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Straight Talk for the Recruiting Profession


Interviews

Fees, Interviews

The Best of The Fordyce Letter 2011, #1 — I “FIRED” My Candidate…and Still Closed $27k

by on Dec. 30, 2011


yourefired

Editor’s note: Brian Kevin Johnston’s article was the most popular article on The Fordyce Letter in 2011. It originally ran in March.

I “fired” a candidate during the interview/offer process, and I am 100% convinced the only reason I still earned the fee was because… (are you listening?) I emotionally “checked out” of the torment and refocused my efforts on the things in my business I could control, which were sourcing and recruiting candidates for other searches on which my firm was engaged. After nearly fourteen years as a third-party recruiter, I have learned a thing or two about candidate or client control… IT DOES NOT EXIST!

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Interviews

5 Candidate Cover Letter Strategies That Rock

by on Dec. 16, 2011


image source: Bruno Covas

Creating a compelling cover letter that will highlight your candidate’s expertise and entice hiring managers to make contact for an interview is a skill that every good recruiter must have. I have several close colleagues who are recruiters; they continuously ask me for advice on how to create really compelling cover letters. I thought I would share some of the strategies that have proven most effective when crafting a compelling cover for candidate submittals.

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Interviews, Relationships

The Art of Negotiation – Prepare for Battle

by on Nov. 7, 2011


salary-negotiation

Since 2008 we have seen businesses fail, jobs lost, inventories cut, marketing budgets slashed, and lots of markdowns. Over the past year however, life has seemingly resumed again. People are starting to buy extravagant items, businesses are getting back on track, and, if you don’t read the news on a daily basis, you’re feeling pretty good about life.

However, a new trend has recently popped up and it’s not a simple matter. Perhaps being in the executive search universe, we are more focused on it, but it cuts across all sectors, functions, and companies. I call it the “Art of the Negotiation.” And it’s not just playing out in the courtroom anymore.

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Interviews

The Art of Performing Technical Screening

by on Jul. 19, 2011


woman on phone by George Reyes

Kerri, a senior technical recruiter with eleven years’ experience, has noticed that slowly but surely the requirements for the regular .NET developer and database developer positions are requiring more and different skills than she has been used to. She is finding that she does need to learn about these new tools but knows from experience that it takes a lot of her time to research. “I need information on how to validate these skills, to know if the candidates really have the skills or not,” says Kerri during a training session.

The usual research practice to learn about these skills starts with wiki search, the purchase of one or two software development beginner books (written for the developer audience), and ends with joining a number of developer user groups, only to find out that these practices are not effective and not really helping with screening. For one, the books are full of jargon and require prerequisite knowledge in technology. Second, how do online groups really help one in validating skills?

She loathes the idea of asking her client, and does not want to ask her candidates for fear of appearing ignorant of such well-known technologies. Kerri knows that to continue to be successful in her career, she needs to stay on top of her game. And this game includes learning all she needs to learn (as much as is relevant to her job) in IT to be able to successfully screen candidates and match them to her clients.

I have met many other recruiters like Kerri who want to learn how to screen and validate technical skills in order to ask the questions that make the matching process faster and more effective.

As targeted as technical screening is for recruiters, it also benefits hiring managers and candidates.

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Interviews

How Would You Fill Michael Scott’s Job?

by on Jun. 14, 2011


TheOffice

Let’s say you as a recruiter just heard that Michael Scott’s position is now available. How would you fill this position? Who would you call to make first contact? What are the job requirements? How would you prep your candidates to interview?

The Season Finale of “The Office,” titled “The Search Committee,” features recruiting efforts to replace the vacant Scranton Branch Manager position held by Michael Scott.

This episode struck a chord with me as a recruiter since it provides the opportunity to view the drama of an interview process from the inside. On display is a comedic look at internal candidates jockeying for a higher position, interviewing faux pas, and the corporate bureaucracy we only hear about from phone calls with candidates and clients.

