When working on a position that is open for a while things tend to change a time or two. The manager wants a different certification, more experience, less experience, an advanced degree, or a whole different skill set if you give them enough time. Unfortunately, this is the kind of position I have just recently begun the recruiting process on. It has been open for a few months and the manager has reviewed and declined over 60 resumes (and counting).

I've only been in the loop a week or two, but something seemed curious about the requirements. Upon further review it turns out that originally skill A was imperative and skill B could be taught on the job, but just about 3 weeks ago the manger decided he could not live without B and would teach A to whoever he hires. This is enough to make any recruiter groan. Time to revamp the search and start from scratch, right?

Wrong.

Sure, I have been generating some new candidates, but there are still 60 others that were submitted previously. Surely some of those 60 were declined because they were too heavy on B when the manager was ideally seeking A, right? After doing a little bit of digging, this was found to be exactly the case. In fact, there are over 20 candidates the manager labeled as 'high potential' but were too focused on the wrong area. A quick phone call to the manager confirmed what I had hoped - he is more than willing to review all such candidates who are still interested pending the change.

So now instead going all the way back to the drawing board and having to completely revamp my search, I'm able to leverage some work that was already done and deliver quality candidates to the manager quickly. Sometimes it is all about working smarter and not harder!