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I am sure that my old school recruiting ways will show, but from this recruiter's perspective I am OK with that. In my experience, the age of online everything is breeding a new kind of recruiting, and I think it is missing the most important part which is the people involved: The hiring manager and the candidates.
The push in recent years is online job posting, on line applicant tracking, online sharing on Social Networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. I actually use all of them, and work pretty hard at keeping myself and my company up to date on those trends. Truth is we really do find some candidates using those places. But, that doesn't mean that old style recruiting should go away. As a matter of fact, I think it is even more important that we don't lose touch with our old ways.
Recent trends are producing recruiters that focus on resume screening instead of candidate searching, Process driven methods instead of actually working with and coaching the hiring managers and a more passive wait and see who applies approach instead of scouting and hunting for that perfect candidate.
For example, consider that there is a new position available at a company and it gets posted everywhere. It gets posted on the job boards (like CareerBuilder, Monster, etc), on Facebook, LinkedIn, it gets tweeted, and then the recruiter waits. Newer recruiters now wait to see who applies to the job, and then they work really hard going through those 150 resumes and screening them for a fit for the job. They send the hiring manager (after a week of waiting and seeing), and hoping the manager likes the ones they sent.
Before all this really cool technology, an old school recruiter would have to rely on hunting and gathering. The gathering starts with calling the hiring manager about the opening to discuss the position, the needs of the job, the culture of the work group, how this new person could add to the team, discuss competitors, market areas, salary, and even interview the Hiring Manager to learn more about their personality and learn what are their wins, what drives them crazy, what is their work style, etc.
The hunting begins by contacting everyone they know who fits this role, or ask them who they know. They start researching the competitor, the market trends, and start cold calling when the need to contact key players becomes necessary. The knock on doors of competitors and keep on knocking. They are certainly not waiting for to see who shows up. They are actively searching, and calling, and doing everything possible to find the right candidate. This recruiter is looking for someone who is already working in that role, who needs to be romanced, and enticed about the new role.
The old school recruiter usually keeps some kind database of all old contacts and possible future candidates. The thinking is that you never know when that CFO you interviewed for a controller position 3 years ago, would now be a perfect candidate for a now CFO level position.
Of course I say go ahead and embrace the awesome technology. It is a quick way to get to a lot of people. It is actually kind of fun to play in so many places. However don't' lose touch of your old ways. The days when you actually talked to a candidate, kept in touch with them, and spend quality time with your hiring managers, searching for that diamond in the rough, or that future player with everyone you meet. Collect those resumes and those business cards.
If you just screen and wait, you may never know what it feels like when you finally make that perfect match. Screening, posting and sending resumes are justs the tasks that we do, while we are busy recruiting. If you are the candidate waiting for that perfect job, I hope you are lucky enough to work with an old style recruiter.
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