Recruiters are Lazy?!

June 3, 2011 in Social/Mobile Recruiting with 18 Comments

I want to be clear – as a recruiter and veteran in the HR/Recruiting field for almost 18 years, I like to think I know how to recognize a good thing when it relates to job seekers and candidate engagement. Heck, trying to find better and sustainable ways to connect talent to big recruiting teams is something I’ve been passionate about for years.  So it should be no mystery that I’m certainly interested in features or updates like the one recently at LinkedIn that will allow job seekers to express interest in job postings and share their online profiles with just the click of a button.  Which organisations decide to adopt this based on their application processes (or restrictions) should be interesting – and for the record, I think this is a step towards the evolution of both online and mobile applications.

What I do NOT think is that we’re necessarily seeing a definitive step towards the “death of job boards” big or small.  My opinion is contrary to the one that Dan Schawbel shares in his latest Forbes article where he shared his belief that recruiters using job boards to find candidates are “lazy.”   Of course when I read his posting I had to do a bit of homework on Dan because until that moment I’d been under the impression that he had no recruiting, sourcing or direct job board experience whatsoever.  So you can imagine my position as an advocate of both the recruiter and the job seeker when  it was confirmed via his LinkedIn profile this is in fact the case.  Not even a hint of recruiting experience.

Unfortunately it would seem that Dan, a self-proclaimed “guru” and man that makes a living telling Gen Y and Millenials how to brand themselves, has done an incredible disservice to his considerable following while simultaneously kicking dirt in the faces of hard working recruiters everywhere.  Of course I should be clear that calling out Dan isn’t my attempt to pick on him personally as much as it is to draw a bit of attention to what I hope job seekers aren’t taking too seriously – “expert opinions.”  I’ve only met Dan in person once and I’m sure he’s a fine human being…  He just doesn’t have any business telling recruiters what the future of their industry might hold or speaking on their behalf to job seekers at large.

So what does this mean to job seekers?
Yes, it’s important to connect with recruiters wherever you can.  Companies like Microsoft, GE and PepsiCo (my employer) are taking advantage of the various opportunities to connect with job seekers on Linked through the use of job listings, interest groups and more – and doing it well!  I would absolutely recommend LinkedIn as a part of any active or passive job seekers arsenal both from the standpoint of being recognized and getting connected to recruiters and jobs they’re qualified to take on.  But it doesn’t mean this is the only place an active job seeker should target.

Companies everywhere are working harder than ever to attract and find the best talent for their teams around the world.  This means that they aren’t typically using just one service to connect.  It also means that they aren’t typically using just one service to locate talent.  In fact, I’d argue that employers and job boards are now actually making more progress than ever in regards to discovering how YOU want to connect and apply for jobs.  The LinkedIn references above are easy examples but others include the emergence of “talent communities”, mobile applications by employers as well as mobile applications by job boards and that focus on learning about the companies as much as applying for jobs.  (Don’t forget the push by some to allow you to apply for jobs without ever leaving your preferred social network!)

The point is that there are many different ways to connect – and it’s ultimately the job seeker that continues to drive where smart companies will engage them.  Tracking candidate traffic at PepsiCo, we know that that a considerable amount of our qualified job seekers come from direct traffic to our career site, email campaigns, social networking and yes, job boards (not necessarily in that order.)  So while job seekers should continue to pay attention to where employers are posting jobs and keep an eye out for where they can engage hiring managers and recruiters, they certainly shouldn’t put all of their eggs in one basket – or rely on one “expert chicken plucker” to tell them how to proceed or what to expect.

  • http://www.thenamessourcer.com Justin Sivey

    Perfect response. I couldn’t hold off on his blanket statements either. My rebuke to him: http://www.thenamessourcer.com/2011/06/branding-expert-not-recruiter-makes.html

  • http://www.socialmediatalent.com Jim Durbin

    Nicely done Chris. I certainly think the Apply button from LinkedIn has value, and it might even be possible to make the argument that for a subsection of the populace, the need for a resume is gone.

    Dan misses that mark by a mile, and more disturbing, when called on it, deletes Facebook posts and refuses to engage. That’s disturbing, and seems to be part of a new trend where social pundits make blanket statements without backing up the facts to fill column inches, and when called on it, pretend they are too busy to actually engage.

