Hey Recruiters: It's time to turn on the lights and chase the cockroaches out. The story below is real and happened just this past week. It’s a story of fraud and one that has real world implications on my business.

If you haven’t heard the radio commercials for Zip Recruiter, you must listen to some remote C & W station from Muleshoe, Texas. 

My latest experience with Zip Recruiter

I was minding my business yesterday; I answered my phone. …

Most of us remember the first few weeks or months of our start in recruiting marked by the horrific memory of the first mistake we made or the first weird happening.  Although somewhat lost in the mists of time there are two that i will never forget.

I was preparing for my first cold call presentation of a candidate.  Went over my candidate's resume and interview notes for at least an hour.  Even wrote myself a script with the fellows name i was going to call.  Will never forget his…

Twenty Five years ago i placed a young man with a state cattle feeding organization.  He quickly rose to head of their marketing department.  He moved on to manage a large cattle feeding operation in the South.  I was contacted by the representative of an international meat production corporation from Japan who needed a U. S. manager for their operations they wanted to open in the United States.  I tracked this outstanding young man down and presented him to my Japanese client.  It was a…

I lease a barn and acreage a few miles outside of town where i keep six horses.  I hire high school and college kids to do all the dirty and heavy work that i can't or don't want to do.  Since the mid 90's i have had absolute hell (with two notable exceptions) finding kids who would, show up or even call if they couldn't get there, do more than the absolute minimum and that not well, couldn't walk from point A. to point B. without supervision or a map to get to point C or showed any…

There were two young recruiters who got tired of pounding the phones, making people mad, fighting for job orders, being dissed by internal recruiters and HR and being one upped by their office mates who had been in the business for years who seemed to be making all the placements and all the money.

They decided to revolunitize the industry, go into career consulting and placement, get paid by candidates then offer up those candidates to companies at a much reduced rate...like…

I was having one of those fun discussions with another recruiter last night.  You know the kind where one of you says, "you are not going to believe what my candidate or my client did today".  They tell you , you laugh and say, "My friend, the first story always suffers."  After about 30 minutes of that we reached a learned consensus that the world is doing "weird shit" right now.  Maybe we are too, but of course we didn't seem to think so, or at least i didn't think he was doing a lot of…

I love words.  I am one of those people who hears a new word, looks it up and uses it three times so it becomes part of my spoken and written vocabulary.  There is a name for that but i need to look up that word. :)

Words can and do sell.  One does not have to be a world class journalist to write a cover letter for a resume that inspires your client to want to know more or bring that candidate in or do a phone interview.  Every candidate has "a story".  When i present a…

During this holiday season please remember that friends do not let friends get drunk and sing Christmas Karaoke.

For some smiles let's play you know you are a recruiter if...

You know you are a recruiter if you go to a party, meet a new person ,when they tell you what they do for a living you ask them how long they have been there.  If it's less than a year you immediately think..not recruitable yet, then ask them how long they worked for the commpany they…

Dear Penn State Undergrads,

You have just been hit between the eyes with a hard dose of the real world.  I notice that you are not handling it very well so let me try to give you something to think about besides  your folk hero and the game on Saturday.  As i have listened to your comments ,i am reminded of the time many moons ago when my world consisted of Wildcat football games, painting the "A" at the University of Arizona, boondockers with a keg or two and once in a while a…

Tom Dimmick, seasoned HR professional turned Third Party Firm owner of DK Search, and I were having a discussion about the recruiting process and what it really is to most job seekers. As well as everybody involved with the mess.

After 25 years in corporate HR Tom speaks from both the internal and external viewpoint.

Tom’s take on the recruiting process and why it will never be a totally positive process no matter how many cows we give away, what kind of system we use or how hard…

Monday of this week started off on an upbeat note. Two potential placements coming to a close after months of what I am beginning to regard as not recruiting but “search and rescue missions”. Rescue for my clients who need that very specific candidate who has the skills, will fit with their group and is in the range they can afford. Rescue for candidates both active and passive who for whatever reason are worried if employed or really worried if not employed.

The first portent that…

Any time i have to pick a number between 1 and 10 i pick 7.  I always have.  I don't know why it just is what it is.  I like the way 7 looks when i write it or type it. 

For years i had 7 recruiters on staff.  When one quit or i fired one i would hire one more, never over 7 and never under 7.  If somebody came along who wanted to join the team i had to tell them that they would have to wait until somebody moved, quit or died then i would give them a call.  I once called a guy and…

Rather than bury this in a serious discussion thread on Katie's Dear John post i thought it might be kind of fun to make it a response to her Dear John letter.  Please understand it's for fun...sort of.

Dear Katie,

Thank you so much for your letter.  It is at least nice to know that you are well and something bad had not happened to you. I respect your position and your budget constraints.  Actually the reason for my call was three fold.  I really wanted to discuss all…

I have been lurking (albeit with a few interjections of wisdom) in several tweet chats in the past few weeks. All dedicated to “how tos” How to find a job, how to write a resume, how to interview. From the vantage point of having listened to HR and hiring managers give me feedback after candidate interviews for over three decades my opinion of tweet chat how tos can be best described by the thought I had in the middle of one of them last week. Damn! This is like Playin the Dozens with a…