I was laid off last year from a niche recruiting firm and had to rethink my life and career going forward. If the jobs just aren’t there now, recruiters have to look to other industries.

There are, in fact, other fields where the qualities of an executive or senior recruiter translate well. The skills of organization, interviewing techniques, the right questions, grooming, keeping on track and a genuine desire to help people are well-rewarded.

Contact me via email if you are interested in more information.

Jill Sanborne

We are in what I refer to as recruiting 2.0, much aligned with the advances in technology, the advent of social marketing and the importance of self branding.

The worst thing is seeing many good people in the industry get washed out this past year. Even worse is hearing stories about the firms who think that the panacea lies in pushing their people to do the same things that have not been working three times as hard and expect a different result. It’s really mind-boggling.

Keep up the good articles!

Happy Hunting!

Philip Newman
http://www.MedDeviceHeadhunter.com

My only concern in this transition is when succesful agencies are focusing so heavily in sales and client relationships that some have a tendency to forget about their contract and employee labor that made them so successful. Having seen this first hand in Wisconsin; I feel this is not intentional but sales pressure eventually forces these issues that adversely affect the business especially when labor has control in the market. Although I know this isn’t commonplace, I’m hearing about this situation again after it occured back in 2001-2003.

I hope this is minimal, but there are signs this is present.

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2009/07/28/home-prices-jobs-will-come-back-sooner-in-some-states-than-others/

-kh keithsrj@sbcglobal.net

Craig Goldstein (A Canadian Perspective)

I believe corporate and 3rd parties must work differently with us 3rd parties adjusting to what corporate recruiters are doing. The key is finding the talent a company or client company wants to hire that they can’t find. It’s clear that a 3rd party agency using all these same Internet technologies and tools corporate recruiters are ultimately only accomplishing uncovering and competing for the exact same candidates the corporate recruiters do since they’re using the same tools and technologies they are. And how many corporate recruiters are going to work with 3rd parties for long when competing over the same candidates with them? If corporate recruiters are going to be all over the Internet, then as a 3rd party I want to be all over the telephone finding “invisible” candidates they otherwise wouldn’t have found.

One final thing. This recession has been extremely brutal. Finding serious clients with an urgency/interest in hiring and employed passive candidates with an urgency/interest in seriously considering other opportunities finding a match is rare. I refuse to generally blame recruiters for failure in thie employment environment. When there’s little to no urgency combined with a broken business cycle where a serious hiring and payment process typically taking 1-2 months now takes 3-6 months even excellent recruiters are forced out of the business unable to outlast and survive the subsequent cash flow crunch having their own family/personal bills to pay. There’s only so long an individual recruiter can financially hold their breath. This economy is bigger than all of us. And all we control is what we do and say–not the actual results of our effort. I believe for most the effort has been there. But trying to swim across an ocean against the tide of this economic magnitude means an awful lot of superb swimmers will succumb and drown–out of no fault of their own.

Just my 30 years of 3rd party recruiting five cents…….

Cheers,

Keith Halperin keithsrj@sbcglobal.net

My firm (boutique) is doing good during this downturn. (Conservative/Saved $/Resources=Did not get “too” greedy)

What people need to come to grips with is, this is a SALES/RESULTS job (recruiter), (Not a practitioner or talent aquisitioner (blah!) = Academic words! Can we PLEASE lose the academic job titles already??)

My take away from this downturn is if you don’t operate your recruiting desk like a “battle field” in a all out “WAR FOR TOP TALENT”, sadly you will be “forced” to the sidelines.. This industry (recruiting) is NOT for everyone, so we just need to support and embrace what this business is…. SALES/RESULTS!

My Family/Friends pray daily for those who are struggling in there careers at present across the globe! (If you are ever in Temecula, CA let’s go drink some WINE!)

Brian-
http://www.johnstonsearch.com/about.php

One resource would be a free record webinar by Cytiva, makers of SonicRecruit, called Recruiting 2.0. You can find it here:

http://www.sonicrecruit.com/requestwebinar11.htm

Ian Alexander
Cytiva
http://www.sonicrecruit.com

This is a great article. From embracing emerging technologies, to focused recruiting on quality candidates and relevant talent; you’ve hit the nail right on the head once again. Your closing remarks are nice because it is refreshing to hear some optimism that can come out of this recession. You mention leveraging technology and engaging candidates, in your opinion what are some of the new and best ways of doing this?

Thanks again,

Cade

Your article describes the symptoms of a much larger problem. Most organizations have failed to plan, which we all know leads to plan to fail. Strategic Workforce Planning is not a one time event, it is a continual process, which requires recruiting expertise and understanding of where the business is currently, where it is going and the talent demands in relation to the labor market. Those businesses that plan to be in business when the economy recovers, need to start acting like it.

Good article, hopefully, it opens some interesting responses.

Best Regards,

Steve Deighton