opportunities where opportunity did not exist. The skills of the old school recruiter is valued more in other countries where people still care about people, and have not yet replace them with the latest, cheap, fast and easy automated solutions. To recruit top talent, it is the reputation and track record of the hiring manager that should be sold; more so than the role, the employer brand or the career opportunity. The successful hiring managers win by exceeding expectations to show how much they care. Sometime it involves breaking rules to make it possible. And, restricting a recruiter from interacting with a hiring manager is one rule that should be broken. How much pain, failure or frustration should you endure before you give up on a goal that is important to you? The candidate and the hiring manager demonstrated that you should never give up because the pain is nothing; compare to the satisfaction and feeling of accomplishment that you will receive when that goal is achieved. …; Added by Ken Forrester at 9:05pm on November 5, 2011

Topic: Meet Julia Margherita-McInerny, Adobe Alum - Enjoying The Hunt As A Fearless Sourcer & Her Starbucks: infrey Show Fan of the following: Captain C.B. Sully Sullenberger and Starbucks Coffee Company Admire of : Shally Steckerl and JobMachine Cheatsheets Quote: " .. You can find us walking the dogs downtown Willow Glen stopping at Starbucks to refuel" Community Volunteering: Human Society, ASPCA, PugPros, Local Hospital, Reading for elementary school students through a Junior Achievement program" • Email Julia: juliamargherita@sbcglobal.net • Phone 408-504-4061 ** Currently Seeking New Opportunities** Q & A with Julia Margherita-McInerny Julia Margherita-McInerny is a Corporate Sourcer based in San Jose, California. Her staffing areas of expertise are in Advanced Internet Research identifying passive candidates, full-cycle recruitment, cold calling, and networking. She has worked at prominent Silicon Valley companies such as Intuit, The Gap, and most recently, as a Talent Scout at Adobe where she worked for the last three years until this past February. Julia has experience targeting varied job req disciplines, i.e., Marketing, Product Management, Human Resources, Legal, Corporate Communications, Internal Communications, Real Estate, Corporate Architecture & Construction, Visual Merchandising, E-commerce, User Experience Designers, Visual Designers, Technical, Engineering, Finance, Internal Consulting, and Customer Support. Life is an adventure, and Julia has a team effort supporting her latest chapter. Aside from her recent job search efforts, Julia has experienced the more satisfying life transitions that come with a recent marriage this past October with her husband Tim McInerny and building a nest with their two dogs, Carson the Mastiff and Lola the Pug. Six Degrees: Tell us of your home world. Julia: My husband Tim and I were married this past October. We had a beautiful wedding in Los Gatos, CA with 150 of our closet family and friends. We are settling into married life quite nicely along with our two dogs Carson the Mastiff and Lola the Pug. We are working on adding to our family! Since we both waited to marry a little later in life, we feel very lucky to have found each other. I’ve always said that finding your soul mate is like searching and finding the perfect candidate -- sometimes you have to search high and low and wait for the right one! We enjoy eating out and trying new restaurants. We also love entertaining and having friends and family over. On the weekends, you can find us walking the dogs downtown Willow Glen stopping at Starbucks to refuel or going to the dog park. Anyone who knows me knows I am an extreme animal lover. If I could adopt all of the stray and rescued dogs and cats out there, I would! I am a strong supporter of the Human Society, ASPCA and try to help PugPros, a local pug rescue group when I can. When I was growing up, I really wanted to become a veterinarian but I think it would be too hard for me to see animals hurt and in pain day in and day out. I can’t even make it through commercials about abused animals without shedding a few tears and forget any movies where the family pet passes away in the end!!! I also enjoy reading in my spare time. I’m always game for anything Oprah recommends! I also never get tired of a few of the classics including "Catcher In the Rye", "The Great Gatsby", "To Kill A Mockingbird", etc. For kicks, a good laugh and to keep in touch with the girly side of me, I’ve also ready the "Confessions of a Shopaholic" series! I have done some volunteer work in the past at a local hospital as well as reading for elementary school students through the Junior Achievement program. I’ve always found volunteering very rewarding and hope to donate more of my time soon. I try to stay active and make it to the gym a few times a week. I’ve dabbled in yoga and core training classes. I also love playing tennis and have played golf a few times but get frustrated easily! Six Degrees: How many years have you been in the staffing industry? Julia: I started recruiting in an agency in San Francisco in 1997. I placed paralegals and case clerks in