Guest Blog!! Common Sense Rules for Recruiters!!

I'm excited to have a guest blogger this week!  My dear friend Nell, she pretty much rules and is a ton of fun.  Like I said last week, I'm hoping to have more guest posts and this is the first.  With that, I'll let Nell tell you about a few basic rules for recruiters....needless to say, I love the last two.  Enjoy!

 

Common Sense Rules for Recruiters

One of the advantages to being a “senior” member of a recruiting team is that I have a lot of years (i.e. I’ve been doing this for a LONG time) from which to glean my knowledge and experience. I also recognize that the means with which we can now do our job has changed drastically and will continue to evolve as technology improves (sidenote: I remember when a former boss finally agreed to fore go the Rolodex for a desktop computer for each of us and watching her point her mouse at the screen like a garage door opener) but common sense and basics of how we do our job and conduct ourselves as recruiters should not.  

Far too often I hear stories from candidates and hiring managers about recruiters who more closely resemble used car salesmen or glorified paper pushers than professional recruiters and it absolutely makes my skin crawl.  Here are just a few of the common sense/basic rules that we should all be following:

• You are often the first impression a candidate has of the company. Just like you are passing judgment on their skill set and experience, a candidate is assessing if the way you treat them is indicative of how employees are treated within your organization.  So regardless of their qualifications, always be respectful. Always.
  
  
• When you are interviewing (phone or in-person) pay attention to THEM.  Don’t multi-task just because they can’t see you, and don’t check your email or take a call while they are sitting in front of you.  Ever.
  
  
• If a co-worker or hiring manager isn't returning an email or if you are going back and forth over email and not getting anything resolved, pick up the damn phone and call them OR walk to their office and actually talk to them.  It’s amazing how well TALKING to someone actually works.  Technology is awesome but not always the best means to communicate.
  
  
• Follow through with your candidates and hiring managers. If you say you are going to do X, then do it. Duh.
  
  

• Pay it forward. Every week you should do something or help someone else find a job or make the one they’re in better.  When I was unemployed several years ago I was shocked at the number of people who went out of their way to help me. I was equally as shocked by the number of fellow recruiters who didn't return my calls or emails. 
  
  

and last but not least…

• If you don’t enjoy recruiting or being a recruiter, then get a new job -- you’re making those of us who love it, look bad.

Find me at google.com/+NellThayerHeisner11 or on Twitter @nellthayer

Your priorities define you...

Happy holidays everyone!  Hope things are going well.  It’s been a little while since I’ve blogged but I really wanted to share something.  I had an interview this week and the candidate made a comment to me that I really loved, I mean….loved.  They said:

“The priorities we set define us”

It got me thinking, for those of you experience a job search or thinking about moving your career needle...what kind of priorities have you set?  Now, the idea of priorities is pretty complicated and honestly only you can set your priorities but I did spend a lot of time thinking about this and had a few thoughts I wanted to share

Rank your priorities - This one is obvious right?  The question really is, do you want to be the best parent in the world?  Best recruiter?  Does money matter?  Do you work to live or live to work?  Literally, there are a bunch of things to consider.  What you need to do is figure out what really matters to you...define it and then optimize your more tactical priorities from there.

Set sub-goals - Ok, so you have your high level priorities set.  Awesome...huge step and most people never get there so feel good about this.  Next, start trying to define what each one of those priorities really means and what you need to do to accomplish them….and be realistic.  

Build a timeline - You’ve got your priorities set and you’ve got a bunch of tactical steps you need to take to accomplish your goals...now you need a timeline.  The timeline will keep you honest and make you focus.  A key here again will be to be realistic.  For example, you can’t say you are going to interview for 50 jobs in the next month...not enough days in the month.  So, really focus on setting a timeline that you can work with and get things accomplished.

Get going - This is the most important step.  Get going and get it done.  The difference between superstars and everyone else is superstars get stuff done.  Now is the time to define yourself by not only setting priorities but getting them done.

That’s it this week, I’ll try to get a few more posts done by the end of the year and start strong again in 2014.

Good luck out there, the holidays are a GREAT time to amp up your job search