    What makes it really bad is Dan has been on the radar of the recruiting blogosphere since he first started. Like you, I had a decent impression of him. I don’t even hold the column against him – we all make mistakes, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

    But failing to own up? That to me is a character flaw that quickly deflates any claim of expertise, even in the area where he’s marketed as an expert.

    And it was a good topic, too. Hopefully we get more analysis of it from people with real experience in the coming weeks.

  • http://www.LinkedIn.com/in/harveyclay Harvey Clay

    “So while job seekers should continue to pay attention to where employers are posting jobs and keep an eye out for where they can engage hiring managers and recruiters, they certainly shouldn’t put all of their eggs in one basket – or rely on one “expert chicken plucker” to tell them how to proceed or what to expect.”

    Very well said, Chris!

  • http://Website lisa

    nicely done chris. i know it’s not nice to attack dan directly but…i think the notion of personal branding is a fad. it’s what you do, have done and can do (i.e. the value you bring to the table). this is what i, as a recruiter and career hr person, look at/for. if all you’re focused on is how you present yourself and what marketing terms you can use on your resume & during the interview, i’m really not interested. it’s all just fluff and i really hope that gen y (aka millenials) gets their advice from a variety of sources, and not just one self-proclaimed guru, so they can make informed decisions.

  • http://profilelaunchpad.com Jonathan Duarte

    Chris,
    Great response!

    I too am more concerned with the numerous “Chicken Pluckers” out there, who all of a sudden appear because they figured out how to use social media to market themselves.

    What they might be good at is marketing themselves, but not necessarily experts at what they are writing about.

    That’s the great thing about Reid Hoffman’s original intent with LinkedIn… a 360 resume.
    Just because someone’s 250 character bio sounds great, it doesn’t mean they know what they are talking about.

    I think the difference we all need to be aware of is this.
    There are different kinds of experts.

    Some experts are “Practitioner”, with loads of experience. (Kind of like you with Recruiting and systems. If I needed advice on social and mobile recruiting… you are the guy to talk to.)

    An “expert” could also be someone who “observers and report”, kind of like Dan Rathers. They find a story, talk to experts, and report the findings.

    The gray area comes when a “reporter” suggests or implies they are a “practitioner”. Fortunately, LinkedIn makes it easy to see who the experts really are!!!

    I’m sure Dan Schwabel is a great guy, but he’ll need to get his own Personal Brand back into shape.

  • http://TalentHQ.com Jason

    Chris, nicely put. I too am a supporter of LinkedIn personally and professionally. The piece about Dan’s post related to LinkedIn putting the job boards out of business is interesting – considering LinkedIn’s competitor list. Based on the list, you could consider them in the same category in some regards. Like it or not, job boards are evolving too (and many are thriving).

  • http://Website Steve Bulman

    I have been in this amazing business of talent, acquisition of and management of for the past 11 years….I have been involved in agency recruitment, direct sourcing, executive search, research and latterly talent mapping (combination of all).

    I believe that there is a resourcing and recruitment attraction portal in any organisation, Chris has nailed this in his reponse…. think of it as a trivial pursuits piece – a piece for direct, for referrals, for research and mapping, for search and exec and for agencies – candidate attraction can come from many places – job boards are hard to distinguish quality these days, as are vaguely filled in or downright untrue LinkedIn profiles…

    For this man to call recruiters lazy for assuming they only us one of the avenues above to find talent is SO short sighted. The real value comes in recognising the wheat from the chaff – taking the time to exhibit and apply the very special skill of recognising nascent talent – not just by matching a profile or a CV to a job spec…

    Job boards are in a highly competitve market and they could differentiate and evolve via offering specialist candidate screening and verification, creating competition for the BGV vendors…

  • http://personalbrandingblog.com Dan Schawbel

    Chris, I appreciate you taking the time to voice your opinion and I apologize to recruiters that have taken offense to this article. The article is based on some research, experience, and a good amount of opinion. I’ve always been for people finding jobs by networking online and offline. I see your perspective though, but to me it makes no sense to submit a resume to a database when you can connect with the hiring manager through social networks directly. From what I’ve heard from recruiters is that a lot of the jobs posted on boards don’t exist or are already filled but are still there. There are many more applicants that submit on job boards, which means there’s a lot more competition. Also, if you build a strong web presence, you can be discovered instead of applying for a job, which is something I advocate.

