But Google isn’t the be-all, end-all, turns out. And if it’s the only search engine you’re using, your method needs some updating, according to Shally Steckerl.

So step out of Google’s “library” and look around! “You need to use more than one search engine,” he says.

If you don’t get the answer the first time around, try another source, he recommends.

But if Shally can do it in “10 minutes or less,” you can too, and you’ll be back on the phone in no time. But first, check out this video to learn why Shally calls search engines “misleading” and ways to experiment with more search engine flavors.

On the other hand, I never could figure out whether executive recruiter meant I was a recruiter who recruited executives … I do some of that now but my practice still mostly involves individual technical contributors… Or did it mean I was a recruiter who was also an executive. I cannot and never could sell myself on that one even with my modest amount of maturation and wisdom. Many people will simply laugh out loud if I ever try to refer to myself as an executive anything. Executives are suits like Darren on Bewitched who make lots of money doing things that normal people cannot believe they get paid anything for because they don’t have a clue what they do. (Ok, by that definition there are some people in my hometown who might think I am an executive after all, except for the suit part). I am not knocking the term at all… I’d just like to hear more about what it means…

John Nilon, the founder of JN Solutions, Inc., is a super star in our eyes and is clearly at the forefront of the pharmaceutical arena. We were honored to spend a day with him and Janet Shapiro, one of his executive directors, while tapping into their mind’s eye.

They shared with us their views on the stigma that has spawned recruiters from the very day some word-craftsman penned the name: Headhunter. They also talk about the benefits candidates can gain by interacting with recruiters and keeping their presence at the forefront for future opportunities that might surface their way.

By adding value to their lives, you’re turning a negative connotation (headhunter) into a positive (consultant).

I called to “Big Dog,” the group leader, and asked what to do next. His response was to “follow your instinct.”

For 23 years in recruiting I followed my instinct and for the most part it led me the right way. Other times that old instinct got me in trouble.

“What if my instinct is wrong?” I called.

He looked back up and said, “Margo, you are here for a reason. Go for it!” Then my coach called up to me, “Margo, get centered on where you want to go (the other side of the giant jungle gym) and then take a step and just do it.”

Ok, well that advice is easy enough to give from the front of the room, but up here on the high-ropes course with nothing but a helmet and some clips sheltering me is completely a different story.

I sat up there with the birds and pondered what they would think of me if I just climbed down. My head was clouded with thoughts and clamoring with noise, and somewhere in between those clouds and the noise, I got it.

I travel all around and lecture or motivate (depending on my mood) recruiting professionals about how they need to change, how they need to break through the barriers facing our industry, and yet I could not break through my own fear of not knowing what the high rope, or tight rope, would bring.

The insight I had is that everyone has fears and those fears, whether people realize it or not, are paralyzing. They get in the way. They block learning. They block mastery and they inhibit taking risk.

No matter who we are, we have fear, and our fears keep us all STUCK. Our fears keep us standing in the same place, or moving at the same rate.

Our fears keep us doing the same things, even when those things cause us pain. Take this one step further beyond us. If fear has this much impact, what about the candidate’s fear of moving forward or the client’s fear of giving up control and how does that get in our way?

My annual goal this year is to have 100 KeenView certified users paving new paths for themselves in the recruiting industry and beyond. Another goal of mine is to raise $10,000 for charity. And in another area of my life, my intention is to create a spectacular relationship with the man of my dreams.

Where am I not playing full out in the areas of achieving these goals? Where are my fears blocking my ability to learn and achieve these goals? What am I going to do to cause those goals being a reality by December 31, 2008?

It is not a matter of whether recruiters need to use LinkedIn — they obviously do — it’s a matter of how they do it. Consider the dilemma facing many recruiters when they are told to jump on the LinkedIn bandwagon:

“For the life of me I just don’t get it! I’ve built solid relationships from the ground up and now you want to see them all? And I don’t even KNOW YOU?” says one recruiter.

Another recruiter chimes in: “If I link with all my clients, then link with my recruiter associates, what have I done? Can you imagine stopping by another recruiter buddy’s office and grabbing his Rolodex? Really? No way!”

