Remember that jingle for the Klondike Bar? “Oh what would you do ooh ooh for a Klondike Bar?” I find myself asking the same question when it comes to finding to attracting passive candidates. I still feel the best lead is one that a colleague or business partner can give me. As long as you have a first and last name, there are so many avenues to find contact information for those candidates including LinkedIn and ZoomInfo. If you use Mozilla Firefox there is also another great way to do a search using one of the plug-ins called (People Search and Public Record Toolbar). I have used it on rare occasions when I really, really, need to get a hold of someone but I will say that it does come in handy.

Of course, I find that the process of getting the contact information is only half the battle. The message that is left or the introduction/conversation to the person on the phone is the other factor that can be a make or break for candidates if they are open to discussions. If anyone has suggestions on how you typically approach cold calls I would definitely be interested in hearing. I usually have a standard message that I throw out there but would love to hear ideas on how other Recruiters might entice passive candidates.

*****On a side note, while I mentioned Mozilla I will just throw this out there to any tech savvy people. I will admit I am surprised a Recruiter hasn’t created their own plug-in on Mozilla that would automatically go out and find url’s or webpage titles with the word resume in it. If I was technical enough, I would do it myself but I am not so I will leave it to someone who is much more up to the task than I.