Tell Me About A Time When You Didn’t Suck at Interviewing.
Posted on March 31, 2015 3 Comments
At its core, recruiting is more or less an exercise in making a good first impression; from the 6-8 seconds the average recruiter (if such a thing exists) spends reviewing a resume to the reported 35 seconds job seekers spend, on average, reading an online job description, making an immediate impact is imperative for both employers and job seekers.
Even as applicants become actual candidates during the hiring process, next steps continue to emphasize the importance of making a good first impression.
Every recruiter can tell you that it takes about a minute to figure out whether or not a potential candidate is going to pass a pre-screen, with phone presence as much of a prerequisite to moving on as their actual answers.
Holla Back.
Posted on March 24, 2015 Leave a Comment
Today over at RecruitingDaily.com, which, as my day job, has replaced this site as the repository for most of my bylined content, Derek Zeller wrote a post about the proliferation of recruiting and HR “influencer” lists. As I edited and formatted the post (which was pretty good, by the way), I started thinking about my position on lists, since this seems to be a hot topic for some reason, despite this being the oldest form of content this side of cuneiform.
And of course, being lazy content, this seemed like an ideal topic for me to weigh in on, since, well, I’m a lazy content marketer, mostly. If I had ambition, I’d probably not be a professional blogger, let’s be honest. Although it’s a hell of a lot more work than it probably looks like – much to my chagrin, because I’d rather be rocking my XBox than the back end of WordPress. But hey, it’s a living – which is why I personally kind of like lists, since for some reason, the people who write checks sure seem to.
While stylistically and philosophically, I’d like to shit on these lists as link baiting BS, I’ve got to be at least a little bit equivocal, since I’ve actually benefitted from being included on many of these “most influential” or “top people you should follow in HR or recruiting.”
Refer Madness.
Posted on March 13, 2015 Leave a Comment
Here’s the thing; as sexy as we make social out to be, and as much emphasis as we put on concepts like talent communities and targeted content, the fact of the matter is that what’s new and what’s next isn’t always the most effective when it comes to generating results.
In fact, according to the 2014 Career XRoads Source of Hire report, referrals still accounted for the top external source of hire at 19.2%, second only to the 41.9% o positions that are filled internally.
Compare that to “direct sourced” candidates – those ever elusive passives who form the focus of an increasingly inordinate amount of time and money at many recruiting organizations today.
Those represented only 12% of all hires, with another 3.1% coming from “pipeline” (or talent network) activities, which is less than those much maligned traditional job boards, which still accounted for a full 15% of all successful searches last year.
Big Data Doesn’t Always Add Up.
Posted on March 10, 2015 6 Comments
I will admit that I am not a leader in any way, shape or form. I have managed as many as a dozen direct reports at once, but the problem is, I’m a solipsist, you see, and would rather execute on my own shit than operationalize others’, which is pretty much what management is.
I like working with people I don’t have to work with, because you manage your self and know your stuff, than stuff has a funny way of getting done with minimal friction. Somehow, it works, and better, because I have to work.
This is my style, sure, but it’s simple – I mean, why make being accountable for the performance of people whose hiring you had mostly nothing to do with any more complicated than it already is when your ass is on the line?
You’ve Probably Already Read This Already.
Posted on January 29, 2015 4 Comments
One of my contributors recently complained, after about six months of blogging, that it was becoming increasingly difficult to say things about recruiting that they hadn’t already said before. I couldn’t agree more.
My friend Maren Hogan wrote a great post yesterday about how so many blog posts are more or less redundant, since they’ve already been written. Definitely read the whole thing – I never recommend blogs other than my own (I’m a whore like that) but in this case, it got me thinking.