As a belated mother's day gift to the mothers on the board...



Top 10 Reasons Mothers Make the Best Recruiters:



10. We’ve been lied to by enough men and children to know exactly what a lie looks like before it even gets out of a hiring manager or candidate’s mouth.



9. We’ve spent most of our lives surrounded by whiners so we are able to tune out anything annoying.



8. The meanest hiring managers/executives/company owners are not intimidating to a woman… Continue

I've read a lot of blogs and articles and have sat in on countless webinars and seminars about what makes a "good" candidate and how to prep them for interviews and you know what--so much of it is so superficial it makes me want to vomit. Whatever happened to hiring people based on merit? Education, skills, training, on-the-job experience doesn't count for enough now. You also have to be pretty, charming, witty, drive a nice car, wear a nice suit, shake hands, smile, kiss babies--when did… Continue

I'm giving you all fair warning and letting you know that this is a touchy-feely kind of blog. If you are looking for some sort of information on how to become a better recruiter, you will not find it here. Actually, you will probably not find it in any of my blogs ever.



I woke up at 6:30am to discover my 2-year-old son, Cole, whining in his crib. I pick him up and he cuddles next to me like a baby kooala bear. Cole is usually in great spirits when he wakes up in the morning so I was… Continue

http://money.cnn.com/2009/04/17/news/companies/citigroup/index.htm?postversion=2009041706

I am not surprised they showed a profit (finally.) They laid off a ton of people and are lending "conservatively."

I am finding that one of my biggest challenges of late is finding and having to represent the most abhorent, rude, arrogant, pompus, skilled, intelligent, well-educated, experienced jerks with inflated senses of self-worth. Originally when I came across these people I parked them in my database and said, "the hell with you, you stupid dick! I hope you never get another job again." However, I realized that my approach is immature. In real life I can decide to cut jerks out of my life (and do,… Continue

I wrote this blog on my personal myspace page last summer. At the time the company I was working for was going downhill rapidly and I had only been there for a year. I read Claudia's Discussion about the meaning of success and it made me think how far I've come and what a journey it has been. I think one of my strengths as a Recruiter has been being able to identify with my candidates. I've been job hunting more than I care to think about in my life and it's always fresh in my mind how scary… Continue

One of my biggest pet peeves and one of the biggest interviewing faux pauxs that people make is using the word "we" in an interview. As in, "Well, what WE did was build the models using SAS." We? Is there a mouse in your pocket or something? What's this we crap? I am not interviewing your company or your team, I am interviewing YOU. I want to know what YOU do. How is an interviewer to decipher between what YOU do and what your co-workers did if you keep using the term "we"? An interview is… Continue

I've always wanted to make a career of writing. Recruiting is something I got into after college because nobody wants an English Lit major to write for them unless they've already written something that's been published but nobody seems to want to publish your stuff unless you've been published (the ole Catch 22.) My first real job after college (after a brief bought of delivering pizzas--long story) was as a project manager for a sign and lighting maintenance company. Consequently, I know more… Continue

Just a forewarning: I am about to ramble. I realize how important social networking is, whether you are looking for candidates, looking for job leads, or looking for a job yourself. It's important to build up your network, whether the need is immediate or not, so that when you have a fit of skill to job description--BOOM. You're a leg up on the competition.



However...building a social network is nervewrecking. Maybe it goes back to me being a social outcast most of my life but… Continue

I don't know how many times I have to learn this lesson but it makes me laugh/cry/scream everytime I learn it. You know how sometimes you can be so fixated on a candidates skills and how perfectly they align with a job you are recruiting for that you forget to read the notes? Then you call the candidate and find out they are pure crazy and what ensues can only be described as a tragicomedy of sorts. Yeah. Did that today. Candidate has apparently applied to the same company a million times by… Continue

So, I made a rookie mistake this week. I have a candidate that I have become friendly with and we talk and goof around through e-mail a lot. I set up an interview for him this past week and after it was over he e-mailed me and told me the interview was lame and the interviewer wasn't exactly a rocket scientist. My candidate is a high-level risk modeler and analyst and this company is smaller and I guess still immature as young capital companies go. Anyhow, after I received his feedback I… Continue