some of the top law firms in SF. Prior to settling in staffing, I was a paralegal right out of college and worked for a large SF law firm mostly working on environmental and insurance defense cases. After 7 years working for lawyers, I decided it was not the right career for me -- I wanted to interact with people not documents day in and day out! I had always had an interest in human resources and recruiting so I decided to make a go of it. It was an easy and welcomed transition for me and I never looked back! After working for the agency for a few years, I desired corporate experience and really wanted to work for an internal staffing organization so I landed at Gap Inc. as a Sourcer and stayed for 5 years. I had the pleasure of working on all of the fun, creative jobs in the company including Advertising and Visual Merchandising. My hiring managers were the brains and talent behind all the Gap commercials and photo shoots -- I thought I was the “coolest” sourcer in town!! At that point in my career, I wanted to get exposure to the high tech and software industry and landed a contract gig at Intuit where I was hired to support Marketing and Product Management. Intuit was a wonderful experience and the free tax software was an extra bonus!! I joined Adobe Systems in 2006 as a Talent Scout and was brought on to source for the G&A functions including Marketing, Finance, Legal and Human Resources. I was also fortunate to get exposure to many other business functions within the company including User Experience Design, Professional Consulting, Customer Care and Inside Sales. I challenged myself every day with hunting for User Experience Designers/Architects and Computer Scientists!! Six Degrees: What single event had the most impact on your sourcing/recruiting career? Julia: It’s hard for me to narrow it down to just one event that has most impacted my sourcing career. Every company I’ve worked for has been unique from the other. Working for Gap in 1999 was really exciting -- we had prospective candidates beating down our doors wanting to work for the hip khaki retailer! Then the dotcom boom burst on the scene and we were fighting to save recent hires from going to start ups! It’s been such an experience watching the cycles of the economy and how it’s affected sourcing over the last 10 years. By the time I joined Adobe, I realized just how much I had learned about sourcing and what it takes to truly find and attract the ultimate passive candidate. One project that does come to mind was at Adobe and I was asked to become part of a team of recruiters and sourcers to staff a customer care center located in Canada. We were given the task of sourcing and filling over 100 positions within a very short period of time. The open positions were very technical and skill specific. The screening process for each candidate was very lengthy and detail-oriented. Sourcing for 100+ positions in a small market with a limited talent pool proved to be very challenging. I was not really familiar with the market in Canada let alone the complexity of the regions but I had to learn very quickly! Along with sourcing the candidates, I was also managing full cycle recruiting on this project. Through excellent team work and exceptional hiring managers, we were able to meet our goal and complete the project. This was very rewarding and will always have an impact on my career. Do you have a mentor to whom you attribute your overall outlook on recruitment, capabilities, and/or model your career after? Julia: I have been fortunate to have had many different mentors to whom I have looked up to throughout my career. I have had some wonderful managers who have been truly devoted to guiding and developing my skills as a Sourcer. I would have to give kudos to one of my managers at Gap when I started as a Sourcer who told me “you have to be fearless”. I remember being scared to death to make my first cold call! But I jumped in feet first and guess what happened!? The person on the other end of the phone was rude and hung up on me! I didn’t let that stop me - the more calls I made, the easier it became! I haven’t tried to model my career after anyone specific. I’ve really tried to make it my own and play upon my strengths. I have learned and gained best practices from all of the wonderful and talented Sourcers I have worked with throughout my career. I do, however, admire industry leaders such as Shally Steckerl and Dave Mendoza. Six Degrees: Tell us about your most recent gig as a talent consultant at Adobe, Julia. Julia: During my time at Adobe, there were three Talent Scouts (Sourcers) including myself, each supporting multiple recruiters. I had the opportunity to learn about many functional areas of the company but the most recent group I supported was the Technical Recruiters. This team of recruiters supported the business functions including Creative Solutions, Knowledge Worker, Advanced Technology Lab, Platform and Adobe’s User Experience Design organization. My main job was to source and build pipelines of candidates -- both active and passive. To find the “best of the best” and find out where they live, both physically and virtually! I conducted a lot