Welcome to The Fordyce Letter:
As recruiters, we are entrepreneurs. Even for those of us who are employees, we are still entrepreneurs. Since our industry is incentivized, we get paid on what we produce: close more deals, make more money. This is what entrepreneurs do. And as self motivated people, we have a huge tendency to always be optimistic as to where and when the next deal is coming from. The ‘what if’s, ‘maybe’s, ‘should have’s, ‘could have’s, and being so close to the deal are the bane of every good entrepreneur’s existence. Even if you disagree that you are this way, I openly admit that I am. Even my wife has been programmed to ask me about the activity level of my staff and myself every few days. And, of course, I am always optimistic. Aren’t most of you?
This, however, is where the problem begins because being an eternal optimist has a way of playing with your head and emotions and ultimately gets in the way of making smart and sound judgments about your business. It certainly has for me, especially since the middle of 2008.This is where the paradox, or dilemma, begins and actually ends for me.
I am an Executive Recruiter with 29 years of experience dealing with the ups and downs, the cycles – if you will, of the “American Economy”. But for the past year, or so, when I tell my parents that I have an abundance of employment (search) opportunities to fill, they are consistently surprised. Despite their extremely well-informed and educated business perspective, they assume that “no one is hiring’. The reality from an experienced, hard-driving headhunter’s point of view is that the truly valuable, hard-to-find asset in today’s job market is the qualified and well adjusted candidate.
Good morning, recruiters. I will be in Washington, D.C. this week overseeing the 
As search professionals and recruiters, we are learning more about the benefits of leveraging social media and integrating it as a trusted recruiting tool in identifying talent for our clients. It should be a critical component to sourcing combined with other proven methods. After all, our clients and candidates use it and so should we. I see social networking becoming more of a key component to recruiting as we can reach out to more people using social networks. It is also critical that we understand the powerful opportunity it presents for corporations to engage in real-time dialogue with customers, stakeholders, and candidates, and use it similarly with our clients as well.
Recently, I read a discussion where people were sharing accounts of what they deemed unethical practices of third-party recruiters whom they had encountered. Just a few of the examples given included:
