Make Yourself Accessible!!

My thoughts today turn to a pet peeve I have mentioned before but is one that needs to be brought up from time to time. Staffing firms have a huge pool of candidates to look at when identifying candidates for job opportunities. A good recruiter will take a little time to find decent looking resumes before making calls and sending out emails. There is a darn good chance that, if you receive a contact from a recruiter, you are a reasonably good fit for the job at hand!

Time is money and I have a personal rule that I will make every effort to present several qualified candidates to my clients within 48 hours or less of learning of their staffing need. All too often, candidates take five or six days or longer to respond to me. If I wait that long to begin submitting candidates, another staffing firm will likely beat me to the finish line. This is NOT something I like to experience and I make every effort to avoid it.

Candidates will call me a week later and says things like I called their home number but they only check voicemail once a week and I should have called their cell instead. Obviously, I would have called the cell number except it was nowhere on the resume!! Another excuse I get for slow responses is that I used their casual email address instead of the one set up for job searching. Again, how can I write to an address which was not anywhere on their resume?

My rather cold-hearted opinion is that a candidate who does not put the most current or accessible contact information on their resume is not trying very hard to get a job. Some of my critics have told me I am too judgemental but, in my mind, if someone does not take complete ownership of their search I probably would not want to present them to my client companies.

Opinions will be graciously accepted and treated with respect even if I disagree!

Long, Long Ago

In the last fifth of the 20th Century (aka the 1980's), I began my journey as a rookie recruiter with a small staffing firm. Picture this: no Linkedin, no Twitter, no texting, no email, no cell phones, no internet search engines, not even a fax machine!! The tools of the trade consisted of a telephone used to cold call both companies and potential candidates, the classifieds from the Sunday papers, industry specific directories, word of mouth referrals, and an IBM Selectric typewriter.

Some of my younger readers must be rolling in laughter about now! Laugh on! Without all the electronic tools, a good recruiter was obliged to dial at least 40-50 potential hiring managers each day and make live contact. We actually spoke to candidates at length in the evening after hours as most could not be phoned at work as calls went into a staffed switchboard. There was a tendency to build relationships this way. Instead of emailing a resume, many candidates sketched out their profiles in prolonged late evening phone calls (I remember conducting a phone screen at 3:00 AM while a computer operator took his 3rd shift lunch break) leading to having a solid understanding of who they really were.

To expedite delivery of resumes to my clients, I would drive as much as 35-40 miles to hand them over in person along with a sack of donuts or bagels which usually led to a nice conversation. Clients became friends and colleagues and deep levels of trust were developed. With the economy slowing down the staffing industry, I have actually visited a few clients in recent months with incredible results. There have many days in the last year or so when I have wondered if rolling the clock back a bit might prove to be a good idea. Sometimes, less is more and we may be approaching one of those time periods.

Missing In Action

Are you out of work?... Have your unemployment benefits run out?... Do you have a ton of unpaid bills?... Were you forced to take a low paying job just to stay somewhat afloat?... Without any doubt, is this the worst time you have experienced in your professional life?...

Let me guess, many of you answered yes to most of these questions? If that is true for so many people, why on earth are folks not showing up for interviews? I know of at least four cases in the last month where people with great backgrounds and skill sets simply never appeared for scheduled meetings. Life happens and emergencies develop but that is why cell phones and email were invented (well at least one of the reasons they came along)!

Keep in mind that the person you bl0w off today might hold the key to opportunity somewhere down the road. I remember being blow off years ago and putting the key in my back pocket a few years later!!