When you join LinkedIn, should you have an “open” policy regarding your network of contacts, or should you hoard them? If everyone refused to open up their contact list for fear of poaching, social networks would cease to exist.

As one recruiter put it, “It would be like only recruiting candidates that live in a 20-mile radius.”

The Smart Way to Build Your Network

Don’t worry about having a “contact inferiority complex” when it comes to building your network. While many people brag about the number of connections and their network, I prefer quality over quantity. Choose the LinkedIn privacy strategy that is right for you: referrals between friends, targeted, or invite only. I have decided to err on the side of caution and it hasn’t hurt my ability to build an expansive network of contacts — 8.2 million and growing (ok…so I’m bragging a little).

Have a definite goal in mind before you begin. At first glance, hiding one’s contacts might seem to squash the spirit of networking, but having a closed network has helped me to maintain a high caliber of quality connections for the following reasons:

• C-Suite confidence. I have a network of high-level executives – especially in the C-level suite – and decision makers who don’t necessarily want to be shown or contacted. C-level executives rarely give out their information and are, by nature, cautious with their connections.

• Time constraints. Networking demands not only time, but care. My objective is to have a valuable network, one that I know for certain my connections can rely on. When I was an open networker, I began getting inundated with connection requests from people I really had no solid ties to. Though networking is the beauty of LinkedIn, I found myself with a part-time job of trying to manage connections.

• Competition. We all work hard to build a clientele and long-lasting, trustworthy relationships. As much care as I take in becoming a trusted partner with my clients, competition is always an aspect of business. With LinkedIn, there’s always a risk of contact information “falling into the wrong hands.” I’m protecting not only my business, but my connections’ livelihoods as well. I take pride in that.

Don’t Get Caught Up in the Numbers Game

I understand why recruiters keep their connections open. I’ve heard reasons like, “If you are good at what you do (building relationships) who cares if your competition sees your connections?” Same goes for clients, right? If you have a good relationship with your candidates, then it won’t matter who else contacts them, even a client. Ultimately the thought is, bigger is better.

But that’s not the case with business networking. Recruiters can build strong and useful networks without linking to everyone under the sun, and they can do so while judiciously sharing their connections. From LinkedIn itself to other online websites, the tools are out there.

For example, there are countless LinkedIn Groups recruiters can join, including alumni, corporate, conference, networking, non-profit and other professional groups. Be strategic and tactful when choosing which to join, but definitely do it. It’s a great way to build a valued network.

There are also several websites that exist specifically to help LinkedIn members build their networks, whether you are an open or closed networker. Check out www.MyLink500.com or www.TopLinked.com for lists of key LinkedIn networkers.

What is Your LinkedIn Type?

I’ve found there are three main types of LinkedIn members based on a spectrum of behaviors. First, there is the “Open Book Networker” who goes for quantity. These self-professed “power networkers” border on spamming — they are amassing thousands of links at a time with little regard to relevancy. Be wary of these contacts, because you just might end up getting a LinkedIn invite from a prince in Nigeria.

Next is the “Stingy Lurking Networker,” who lurks on the social media sidelines, always requesting introductions but never sharing their contacts. Social networks would die if there were too many of these guys.

Somewhere in the middle is the “Smart Focused Networker” who intelligently uses social media tools liked LinkedIn for what they are — extensions of their passive candidate sourcing strategy. These members selectively target new contacts and judiciously reveal their own contacts, creating relevancy and trust in the system.

Everyone has different objectives when it comes to using social and business networks. It’s easy to jump on the bandwagon and forget the main goal. Make sure you are using LinkedIn for the right reasons. Keep your objectives in mind and be purposeful about who you connect to.

In doing so, you will not only be building a valuable network of contacts for yourself, but you will be contributing to the trust and value of the network as a whole.

Long-time Fordyce writer Margaret Graziano’s new piece, “Recruiting, Selection, and the Future,” talks about the use of these tools, how to choose them, how to navigate around them, and how to leverage them.

