Stop being a LEMMING recruiter - 3 easy tips to increase your recruiting skills

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Morning!

It was bound to happen - I awakened and the first thing that pounced onto my mind, besides "OMIGOSH WHERE IS MY COFFEE??" was:

Are you a really smart recruiter?

Or…

Are you a blasted lemming?

Hmmm?

Talk about a unique way to start a conversation with oneself, eh?  :)  But I digress.

Seriously here.  What ARE you?  A lemming recruiter:

• FOLLOWS the thundering herd
• DOESN’T look beyond simple resume databases
• GIVES UP after one search fails
• BLAMES the candidates and clients for their lack of business success

In other words, lemming recruiters live inside a teeny tiny box because that box is rife with personal security.  There’s no need to learn new, exciting recruiting techniques if you stubbornly huddle within your current knowledgebase, right?

Choosing to remain clueless and ignorant is actually quite comforting at times. 

Think about it!   If you stay where you are and refuse to grow as a recruiter, you don’t have to decimate your ego by admitting, you DON’T know it all.  Trust me, I really do know this…..it’s only been this year that I’ve realized quite how much I still have to learn as a student in this thing called life. 

So!  If you’ve been hiding in the same comforting Dark Hole of Lemmingness, let me give you some suggestions on how to blast your way out.

Step 1 - Get Alert

Did you know you can be proactively alerted whenever recruiting trainers/consultants/etc. update their blogs with new and exciting free tips and ideas?  Simple first grab a Google Reader account…and then just add in your favorite blog URLs.  Ones to consider include:

• http://www.risetrends.com/blog/
• http://therecruitingedge.blogspot.com
• http://www.xtremerecruiting.tv
• http://www.therecruiterslounge.com
• http://ukrecruiter.typepad.com
• http://recruiting-online.spaces.live.com/
• http://www.ere.net/blogs/CyberSleuthing/
• http://www.recruitingblogs.com/

That should be enough to get you started. Once you add the above goodies into your feedreader, you’ll be automatically notified whenever great new free articles about Internet recruiting tricks and tips are published.

Nice, eh?

Next,

Step 2 - Revel in Recruiter Forums

As astonishing as it might seem, chances are….if you have a recruiting question, you’re not the first to conceive of the idea (unless, of course, it’s "How can I source Vulcans while joyfully dancing half-naked across the ice roads driven by Alaskan truckers?"  That would probably be a first).

So!  Got questions?  Get thee hence over to:

• RecruitingBlogs Forums
• ERE Discussions
• MMA Recruiter Forum (okay, I confess - I just couldn’t resist.  :)  )
• Sourcers Unleashed
• Recruiters Network

And of course, there’s the various recruiting forums in which you can indulge at Yahoo Recruiters Group.

Finally, my 3rd easy tip to STOP being a lemming recruiter is:

Step 3 - Think OUTSIDE the recruiting box

Are you at the end of your rope regarding a particular search?

If so, tie a knot on it and use it to swing yourself over to another concept entirely!

I was reminded of this during my morning posting of Lateral Thinking OUTSIDE the box over at my Personal Development blog. 

Lemming recruiters always adore bashing their heads against brick walls because it feels soooo good when they stop.  In other words, even though failure has been demonstrated time and time again, they STILL approach the same challenges with the same useless and worthless methodologies….and (jeepers!) are confronted with the same hopeless results.

So…..when you’re beset by a problem that mere mortal common-sense cannot solve….cast your mind out to the universe and ask yourself:

How can I approach this in an unconventional way?

So often, we’re so hooked on the gee-whizes of technology and the OMIGOSHTHATISSOOOCOOL aspects of competitve intelligence that we overlook the, well, simple and easy solution that is hidden in plain sight.

I’ll be blogging more about this in the days to come…but for the moment,I’ll close this article with the idea:

What is the picture below?    A spatula or…..

Or something you can use to scrape off the ice on your car windshield when all else fails?

The answer might surprise you.  

Enjoy,

Barbara Ling

ps - have you ever heard of creative problem solving?  If so, you’ll adore:

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