In financial markets they talk about canny investors being “stock-pickers”, which refers to an ability to select ‘diamonds in the rough’; investments that will outperform over time.

Great recruiters are “talent-pickers”.

We would love to place every person who approaches us, or who we interview. But that is not going to happen.

In fact, spreading your talent activity too thin will dilute your ability to find people work. Candidate selection is key. Selecting the best…

In our line of work, underemployed and unemployed friends and relatives seek out our advice.  Usually a resume rewrite, LinkedIn account, and updated resume on a job board will get them further in a hour than 6 months of blindly applying for jobs. For my two nephews, this helped them land in 3 weeks in a down market.  "Uncle Bert, people were calling me the next day." Way to go Patrick and Aaron!

I have a…

So it seems that al-Qaeda is struggling to find a new leader.

It is apparent that all interviews have gone well, until the last minute when the candidate has asked

“So…how did this vacancy come about?”

Asking the right question at the right time is the difference between taking on a great vacancy and taking on a dog. A dog, will lead you all over the place, take you up the garden path and then leave an awful stench when it goes wrong.

We have all…

Here are some ideas that I have tried recently that have found the hard to find needle in a haystack - trust me they work the miracles when the chips are down and you need to find your rock star diamond hidden in the rough:

Candidate pipelining - build the network and they will come - on LinkedIn join user groups of which you can have 50 - create a compelling blog which lists your latest opportunities and post to the user groups every two weeks.  Soon compelling candidates…

“People will hate you, rate you, break you, and shake you; How strong you stand is what makes you”- Judy Reynolds, Facebook 2011.

Interesting comment I received via Facebook the other night. And how timely and true it could really be. Everyone wants to be number #1, sometimes so much so, that they forget the things they felt were important at one time, or feel that success is the be all and end all. To me, this all comes down to merit, how much faith we place in ourselves; and how…

First, I would like to congratulate the employees and executives at LinkedIn.  What a tremendous day for your company.

The LinkedIn IPO has and will spark up the debate about an impeding Social Media Bubble.  But, if you are involved in the recruiting space in any way, you should be excited…

So.... I'm now ten months into this job with Peerlo now, time flies huh?

It's been an interesting journey, it's been a fun journey, but I tell you what.... I feel like I've learned a lot, about a lot of things, even myself!  So far some of the interesting discoveries have been

1) I broke a promise to myself over the last couple of years.  Almost 10 years ago I promised myself that I wouldn't out stay my welcome in a company again (after doing that)  However, I think I…

Recruiting agencies and employers posted over 36,000 new online job ads for marketers in April.  This is a 29% increase over April 2010. 

Hiring Demand for Marketing Managers — 4-Years:

Source:…

On April 25th, Huffington Post reported on a recent law passed in New Jersey in March that prohibits job postings that may be discriminatory in nature. Who are these posts discriminating against? The unemployed.



Any job ads that specifically exclude those still unemployed will be deemed unfair by the state. In greater detail…

I liked Jerry E. Thurber’s Blog today, May 18, 2011 on:  Social Media Background Check: 5 Things Not to Tweet – so much so that I’m doing a Blog on Blog because I feel the subject deserves a contrary assessment on the possible downsides of actually eliminating, hiding or glossing over what could be true…

Total volume added in the past 90 days and the percentage increase compared to the same period last year.

Data: WANTED Analytics | Analysis: StaffingU…

We are single industry recruiters in New York City.  We insist on meeting all our candidates in person.  If someone is not within commuting distance of New York, we do Skype calls.  I am shocked at the number of people who don't show up.

1. Cold Calls. If you are cold calling me from any company that rhymes with Blobert Blaf or similar companies, call me from your mobile because I can see your company on my caller ID.  Expect me to still blow you off, but call me in 6 months to show me you made it. We may talk then.…

A friend of mine who runs a small staffing firm in Connecticut asked me if I could recommend a software package that is not too expensive and can handle their candidate and client data. 

It needs to store lots of notes on people, have good skill set sorting, etc.

Any suggestions? What does your firm use?

The world of social media can be confusing at best especially with the myriad of sites out there claiming to be social media websites. So what is all the hype about huh, and why should we be listening as recruiters? In short – social media is a must have for digital engagement and reputation development especially in recruitment!

As mentioned there are a lot of sites out there from photo sharing on flickr, video sharing on YouTube, social…

Any job board operator will tell you that one of the toughest things about keeping your site running well is ensuring that you have a steady flow of the right kind of candidates. What exactly is the ‘right kind of candidate’? Well, this would a candidate that is qualified for a particular job AND responds to that job. If you have enough of these candidates, your employers will be happy and they will pay to use your site.

Problem is, finding these candidates is easier…

While employers have long conducted education verification checks on their employment candidates, it appears that increasingly more staffing and recruiting groups are being made responsible for conducting this and other background checks as part of the employment screening process.

Education history, of course, outside of criminal records, is one of the more significant searches.   For many positions,  education is not just a prerequisite but also vital to employment candidate's…

A couple of weeks ago I went through my thoughts on what a newbs 10 considerations should be when thinking about having a stab at social…