of research of professional organizations, conferences and dove deep into social networking sites. Six Degrees: (A) What other companies' recruiting operations do you admire or have heard are best-practice examples? Julia: Definitely Microsoft for its complexity and best practices through word of mouth. They are always such a fun company to watch and have no trouble attracting prospective candidates. It’s exciting to see how their brand evolves and how they change their recruitment marketing. I try to educate myself and follow the trends by reading different recruiting blogs and news stories. Six Degrees: What recent general news story or industry trend do you feel will have an impact on your work in the future? Why? Julia: I think all the general hype around social networking sites are and will have an impact on the role of a Sourcer now and in the future. Most or all of the Sourcers I know spend at least 90% of their time networking and searching sites such as Linked In and Facebook. I really feel they will eventually take over completely. Perhaps even take the place of job boards -- at least for a means of sourcing candidates. Six Degrees: Have you been involved in broader industry events as of yet? Julia: No speaking events or awards to mention -- yet!! Six Degrees: What is your next career goal? What do you need to do to get there? Julia: I really feel I am in a good place right now. I am content in the role of a Sourcer. I enjoy the “hunt” and like the research aspect of the job. It is a thrill to source and develop a candidate that results in a hire. I am looking to be a part of a cutting-edge recruiting organization that isn’t afraid to push the limits. I thrive in a team environment where I can learn from my colleagues and feel my ideas are being heard and contributed. As long as I’m feeling good about what I am doing on a daily basis and my work is rewarding, that is all that matters to me. “HOW DOES THEY DOES JULIA DO IT?” Six Degrees: How many applicants at your present employer do you estimate are hired from your corporate website as compared to how many are hired through referrals? Julia: In my experience, the companies I have worked for have focused on continually increasing the number of hires through employee referrals. In general, the number of hires from referrals fluctuates between 30-40%. It seems companies are constantly trying to improve their employee referral programs to make the rewards more enticing for employees to refer great people but truth is, in this economy, it is more challenging. In general, I think about 10% of hires come from a corporation’s website or posting. A strong number of my hires have come from Linked In. I think in this economy, people are more open to networking and referring colleagues/friends for open jobs. In these tough times, people are more apt to help one another. Six Degrees: What is the source of the "Most Hires" collected from at your present employer? (In terms of Quantity #) Julia: In my experience, it really depends on the positions you are recruiting for. If I’m looking for a Computer Scientist or a specific type of Engineer, most of these hires seem to come from recruitment research done either internally or externally. Typically, these guys won’t have their resumes posted on job boards so a passive pipeline must be identified. There are some positions that are filled by job board resumes however, the types of positions I have worked on, require much more digging! Six Degrees: What is the source of your "LOWEST COST OF HIRES" - (least amount of invested resources for the easiest hires, regardless of quality) at your present employer? Julia: In my experience, a low cost hire is someone who has applied or submitted their resume in response to a posting or a resume posted on a job board. Also, prospective candidates who are already in our resume database are a good source. There could be someone who applied for one job but may be right for another. I usually go after the “low hanging fruit” first and I’m not implying they may be less qualified in any way -- the right candidate could be there right under your nose!! Another way to keep the cost of hires low is to leverage your own network. Reach out to current and former colleagues to see who they may know. Linked In has a great feature where you can send out job descriptions to your network to help with your sourcing efforts. No matter where I go or who I meet, I try to network -- you never know who you could meet! Six Degrees: What talent niche groups do you target and are these particular talent areas specialized under your review? Julia: I have had the opportunity to research and target numerous niche groups for the areas I have supported. Most of the positions I work on require digging and finding conference attendee lists, white papers and other publications, user groups, etc. For example, I have worked on a lot of User Experience Designer positions and this talent pool does not post their resumes on general job boards. The good talent is usually already working and in high demand AND receiving lots of calls from recruiters! There are a handful of niche designer websites/job boards I have to target to