HireAbility Connects the World's Recruiters and Parses the World's Resumes
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Editor's note: There's a not-very-subtle underlying sell in this guest blogpost, but I think the intended main message is worthwhile: There are sourcing methods and tools that people aren't using, both on the phone and online sides -- and one's success depends on tapping into both, depending on the requisition and other circumstances. The first step in knowing which ones to utilize is to have a basic understanding of all the proven ones, at a minimum.

In the late 90’s, the staffing industry witnessed a proliferation of job boards available on the internet. Since that time, this once nifty tool has turned into the crutch on which much of the staffing industry places their weight. Of course, there were (and still are) staffing professionals that shun the job boards in favor of what I’ll call "old school’ recruiting. As time and innovation have progressed, there has become a divide between these two groups.

A lot of the new folks in the industry don’t know what it’s like to really recruit; as in ‘headhunting’ (yes, this kind of recruiting works fine for corporate recruiters too!). This is what our industry was before the internet. These days, most recruiters are really sourcers, leaning entirely on sourcing job boards and databases for resumes. And the old school folks may not use job boards and may have no idea that Infogist, Zoominfo, Linkedin and a plethora of other tools out there even exist. In fact, I’ve heard many people tell me that using all this new fangled techno stuff is a waste of time that could have been spent cold calling someone.

I’m not faulting either of these groups necessarily. Both methods of runnning a recruiting desk have shown to be successful. But in my personal quest to improve our industry, I feel obligated to expose as many people as possible on the ideas, training and tools we have available to elevate us as an industry. As we’ve all heard, a high tide raises all boats.

So, I’m proposing a middle ground between the two extremes. The middle ground is this: If you live and breath job boards only, start looking into other methods of recruiting. It’s a small difference between what a $70k per year earner and a $200k earner do in a given year. My advise would be to sign up for an account with AccordingtoDanny and learn some of the small things you can do to really make a difference in your daily activities. Or pick up some of the products from billradin.com and read at your leisure on some of the same ‘old school’ ideas. Note: as the Director of Marketing for HireAbility, I can get you a discount on either of these as well as many other common training tools you may be considering. Trust me when I tell you that I’ve seen a few simple ‘old school’ ideas result in a recruiter earning triple the revenue. And yes, you’ll have to work a little harder for it, but you’ll retire 10 years sooner, too!

If you are the ‘old school’ recruiter who thinks using the internet as a crutch creates weak recruiters, I can assure you that this isn’t always the case. With Zoominfo, for instance, you can locate high level contacts who are 100% passive and 100% cold calls. You specify the job title and industry (or more info if you have it) and they tell you the person in that job and their contact info. It’s the ultimate tool for tracking down hard to find contacts.

Or perhaps Infogist is right for you. Imagine a single software tool (so you only have to go through the learning curve for one thing, not several) that can search almost every available database of candidates and bring them to your desk. The candidates are passive as well as active and can come from 1400+ different locations, so there’s a great chance you’ll be the only recruiter talking to them.

And you can’t overlook the online networking tools on the market. Linkedin has over 10 million registered users. Look me up and you’ll see all the people I know and who they know, etc. It’s like a huge virtual cocktail party except you don’t have to print and bring business cards. Can you imagine 10 million business professionals at the same cocktail party carrying lists of every person they know? How could you not go to that party? I could go on and on, but trust me when I tell you that there are some really great tools just waiting to be had. Feel free to contact me for more information on any of these tools, or register an account with HireAbility to recieve free trials and member discounts on many of the ones I mentioned above.

I call on all the ‘old school’ recruiters whom I admire so much to reach out and learn some of the new tricks. And if you’re in a position to do so, learn from some of the new folks out there. And for all of you who source job boards for candidates, do yourself a favor and check out some of the resources above for learning the art of direct recruiting. It’ll make you feel better about what you do, you’ll make more money and most importantly: you’ll have a lot more fun!

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.