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Fees, Interviews

Learning From Mistakes: Trying to Place Travis

by on May 2, 2011


image source: opensourceway

image source: opensourceway

The great major champion golfer Jack Nicklaus was renown for many things. One of the least notable, but most poignant, was his amazing knack for really only remembering the good experiences in his illustrious career. His memory of seemingly every detail of winning moments is legendary. He can go back 30 years and tell you the club, yardage, wind direction, and how many clouds were in the sky for a single shot during a 72-hole tournament. Meanwhile, he could not recite any bit of the history that occurred during any of his defeats. No reason to hold on too tightly to bad memories anyway. I mean, who wants to carry that garbage around?

This kind of “selective memory” I’m sure has some psychological effect on elite performers. If all you can remember is the good, than your confidence is bound to remain high at all times. So, how do we learn from our failures if they are so easily deleted from our minds? Nicklaus has also said that he is able to learn from past experiences but move on quickly and “stay in the moment.” The real question is: how can we as recruiters adopt this mentality while still learning from our miscues? It’s a balancing act to be certain, but one that must be done.

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Interviews, The Business of Recruiting

Lessons From a First Placement

by on Apr. 13, 2011


Nate Elgert

Like just about every other recruiter, current or former, my first couple of months in this business was a struggle. Everyday I was making 70-80 dials that equaled 25-30 non-sensical ramblings that usually ended in a “not-interested” or a merciful hang up from my target. I was a brand new accounting and finance recruiter who knew nothing at all about accounting, and very little about business in general. The juxtaposition was that I was a hard-headed, sometimes cocky, 30 year-old who thought he knew pretty much everything. As time went on in my first couple of months as a recruiter, that attitude was replaced by a resigned feeling that I was not going to make it out of this alive (figuratively speaking of course). After about 6-8 weeks of this battle, I was ready to throw in the towel and move on. Moving on is what I had done best in my career up to that point. This was my fifth job in seven years, and going in, I was convinced that this must work out or I would be stuck in that revolving door of sales re-treads. It was this feeling, and a fiancé who was not likely to marry an unemployed former golf pro, that kept me coming back every day. Yep, you could say my first couple months as a recruiter was indeed a struggle. Then, one day, I caught a break.

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Closing, Interviews

Timing Is Critical

by on Mar. 22, 2011


image source: Letheravensoar

“As a general rule, you should assume that time is always against you when you are trying to make a deal – any kind of deal.”

image source: Letheravensoar

Robert J. Ringer – Author

These words are as true today as they were when Mr. Ringer wrote them in his best selling 1973 book, “Winning Through Intimidation.”

Daily, I receive calls from recruiters who want to know how they can get their clients to move with a greater sense of urgency throughout the hiring process. A good starting point is to remind them that, state of the economy notwithstanding, the very best employees are always in short supply and in high demand. Companies have to move quickly if they hope to successfully compete for the most sought after talent. As one recruiter stated, employers fit into one of two categories, “… the quick or the dead.”

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Interviews, Relationships, The Business of Recruiting

Recruiters Need to Follow Through

by on Mar. 15, 2011


photo: Deputado Bruno Covas

photo: Deputado Bruno Covas

As a recruiter (whether retained, contingent, corporate, executive search, or independent), there is “No Acceptable Excuse” for not following up or following through with a candidate.

By failing to do so, your actions are contributing to the further erosion of the reputation of our profession and are fueling the negative perceptions presently associated with recruiters.

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11 Comments

Fees, Interviews

I “FIRED” My Candidate…and Still Closed $27k

by on Mar. 4, 2011


yourefired

Last month, I “fired” a candidate during the interview/offer process, and I am 100% convinced the only reason I still earned the fee was because… (are you listening?) I emotionally “checked out” of the torment and refocused my efforts on the things in my business I could control, which were sourcing and recruiting candidates for other searches on which my firm was engaged. After nearly fourteen years as a third-party recruiter, I have learned a thing or two about candidate or client control… IT DOES NOT EXIST!

Keep reading »
47 Comments