Don't be a sourcing snob!
I had an interesting conversation, if you can call tweeting back and forth in snippets of 140 characters or less a conversation, with my Twitter cohorts Stephanie Lloyd (ATLRecruiter) and Michael Long (theredrecruiter) about a blog posting.
We all decided it would be great to each write up our thoughts and post - so after the break is my 2 cents-
Read their perspectives ATLRecruiter and theredrecruiter - add it all up and you get 6 cents - all for free!
While stumbling around early last week I came upon an interesting blog from Boolean Black Belt regarding ‘Sourcing Snobbery’. What is this you ask? Glen Cathey (author of BBB) wrote a compelling post regarding the perception of quality of candidates on job boards vs. those that come from LinkedIN or other social networking / media sites, indicating that his recruitment counterparts claim (to one degree or another) that candidates from job boards are not of the same ‘quality’ as those found on places like LinkedIN. Glen was of the opinion that many recruiters are not using the job boards due to the perception about the candidates therein, and such practices are inadvisable, to say the least.
I absolutely agree with Glen on this one. The contention that one candidate is better than another by virtue of what tools they use to facilitate their job search is totally ridiculous. How could you possibly make the claim that a candidate on Career Builder or Monster is better or worse than one on LinkedIN or Facebook or Plaxo? Especially, when in many cases they are the same person. These days, candidates are using all means available to source for opportunities. Posting on one of the big job boards is easy; and while I tell my clients not to rely exclusively on those places due to the black hole syndrome, I do tell them to use the boards as an additional resource. If snobby recruiters don’t look on Monster aren’t they going to run across people on LinkedIN in that also have their resumes on Monster? How do you rate those?
Even in my days as a recruiter, I encouraged people to use their network to identify and pursue opportunities. It was my experience that a candidate that was a direct referral was looked at a bit more closely. By no means am I making a blanket statement here. I found many solid players on the job boards; and I placed them successfully. My point is that there are good candidates everywhere. There are also fair and poor candidates. Given the turmoil of the current job market, and the reduced amount of available openings, the competition is fierce to find A+ candidates. No stone should be left unturned. For me, this means using the job boards and any other resource available to identify a high quality candidate.
Simply put: to avoid using the job boards because people are saying that the candidates therein are not ‘good’ is like sitting in a room where you are surrounded with people who all agree that 2+2=5 – even though you know that is not correct. Do you go along with the status quo, or are you the one that stands alone in your conviction (and rightly so) that in fact 2+2=4? Maybe if everybody begins to think in that vein recruiters that continue to use ALL available sources will be more successful since they will have the pick of a larger pool than their snootier peers.
I think that once whisperings start, people are eager and ready to jump on a bandwagon for the sake of being part of the crowd. Frankly, I would use all available resources to identify quality candidates – job boards included. I suppose I might be standing alone in the corner, yet I don’t care.
Comments and feedback are requested and desired; and you are welcome and encouraged to submit questions to thecareerdoctor.
Debra Wheatman, CPRW, CPCC is the founder and Chief Career Strategist of ResumesDoneWrite, a premier career services provider focused on developing highly personalized career roadmaps for senior leaders and executives across all verticals and industries.
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