The Hunger Games hit theaters today, and this film’s fictional universe of cut throat competition and talent selection brought to mind the much more real world of recruiting. For those not familiar with the story, The Hunger Games tells the tale of a dystopian nation and its yearly competition where a select group of teenagers “train in the art of survival and prepare to fight to the death.”

In recruiting the stakes aren’t quite that high, but competition is fierce and finding the perfect candidate has turned into a veritable arms race. A recruiter is only as good as their tools, so we’re throwing three of the most popular hiring sources onto the metaphorical battlefield to duke it out--and just like in the Hunger Games, competition is fierce.


Social Media: The Up and Comer
Fresh on the scene, this newcomer has quickly made a name for itself by allowing candidates to closely connect with company brands and recruiters to source from specific talent pools. Like any good fighter, social media is agile--capable of reaching potential recruits in an instant with tweets or wall posts about hiring opportunities--and smart with the ability to scan candidates’ profiles and information to directly target qualified and interested individuals. However, it’s not perfect and like any newcomer, social media still lacks recognition and maturity.

Job Boards: The Vulnerable Favorite
Seen as the go-to in this competitive field, online job boards are often the first place job seekers go to find employment opportunities. With brute force in the form of countless job postings and the familiarity that comes with being a long time player in the field, online job boards are the heavyweight bruisers of this competition. Yet, what job boards have in strength they lack in smarts. These online aggregators fail to connect recruiters and candidates in meaningful and substantive ways--often facilitating resume dumps instead of real connections.

Career Sites: The Declining Veteran
Once seen as a great way for companies to post jobs without spending lots of advertising dollars, career sites have fallen behind social media pages and are on their way out. While they offer reliable, accurate information they are difficult to access and promote. Internet users are overwhelmingly choosing Facebook brand pages over company websites, so that means less views of career sites and less candidates. Unfortunately for this old timer, the game has changed and it’s been left in the dust. Companies are posting jobs to their Facebook pages and seeing results.

These three recruiting resources are all fighting for their lives to be the primary source for job seekers, but as we have seen all of them are not equal. Any good recruiter will incorporate all of these tools into their repertoire, but great recruiters will leverage these sites’ respective strengths to offset their shortcomings. In this competitive field you’ve got to be prepared and "hunt" for the best talent.

Which tool reigns supreme in your recruiting arena? How has your strategy changed with the rise of social media and new technologies?