Yesterday I listened to a recruiter as they were making recruiting calls to NP's.  One of the nurses expressed interest and the recruiter conducted a screening interview.  The recruiter at the end of the interview "closed" the candidate on how serious they were about making a move, using the following script....

"Jane, sounds like you are a good fit for my client, I can present you there.  I would also like to market you to the 100+ other possible employers in your area  who…

The Recruiting Animal Show - September 28, 2011

A few people call in to tell us one thing they learned last summer.

Proof that I haven't gone viral: not many people were eager to contribute.

This version does not begin with an ad…

Interesting thing on the way to the Unconference! Besides the obvious problems with the highway going to Toronto, Ontario; and the fact that a one hour commute in this day is an average of 2 hours now, I had absolutely NO idea what to expect. I don’t work well with the unknown (yet my career would say otherwise) and I like to have some idea what I am to expect—> I…

Another blog from the archives. This post caused lots of reaction when I posted it on my own blog. be interested in your reactions:

Now this might seem a bit controversial, it’s not intended to be. I'm a big advocate for using social in the recruitment process, I'm just not convinced recruiters are best placed to be doing it. I came to this conclusion…

Aaahhh it’s happened again – 23 years recruiting and clients still have the capacity to hit you where it really really hurts.  So you are working away on a contingency assignment,  the client has changed the profile twice but despite everything you have the final two candidates in for final round – they like both, both like the company and one of them will be offered the role.  This is a senior role and the fee is a big one.  You know what it’s like – the commission is spent and I think it’s…

I work in a busy RPO office, we make dozens of employment offers on behalf of our clients every single day and 9 times out of 10 these offers are accepted. Candidates are grateful for the offer and excited to start a new job and hiring managers get a brand new person on board.

I have noticed though, that there seems to be a small percentage of candidates who wait until the very last moment to demand a very unreasonable change to their offer. In my previous firm someone's…

To many in the business world, recruiters are the cowboys of the wild west, swaggering into the bar, a cocky tilt to their hat, six shooters blazing, while HR the barkeep stands protectively behind the bar,  dressed in conservative fashion, running a tidy shop, trying to conserve the peace and keep any ruffians under control.

Below is a tongue and cheek…

If you are involved in resourcing, whether in house or on the supply side, you won't have failed to have noticed the big shift and conversation around direct resourcing.  You will also, I’m sure, have come across many conversations about the candidate experience, or lack of it – see here for…

In my opinion failure to prepare for anything you do in life, never mind my job as a recruiter or for an interview is a fatal sin.

Abraham Lincoln said “Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four hours sharpening the axe".  This is the way any successful person should prepare for every battle.  Don’t get me wrong I haven’t always been someone…

Last week, to put it mildly, was a difficult week.  Several weeks of sourcing, countless phone screens, a job description that changed more times than Lady Gaga changes hairstyles and a group of hiring managers that think they’re the Second Coming culminated in a hiring event on Thursday.  Six open positions and eight prescreened/qualified applicants.  The odds were in my favor, or so I thought.

By the end of the day I was feeling pretty good about what we had accomplished. …

“Recruiting is hard. It’s just finding the needles in the haystack. You can’t know enough in a one-hour interview. So, in the end, it’s ultimately based on your gut. How do I feel about this person? What are they like when they’re challenged? I ask everybody that: ‘Why are you here?’ The answers themselves are not what you’re looking for. It’s the meta-data.” – Steve Jobs

Finally someone has come out and said what we in the business of recruiting and talent acquisition have known all…

A colleague got me going on this blog idea...and after a little research I love it!. For those of you who don’t know who Gunnery Sergeant Hartman is, he’s one of the main characters in Full Metal Jacket and is…

Lately I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, about Facebook.   And as a result, I found myself watching the “Social Network” movie for a second time!

It’s interesting because I do have a Facebook page, but only because friends & family and those from the past continued to send invites to connect.  Very seldom do I log in. I don’t play games, write on someone’s wall or read updates.

So it’s obvious that I am not yet a real fan or user of Facebook!  I see it as the old beer…

There has been a few posts recently on refferal recruiting, and whether technology and employer branding initiatives will make every employee a recruiter for the company.That's not a view I hold. The best people to recruit are recruiters, Their job is to identify the best candidates for a post, manage the hiring manager and both sides of the process and close all parties…

Our Executive Search work is done primarily in Software, Mobile, and Interactive media and as such we’re often engaged in nationwide searches that require a Skype or other Video Conference call. With each virtual interview that we facilitate I offer coaching and general pep-talks to our candidates prior to their call so as to leave them well prepared for what is…

What’s the point with references ? After all, people will only give you the names of referees who will say good things about them (unless they are really stupid) and (if they are smart) will have prepped them to say what they think the recruiter will want to hear. With this in mind how much value do references really add to the recruitment process ? 

If your approach to referencing is to just go through the motions because you have to take references, then there is…

8 years in and I have been there done that.  Although much more is always still to be learned, I spoke with a former boss of mine - we worked together years ago at Venturi Staffing - this evening who still remains to this day a Selling Branch Manager at Manpower one of the largest staffing firms in the world.  He mentored me early on in my days out of college providing the type of role model we all hope to have.

Since that time I have been through my own journey discovering…

A recent blog post on www.ere.net poses an interesting question "Frequent Job Hopper - Should We Ignore Them?"

For many recruiters, the knee-jerk reaction to this question is a resounding "Yes!" After all, your clients don't want to pay you good money to place…

By Karen Bucks, iCIMS Blogger

A couple of weeks ago, I got this notice in the mail that brightened my day, well week, well actually a good month. It was a jury summons! Wait what? Yes, you’ve heard me correctly…jury…

“You say you want a revolution, well, you know, we’re all doing what we can.” – The Beatles

“We’re pinheads all, jocko homo.” -DEVO

These lyrics really get to the two extremes of what recruiters, employers, and job seekers think might happen with job boards. On the one hand, there are those who think job boards are on the way out, ‘devolving’ into lowest common denominator sites that carry fake jobs and offer little…