Monday, November 2, 2009

Searching Out Gold

In terms of the job-search and recruiting processes there is no greater treasure than finding a good candidate or a good recruiter – both can have a positive effect on a search.

There seems to be some level of confusion amongst both sides as to where to put themselves to be searchable online by the other which is why in our recent survey of (again) 633 job-seekers, 553 recruiters (264 corporate, 215 contingent, 72 retained) and 119 career coaches / counselors we asked how often recruiters and job-seekers use a wide variety of online tools to search out the other.

A couple of things to keep in mind:

1) On graphs below - the higher the bar, the more frequently used the tool

2) It is a good idea to have a general understanding of how the different types of recruiters work – click here for an overview

The first graphic below shows a wide variety of tools that many job-seekers and recruiters use to search the other side out. I think it is important to notice here that job-board databases are used nearly as much by both sides as corporate websites/internal databases.

Below you will find how often both sides use social networking tools to find the other for hiring/search purposes.

No surprise that LinkedIn was number one and that both groups and answers rank highly but it was a little surprising to see Facebook ranked so high and that MySpace still has any audience for professional purposes.

If you were to look at the two charts side by side you would find that LinkedIn and LinkedIn Groups rank up there with job-board sites, internal databases, and corporate career sites, and that Facebook ranks up there with Google/Yahoo and the other databases from the first chart.

A few take aways are important here:

  1. Recruiters are using job-board databases so all of you job-seekers who refuse to post your résumé on the job-boards take note and read our previous post on the topic here.

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  2. Both recruiters and job-seekers need to realise the importance of the social networking tools to find the other (including Facebook and Twitter).

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  3. Recruiters are using search engines to find candidates who own and maintain their own website. If you have not invested in that yet it is worth your time.

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  4. Many college and community career centers and outplacement providers have databases of both job-seekers and recruiters – be a part of them and utilize them.

Speaking of searching people out online – please feel free to connect with me the following (click on the social network to link):

LinkedIn Facebook Twitter MySpace

Until next time, good hunting and good luck!

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