Some random thoughts on recruiters and recruiting for Thursday. Some of these have happened to me, others to people I know. I'm not calling anybody out specifically (but if you're a recruiter and feel that way anyway, considering why you feel that way might be useful for you).
GET NAMES RIGHT. This is classic Dale Carnegie -- "A person's name is to that person, the sweetest, most important sound in any language." If you're so sloppy that you call me Tom in your opening message, why would I talk to you about something as important to me as my job?
Make an honest effort on names from other countries too. The number of colleagues I've had from non-English-speaking countries who go by initials or nicknames because English speakers *who work with them* don't even bother to try to get their names right is appalling.
Once more, for the people in the back, and because it bears repeating: GET NAMES RIGHT.
GET GENDERS RIGHT. It probably won't come up one-on-one -- you'll just be saying "you" -- but at some point you'll be saying "this is [name - GET NAMES RIGHT], and [gender pronoun] is..." Don't know? Not sure? "By the way, just so I know, what are your pronouns?"
(Think somebody's pronouns are weird? Use them anyway and keep it to yourself.)
If you have an internal and an external candidate interviewing in the last round for a position, and you know you have a bias for one type over the other, you need to let the one at a disadvantage know that -- especially if the interview is at a location they have to travel to.
If a candidate you've had a long interview process with tells you they have an offer from someone else in hand waiting and need an answer within 24 hours after the upcoming "final" interview, don't ask them *after* that interview if they can sit on that offer for another week.
If you're aggressively recruiting someone and your idea of sealing the deal is to exactly match the offer they have in hand from elsewhere, you're not aggressively recruiting.
Don't recruit candidates you can't hire (or can't use) because you don't have the necessary government paperwork filed. Prerequisite: Know what candidates you can hire and use before you start recruiting candidates.
Don't send random bare connection/friend requests to friends-of-friends who you've never met. Apparently everybody tells you this is a good way to build your recruiting network. They're wrong.
Don't recruit remote candidates for jobs that would require relocation who say right in their profile they won't relocate. No, not even "just in case".
Don't waste space on a bunch of vague boilerplate. "Industry leader", "amazing culture", "exciting opportunity", "key member of the team", "collaborative environment" -- you're wasting your time writing that stuff. (Not mine -- I checked out twenty words in and hit delete.)
Don't helicopter. I've had recruiters call me up to give me interview tips like it was my first job interview ever. Yes, tell me what they're looking to talk about. No, don't tell me what color tie to wear.
I know this sounds like I think recruiters are one step above mosquitoes on the list of things I like. But guess what -- I got my last three jobs through random recruiter pings. The ones I respond to have a few things in common:
1) First and foremost, they follow the rules I just posted upthread.
2) They demonstrate in message #1 that they understand my interests, usually by mentioning something that's *not* listed on my job profile.
3) They clearly communicate the position they're recruiting for.
2) They demonstrate in message #1 that they understand my interests, usually by mentioning something that's *not* listed on my job profile.
3) They clearly communicate the position they're recruiting for.
Last thought: If you miss one or two right things, we can still talk. But doing all the right things and then one or two wrong things is like serving a perfect dinner, then dropping a dead skunk on the table. Good recruiting is as much about what you don't do, as what you do.