    I will think about how I can structure a new piece to take into account the feedback I’ve received from the recruiting community. Enjoy your weekend!

    • http://Website lisa

      Dan – what experience do you have? this question has been asked of you repeatedly and i haven’t seen an answer.

      how many recruiters did you speak with for your research? i don’t know of any recruiter, including myself, who doesn’t take a filled job off a job board. we get an insane amount of replies from job seekers and taking the job down once it’s filled lessens the load.

      i’d be curious who is posting fake jobs other than scammers and identity theives. real recruiters don’t do it because it weakens our company profile and brand. did you talk about this as a ‘branding expert’ during your interviews?

  • http://Website Dina

    Nice response Chris, if strategies consisted of 1 option, I believe we’d all be out of work. Culture, resources, audience, budget, listening and communication all come into play to build the right strategy for your company. From the viewer side; be visible, be relevant, listen, and communicate. Cheers.

  • http://www.researchgoddess.com Amybeth Hale

    Chris I know we’ve talked about this topic before as well, and I’m troubled to see that Dan has jumped onto the bandwagon of calling out “lazy recruiters.”

    However, in my opinion, there is a certain truth to what he said, if the ONLY way you’re using a job board is to source self-elected candidates. To go with your “chicken plucking” metaphor, that’s like only eating the drumstick because it’s the easiest to detach from the rest of the animal, and arguably the tastiest part of the chicken. But if you take the time to butcher it properly, you’ll find other (even more) delicious parts of the creature that aren’t quite as easily accessible and sometimes need a little prep to develop their tastes. (I must be hungry while writing this…)
    As a sourcer, I know that not everyone wants to take the time to do this — but for those who do, you will learn skills to excel your recruiting career to new levels and put you leaps and bounds ahead of others — the “lazy recruiters” if we still must insist on calling them that.

    In my personal opinion, a truly lazy recruiter is one who only uses one method of sourcing. They won’t like to hear this, but there are lazy “SOCIAL RECRUITERS” out there who rely solely on their “tweet and pray” or “Facebook and pray” efforts. To me, that is no different than generalizing recruiters who only use job boards to source candidates. The ones who don’t consider using a job board for competitive intelligence, diving into resumes to find other sources of talent based on an applicant’s job history or hobbies, and so forth.

    You know me – I could talk about this topic all day long, but when it comes down to it, laziness only reveals lack of creativity in approach. And oftentimes this comes from closed-mindedness that there are indeed other paths to take to reach a common goal. There’s no one best method to source, recruit, attract talent, etc. It depends on what you and your organization truly seek and what you want to accomplish with your workforce.

    And since I noticed that Dan responded here and I hope that he reads this response, I would just like to say that I hope you interviewed more than just a couple of these “social recruiters” for your research. If you need a future source for information to form more objective opinions, please reach out to me. I’m happy to chat about all things sourcing and recruiting, or I can introduce you to some amazingly smart – and well-rounded – individuals who can give you some unbiased thoughts on such matters. I can be reached at amybeth@ere.net.

    • http://Website Lisa Daniel

      I have enjoyed and learned much from this discussion! Great use of metaphor, irony, logic, wit and wisdom regarding “chicken plucking…clucking…butchering…prepping…needs analysis… objective opinions..unbiased thoughts..open-mindedness…advocacy…listening…competitive intelligence…common goal…”

      Delicious!

  • http://www.recruitinganimal.com Recruiting Animal

    I read Danny’s rebuttal above. He says don’t put your resume in a database that recruiters use because there are garbage jobs listed on that site.

    But what % of the jobs are fake?

    And even if some of the job postings are fake why not put your resume in there so recruiters can find it? Linkedin is a resume database that’s no different from job boards. In fact, the LI profiles are not as complete.

    And the recruiters who use job boards have to pay for the right to do so so they are serious about filling jobs.

