If you do something well, it is better to put more effort and resources into doing more of it than to branch off into something new.  That is until you’ve covered most of the market.

It’s a really big world and most businesses don’t have enough market share to worry about having too little room to grow.  If you’re fishing in the ocean, there’s no need to go out and hunt buffalo.  Just cover more water more efficiently.

Todd…

I’m a Cubs fan.  Have been all of my life.  Last year the Cubs won the World Series and it was an incredible ride all year long.  This year, not so much.  They are playing 500 baseball (roughly the same number of wins as losses) and while they could still turn it on, they aren’t dominating like they did last year.

This year some other teams are dominating.  The Astros and Dodgers to name a couple.  The Astros have clearly followed the same process as the Cubs.  Drafting well, building…

Great results come from doing good work consistently over a long period of time.  It’s easy to fall into the trap of believing that a heroic effort will generate a quantum leap to greater success.

In recruiting or any other business it takes a build up to break through to generate truly great results and a sustainable high level of success.

todd@toddkmiec.com…

As in right now.  If you know you want to hire the candidate, make the offer.  If this may be the right candidate, set the interview.  Immediately.  If you know you are going to need to fill a certain role, start the search.  Right away.

Too many times a good hire doesn’t happen because someone drags their feet.  Sometimes it’s a very short delay, but that’s all it takes.  Desired candidates, those that fit important roles, are in high demand.  If you don’t move then someone else…

The recent trend with NBA stars is to try and team up with other stars to create Superteams.  The Golden State Warriors who recently won the NBA title certainly qualify and other teams and players are trying to find ways to catch them.  Today Chris Paul was traded to the Houston Rockets giving them two superstar point guards.  That’s a unique approach and a very serious attempt to create a Superteam that can compete with the Warriors and others.

Having a Superteam is great.  In sales,…

My son just graduated from high school and will be entering college this Fall as a freshman.  Since the prestigious university that he is attending is close to home he decided to take a class this summer to get a head start.  The other day I dropped him off for class and was surprised to see so many other students clearly heading to and from classes on campus.

These are our future candidates (and hiring managers) and there are a lot of them spending their summer getting ahead.  There…

There has been a lot of talk over the last 7 or 8 years about those not participating in the labor market.  People who are not working and not trying to get back to work.

For recruiting purposes they don’t matter.  They matter to our economy and to society as a whole, but they aren’t part of the recruiting equation.  You need to be qualified enough and motivated enough in order to really matter to the businesses that are working to grow and improve.…

We get trapped into the short view.  Someone resigns and we've got to fill that position now.  Something changes in the business and we now have an urgent need.

No doubt, we are under pressure to fill positions in a lot of cases.  The short view.  We need to get this done now, or else.  But recruiting is really about the long view.  Building a great business doesn't happen in the short run.  It happens because of great work done over a long period of time.  Consistent effective…

The candidate pool for any search is constantly changing.

An available candidate accepts a new position, no longer in the pool.

Qualified potential candidate who won’t respond to new opportunities because they are happy where they are has a sudden change and is now open to considering a change, enters the pool.

Candidate with too little experience crosses that line so they now have enough, enters the pool.

The candidate pool is a living breathing thing.  Effective…

Resumes are used to find reasons to eliminate.  After that, they are used to find reasons to separate.

So look at your resume and try to eliminate reasons to eliminate.  Job hopping is a good example and is consistently used to eliminate.  It takes time and diligence to avoid that one.  Others, like grammar and spelling errors or confusing presentation, can be easily fixed any time.

Reasons to separate are harder.  Take care of the reasons to eliminate first and then look for…

Sometimes candidates miss interviews.  Unforeseen circumstances do occur.  That’s okay and most of the time the hiring authority will understand.  As long as you communicate.

Car accident, just found out that a relative is sick and needs you right away, dog buried your car keys…….just call right away and let the recruiter or hiring manager know.  If you don’t show up and don’t communicate for a day or two then your excuse will fall on deaf ears.  They’re not that dumb.  Everyone…

Sales trainers used to train you to pin down your prospect.

“Which do you prefer, the green one or the blue one?”

“Who do you know that’s a fit for this position right now?”

Getting pinned down is uncomfortable.  Many people who get pinned down are going to avoid communication with the source of the pinning in the future.  When networking for candidates it’s much better to inquire honestly making it easy for the person you’re asking to help you now or at any time that…

The tools we now have for recruiting are incredible vs what was available just 10 and 20 years ago.  The internet, email, job boards, networks, databases, analytics, and on and on….

But good tools are of minimal value on their own.  It’s how you use the tools that matters.  That’s both a skill thing and an effort thing.  Give the right guy a good set of tools and he’ll build a great house.  Give me the same tools and you’ll have a real mess.  Recruiters have the tools to greatly…

In “How Google Works” by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg, they devote a significant amount of time to hiring stating that hiring is the most important thing you do.

Look at any great company, or even a single branch or unit of any great company, and then imagine that business without it’s best employee.  Then imagine it without it’s best two or three employees.  The impact is incredible.  Great hiring builds great businesses. Bad hiring builds bad businesses and businesses that…

Hustle makes the breaks called luck.  This was a favorite line of a high school coach I had and a line that always stuck with me.  This is not to say that you are just lucky if you hustle and good things happen.  It is to say that if you hustle good things happen and some people look at it as luck, but your hustle made things happen and put you in a position to succeed.

As recruiters we run our processes, make the extra call, ask for referrals, make the extra follow up, and do them…

If you’ve been around in business since the turn of the century (I like saying that. Makes me feel old and experienced) then some of what we see going on in the world may remind you of the most recent downturns in the economy.

Air strikes on terrorist targets, lofty stock market, political climate, unemployment, income disparity. There is a lot to compare to the Dotcom Bust and the Financial Crisis. But things are different now and I believe we are in decent shape going forward. It’s…

Success comes, in large part, from luck.  Michael Lewis recently gave a commencement speech at Princeton and this was his theme.

I found the speech and the stories circulating about it interesting.  I like Lewis and think he has some good perspective on a number of issues.  The circumstances we were born into and much of what affects our lives in a very basic way is certainly just luck.  In recruiting we deal with luck all the time.  There are so many moving parts and so many issues…

Someone asked me last week how business is.  When I told them it was great, they said that is really good because they see us as a leading indicator.  I don’t really see us as a leading indicator and after giving it some thought I think there is a general misunderstanding of what our market is.

As third party recruiters, the overall job market is not our market.  The overall job market still stinks.  Unemployment is way too high and the long-term unemployment numbers are terrible.…