In the article, Graziano writes, “Rather than looking at the selection industry as the devil, we can look at the selection industry as a chief component in differentiating ourselves from the sea of recruitment options.”

Is the devil in the details, or do  you think the selection industry is the devil? Well, we asked some Fordyce subscribers to weigh in on the assessment debate, and here is a sampling of what we heard:

AS A THIRD-PARTY RECRUITER…

“As a third-party recruiter, I work with a variety of clients who utilize assessments/tools during the interview process to evaluate decision-making, motivation, and other innate qualities. I have mixed feelings on such tools, as I understand their value, but believe too many companies are using them as “make or break” factors for evaluating a candidate’s candidacy. My analogy compares such assessments with standardized testing in our educational institutions. At the end of the day, some individuals excel at such tests and others do not. Is it fair to penalize a candidate because they do not test well? Interpretation is the linchpin in this entire assessment strategy. Changing the emphasis in a sentence from the noun to the verb drastically alters how an individual may understand the statement. As such, when you allow individuals to freely interpret questions during these assessments, the cross-section of responses is numerous. Overall, I am of the opinion that assessments are a good supplement in the interview process. However, a candidate’s status should not ultimately hang in the assessments outcome.”

Trip Young
Account Executive
www.qworksgroup.com
http://recruitertrip.blogspot.com/

WE ARE CURRENTLY DISCUSSING HOW TO BEST NEGOTIATE THE SEA OF TOOLS AVAILABLE…

“We are currently discussing how to best negotiate the sea of tools available without being drowned by them! I cannot help but recall the early days of the Internet, as well as the launch of Monster.com, when I think of the new tools on the horizon. In those earlier times, many experts “in the know” rang the death knell for agency recruiters. The Internet and job boards were going to make us obsolete. Not surprising to me, just the opposite has happened. The crush of available information has made strong agency recruiters even stronger! Looking forward, there will certainly be challenges as we all learn how to best utilize social networks, specialty boards, add-on services, etc. However, nothing I see in the future will replace the human hiring decision in professional/career-level management, executive, and sales fulfillment. With that human hiring decision comes the need for professional advice, marketing, consultation, sourcing, etc., which are specifically what we provide. Combining that need with the reduction in the workforce of those people in the sweetspot of our service sector, I think it is safe to say that the need for our services will be increasing, rather than decreasing.”

Jim Cargill, President
MRI of Lake Tahoe, NV, Inc.
http://www.searchpros.net/default.asp

I DON’T PLAN TO USE ASSESSMENT OR BEHAVIORAL TESTING…

“I don’t plan to use assessment or behavioral testing any time in the near future.  Most everyone here works a specific industry; thus, most of our candidates come from referrals of people we already know and trust. When working with new candidates, we certainly run a Google search to see if there are any flags that pop up, but if we are thorough with our interviews and reference checks, I think our clients will continue to call upon us for their needs. We also spend a good deal of time preparing our candidates for their phone and in person interviews so they know what to expect and behave accordingly.”

Barbara Curtis
A T Recruiters International
(361) 854-4473
www.atrecruiters.com

Well, not by the Law&Order definition of stalking. But showing up in unexpected places where you know certain executives like to gather certainly can’t hurt, according to Frank Risalvato, who addressed the crowd during the Fordyce Forum. He gave some great tips to generate money and step out of your sales mode.

So what are some of your targeted executives’ extracurricular activities? Done well, your appearance at a charity or fundraiser could be a true win-win. It can not only put you in contact with targeted individuals, but it might also serve as a great source of unexpected candidates and opportunities. (And, it should go without saying, donating your time or money for charity is another benefit for your community!)

Just remember there is a fine line between genuine interest and annoyance. If you use this “back-door” strategy under false pretenses, don’t be surprised when you are shown the door.

Check out the video to hear more:

It might be a leap of faith to make this mental switch, because let’s face it, not every recruiter has the innate charm of a social butterfly. But difficult or not, check out what Joe Pelayo says about this concept. For someone who makes 75% of his business through networking, maybe you owe it to yourself to listen closely to Pelayo’s session at the Fordyce Forum.