    Martin Burns told us that you do get spam from job boards but you know what? I get spam from Linkedin too.

    Also, according to John Sullivan’s recent article in ERE, Dan’s remarks about corporate career seem to be incorrect.

    Finally, if you don’t need a resume, then you have to write a good Linkedin profile. LI won’t do that for you. And you know what I’d call a well-done LI profile? A resume.

    Dan also said that good recruiters rely on referral networks for sourcing. How many recruiters get most of their recruits from a stable talent network. I interview people every week and I only remember one person saying he did. He soon after left recruiting for job hunt coaching but I don’t think it’s because he wasnt a good recruiter. He WAS a great networker.

    I agree that it’s good for a job hunter to source the names of people in a company and approach them directly but that doesn’t rule out other channels. Also, if lots of job hunters start pestering managers directly for
    jobs they arent suited for, those managers are going to find ways to make themselves unavailable.

  • http://www.prosearchtexas.com Sandra McCartt

    Dear Dan,
    Having been a recruiter longer than you have been alive it is obvious to me that the “Lazy Recruiters” piece was an uninformed blob of opinion designed to generate some traffic as a trendy topic. So here is my opinion based on my recruiting experience, you don’t have a clue what you are talking about.

    There is however a new trend that you might want to explore. People in the position to be a hiring manager are taking their profiles off of Linkedin or marking them private or are not open to receiving inmails or contacts because they are being bombarded by every self styled “social media guru jobseeker” who has read articles like yours.

    You just branded yourself as a not only a “chicken plucker” but also a “coke sacker” with the recruiting community, so much for “you2.0″

  • http://wiresandtubes.com Joshua Kahn

    There’s a lot to comment on here.

    1. I didn’t realize Amybeth was skilled in the arts of poultry butchering.

    2. Dan responded, good on you for at least that Dan. I think perhaps you’ve stepped in it due to poor wording and a poorly formed argument. For job seekers I agree that a person is better suited by starting with a clear idea of who they are, what they offer, and then communicating that clearly and staying in touch with those in related areas. Saying recruiter’s who use job boards are lazy didn’t add much to your point; instead it detracted from it.

    3. In my opinion, the problem with job boards for jobseekers and companies alike is that it’s difficult to distinguish yourself in a crowd. It’s just the nature of crowds. I think this is at the heart of it. You can still use them, for me it’s not the best route, but it can be a legit route for some people in some job categories. At least in social networks there is a social graph which can help distinguish you and establish connections that you may not otherwise have been known about.

    4. You could argue that recruiters who use job boards are exactly the opposite of lazy. Given the amount of people there who are often indistinguishable from each other, it requires a lot of work to find what you are looking for! Perhaps things have gotten better since I left the industry; but I kind of doubt it. I always found it a slog personally. “Lazy” is a poor choice of words.

    5. My problem with job boards is the model. Not likely to change perhaps, but I hate it none-the-less. They are like HMO’s (just more expensive.) They get between the company and the candidate. From the candidate’s perspective, you’re a number. From the company’s perspective, they’re expensive as hell with questionable return and you’re presence there only helps the job boards traffic of candidates not just to your job.

    6. The more ATS systems and hiring organizations of any kind allow for application or auth into their systems via existing networks (job boards not included), the better. Exposing social graph’s in the right way offers a lot of promise for people (companies and job seekers) to do actual networking based on shared connections. Isn’t this how most of us have gotten our jobs anyway; i.e. via our connections?

    7. Did Sandra really just call Dan a “coke sacker”? 50 ballsy points to Miss McCartt.

    8. Dan, if you are still using the term “Guru” in regards to yourself, even if the NYT referred to you that way, you may as well raise the “I’m a douchebag” flag. C’mon dude, really. Really really. I’ve read some of your stuff and you seem like an affable chap, but “guru” makes me want to run like hell.

  • http://www.davonwright.com/ Staffing Solutions

    To find the best talent availalbe in the market or even passive talent, you must look beyond job boards. The internet has made it possible to source candidates in a variety of different ways. Our agency uses all resources available to find the best talent for the clients we serve.

  • http://www.salesroles.com/ sales jobs

    great advice , thanks

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