Recruiting and matchmaking - not entirely the same, but not so different either.



A friend is single, yet can't manage to find a guy/girl because work/school/life is too hectic - just like the customer who has a vacancy yet can't seem to find the right candidate on their own. You get to work thinking about who you know that would be interested and has a personality that will mesh with your single pal - sounds like sourcing a qualified candidate to me. You set up some sort of meeting,… Continue

There is very little in the world of recruiting that is more disheartening or frustrating than having an offer declined. After all the work that was done to source the candidate, sell them to the customer, arrange interviews, and negotiate an offer, the whole deal falls through and you're back to zero. It stings, most notably in the wallet area for my compatriots on the independent/agency side. As a result, developing a method to boost offer acceptance is key for any recruiter.



There… Continue

Let's face it, people love to be in control. Not only that, but we like to think we have control over (or at least a handle on) things that are completely and totally unpredictable. Take, for example, the stock market. There are plenty of people who are supposed to be experts, yet it has been proven that even the experts don't get it right all of the time.



A Swedish newspaper gave $1,250 each to five stock analysts and a chimpanzee named Ola, to test who could make the most money… Continue

Right around this time of year I always seem to have a soft spot for the slightly (or severely) disadvantaged. For some reason March Madness is something I can't pass up and I always love a good Cinderella story. Which got me to thinking - there are underdogs everywhere, not just in sports, and in times like these it must be tough to be in the shoes of the little guy.



Clearly recruiting feels the sting of a bad economy, and I'd wager to say it makes things very tough for the 'mom and… Continue

For whatever reason, people don't tend to appreciate the things in life that take little or no effort. Think about the lucky kid whose parents bought him a brand new car for his 16th birthday - did he treat it with half the respect you had for the 1962 clunker you spent your life's savings on? Probably not.



Whatever it is, most people have a greater appreciation for that which takes some work to achieve, be it a possession or a new job.



When I think back to the hires I've… Continue

Well, well, look who finally decided to remember how much fun it is to blog!



To say it has been one of those weeks sounds so very cliché, but quite true. To say I minded would be a lie, though. Work has been an absolute whirlwind of activity in the last few days and I'm glad to have hardly had the time to justify taking a peek at my guilty pleasure that is RBC.



Those of you who have read my previous material know I'm a big proponent of the candidate's experience, taking… Continue

Piggybacking off of Steve's post about undermining your career I feel inspired to delve a little deeper into the topic of when enough is enough. By way of a little setup, I'm notorious for my inability to say no...



About four or five weeks ago I had a gentleman walk into the lobby in my office requesting to meet with somebody in HR or recruiting. The receptionist dialed my extension and I was promptly connected with him. He stated that he was working on a class project and needed no… Continue

With restrictions being placed on essentially every aspect of our hiring it has made talent pooling an interesting endeavor. Sure, we have a few 'future opportunity' positions posted here and there, and the plethora of unemployed engineers in the area means I have a steady flow of unsolicited applications from experienced professionals.



But what of our entry-level talent?



Historically my company has had a strong co-op and intern program that was something of a farm system… Continue

Taking a little inspiration from one of my all-time favorites, I re-wrote a song to cheer up an agency friend of mine who had a string of bad luck. I realize my lyrics aren't nearly as genius as the original, but hopefully this at least brings a smile to a few faces.



It's five o'clock on a Friday

The clock watchers all punching out

My manager he walks up to me

And he looks just a bit down and out



He says, "Son, can you find me a resume?

I'm not really… Continue

Just this morning I received a request from one of my contacts to write a recommendation for his profile. Although I had met and spoken with this gentleman a few times before I didn't quite know him well enough to write anything but I clicked on his profile out of curiosity all the same. Not very surprisingly he has a lot of recommendations which were likely solicited in a similar manner from his other contacts. What did shock me was the sheer number of them, though - over… Continue

All the tech tools that we have for sourcing are great, but don't mean a whole lot if you can't use the information you gather. Click here to read more.