get their attention and potentially look at their portfolio. Six Degrees: What types of training in sourcing/recruitment are available to you and have you taken advantage of? Julia: In the past I have taken a few of Shally Steckerl’s seminars as well as attended AIRS training classes. I still use JobMachine’s cheat sheets! I recently participated in one of Craig Silverman’s webinars. I also subscribe to the recruiting/sourcing blogs and keep abreast of the news that way. I really like reading the daily blogs for tips from other sourcers or recruiters. Six Degrees: What recruitment software tools do you use in your day to day recruitment activities & do they translate effectively within all of the different countries where you recruit? Julia: Google and Yahoo search engines for Boolean searches of course! I have also been exposed to Virtual Edge, Filefinder and other ATS. Most of the jobs I have worked on have been based in the U.S. or Canada but it is important that any tool we utilize can be used globally as well. Six Degrees: What tools (technology or old school file folder, for example) did you first encounter early in your recruitment career? Julia: When I worked for the agency, we were still using hard copies of job orders and Excel spreadsheets to track candidates! I also used something similar to ResumeMix. Six Degrees: How did your expectations of being a recruiter compare to the actual, first time you got on the phone or in the cubicle? In your opinion, how do people's assumptions about our vocation differ from reality? Julia: When I worked for the agency, it was easy because all the candidates I called or interviewed came to us to register so there was no fear of the “unknown response!” I remember the day I made my first cold call -- sweaty palms and all! Of course the person on the other end of the call was rude and eventually told me never to call them at work again! What a way to start! But I kept going and it got easier as time went by. It’s easy to sell the company you are working for but it’s another story when you don’t know ANYTHING about what the person does that you are targeting!! I find it easier to let them talk about what they do. It helps me really learn the technology. Six Degrees: Worst mistake, biggest goof, lousiest practice you thought would fly but didn’t…and how that was a learning experience? Julia: Well, everyone makes mistakes now and then! I think the most important thing I’ve learned is to gather all of the pertinent information from the candidate the hiring manager is looking for -- leave no stone unturned. You really need to know their compensation expectations, relocation requirements (if needed), visa needs and any other expectations in the beginning of the process to avoid any obstacles down the road. Six Degrees: How do you personally expect to facilitate change within our industry, and/or at your place of work? If you started that process, outline the problem, your solutions, and the vision. Julia: I don’t know that I can change our industry but I can certainly work on changing and improving on my skills. If I can contribute creative ideas to an organization, I will feel good about what I am doing every day. I have good days and bad days -- there are some days when I feel like I’ve been spinning my wheels with no results but that is what happens in the staffing world! Six Degrees: What are some of the frustrating aspects/obstacles to your day to day as a staffing professional and in general? Julia: There are some days when I feel I haven’t accomplished much…..no matter how much research or digging I do, I still haven’t produced a viable candidate! I will complain and be frustrated one day and the next I will find three great candidates -- it’s very cyclical. Six Degrees: What are the most common themes of strategic and/or tactical mishaps involving past or present HR/Staffing org? Julia: I think staffing organizations sometimes get a bad rap. There are some individuals out there that think recruiters are paper pushers who sit back and wait for resumes to come in and offer no value to an organization. When in fact the reality is, there is a lot of strategic work that goes on behind the scenes. There is a perception out there that most staffing organizations out there are more reactive than proactive. This is simply not the case. Six Degrees: Considering all of the frustrations you have experienced in your career as a recruiter, -- what inspires you as you continue in your career? I try to remember all of the hires and successes I’ve had. It is so satisfying identifying and developing a candidate who gets hired and eventually comes on board and is so ultimately happy where they are. Also, working with a supportive team keeps me going. If my colleagues are happy and are having fun with what they are doing, it is very refreshing! Six Degrees: What one thing do you ideally hope to accomplish in 2009? Julia: I really want to double or even triple my current networks! Six Degrees: Anything you want to plug? Julia: I am currently looking for my next sourcing opportunity - please contact me if you are interested in reviewing my resume!…; Added by Dave Mendoza at 11:31pm on April 5, 2009