Each recruit is different.  Candidates are motivated by a variety of factors of various importance – money, title, job description, geography, career path, family issues, ego.  Each candidate has a unique combination of these motivational factors.  Along with these are our (as recruiters) emotions, which will range from love to hate.  Understanding and controlling our emotions can go a long way to help more accurately analyze the candidates’ mix of motivating factors, as well as lead to…

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You wouldn’t show up at a dinner party you were invited to with a serving of fish in a cooler and ask your host to cook it for you, would you? The host may remember you, but not very fondly. Similarly, savvy candidates will often try to make their mark during the interview. We instruct them to do so. And yet there is a tendency for some to take it too far. Typically we find out from the client interviewing the candidate just how far from center they strayed. There can be a fine line between… Continue

Obvious phony identities are encountered from time to time on linkedin, facebook, and twitter as well as several other locations where recruiters see potential to find candidates. Whether the name is John Doe, William Peters, Jane Foster, or something with some originality, recruiters set up fake identities for a number of reasons. Maybe they are running a secondary business that they do not want their employers to know about. Maybe they don't want ex-employers to know they are breaking their… Continue

Beware the dreaded follow up letter from the candidate thanking you, or worse, thanking your client for interviewing him/her. In all cases there is little/nothing to gain and everything to lose. In almost all cases the candidate makes an error – spelling, grammatical, or factual; and the error is picked up by the reader and it’s game over. Today I received such a letter in the form of an email. “Steve, thanks for the interview….. Please tell Mr Smith that I will be available to speak with… Continue

So your candidate has accepted your job. You, your candidate and your client are all happy. For a professional recruiter however, this task is not yet complete. While all recruiters are trained to make sure the candidate knows how to resign and is prepared for the various soon to be ex-employer reactions that can jeopardize the deal, most recruiters do not understand the importance of the candidate leaving his/her current employer properly. That goes way beyond 2 weeks notice and handing over… Continue

After a few years witnessing the continual buildup of fake resumes, we seem to have finally cracked the armor and have had several candidates who have presented their fake resumes fess up. We take the direct approach - "We know your resume is fake because it has all the earmarks of the typical fake resumes we receive daily. If you want help finding work, please send us your real resume and we will help you." This direct approach works more times than not. It results in both an admission that… Continue