Bigfoot, Tooth Fairy and the Recruiting Magic Bullet

I've been reading and writing a lot of blogs, tweets, articles etc about what we all should be doing in our Recruiting efforts of late, and you know what? I think they are all starting to look alike.

Social Media vs Old School
Email, internet vs the phone
Twitter
Job Boards
The recession
Passive vs Active Candidates
Find candidates here, find the there
The North Pole, the last bastion of old school Recruiters (OK I made that one up)
*YAWN* (and it is late here)

This is going to be a really short post, because my point will come quickly.

All those things are great, and all have their value, good and bad. They all work for some people and don't for others. Some will have great results, others won't.

All these things will work.

---> THE POINT

Myth - there is a guaranteed way to be successful in this business.

Surprisingly, there is no ONE way to guarantee results!

Bill Boorman asks for advice you'd give to young Recruiters. Mine is find out what works for you and stick with it! Try new things, feel free to ditch what doesn't, but keep trying and you'll find lots of things that work for you. Once you do, you'll get better and better in what you do.

Comment by Slouch on August 4, 2009 at 11:03am: My advice for new recruiters would be to work for for a firm that has some very big billers and whatever it is they do, that is what you should do. If you hear them say things a certain way to candidates or clients and you think you have a better way to say it, you're wrong, say it like those big billers in your office. If the guys in your firm are making hundreds of thousands a year making placements with very little social media intervention, make damn sure that you use even less of it than them. The final thing I would tell them though there are at least a hundred more things I would tell a new recruiter, I would tell them that don't try to figure out what works for you. Get to the point where you get a couple of 250k years under your belt and then start getting creative if you want.

Comment by Michael Glenn on August 4, 2009 at 11:56am: With all these social media websites - I say get there first and try it out. It's like planting a seed, you have to be patient and see if anything grows. It could be useful down the road or it won't. But don't invest too much time into it. You still have to recruit using the phone.

Comment by Sherry Junker on August 5, 2009 at 10:34am: Great article, Dan and good advice even for us "old" recruiters. We remember the good old days and what worked then, but sometimes you have to reinvent yourself to keep things working now. I think the main thing is to be flexible and open minded and just keep trying!