Please pardon this week’s title. I used the word “secrets” to get your attention. The truth is that there is really no big mystery to great recruiting. There is not some book of secrets for the industry. There are 3 core skills that separate mediocre recruiters from great recruiters, though. Ask a recruiter for their secrets and chances are what they tell you will not seem like such a big secret. It is probably something everyone knows about but just doesn’t use. The bottom line is that if you want to be a great recruiter, you simply must be able to do the following three things well, and there is no secret about that!

ONE: A great recruiter must maintain strong professional relationships with employers/hiring managers that are willing to trust you to deliver candidates that are not only qualified for the position they need to fill, but ones that consistently stand out from the crowd. You know the ones that meet  their criteria and then some. Candidates that they immediately want to hire.

TWO: A great recruiter must be able to identify, qualify, and maintain contact with a database of exceptionally gifted talent that are willing to consider new job opportunities that might be even better than the one they are currently happy in.

THREE: Finally, a great recruiter must understand and embrace the process of matching the prior two groups. A recruiter that can match the right employer with the right passive candidate creating a win-win situation for both will never be without a job. There will always be a need for this type of recruiter.

So how exactly do you deliver on all three of these when any one of the three could be a job of its own? It is not easy. It will require a lot more than working 8 to 5 Monday through Friday in the beginning.  But, it is still not a secret. If you are succeeding at even one of the areas and are up to learning more about another, stay tuned. Over the next three weeks, I will be digging in to each of these three areas individually then wrapping up with how you can learn to be successful at all three. If there is a particular area you are interested in, let me know in the comments section below.

Amy McDonald works in an executive role with several employment websites including REKRUTR.com. She has been working in the human resources and recruiting industry for over 20 years. Amy has worked with hundreds of recruitment professionals throughout her career, training best practices in sourcing candidates and refining the recruitment process. In her spare time, Amy also participates as a thought leader and contributor for recruitment information with BIZCATALYST360.