Why rock star recruiters have what it takes to make great fishermen

Gone are the days of Monster, cold calling and weeding through hundreds of hard copy CV’s.  Any recruiter in this day and age will tell you that their best candidates are the passive ones.  The problem is, finding passive candidates can be a bit tricky...it’s a bit like fishing...

Let’s take a look at some of the tricks and tools needed to accomplish such a task:

Bait Any good recruiter knows that a catchy headline for an InMail has far greater chances of being opened than a generic subject line.  “Bob, I am impressed that you achieved 120% of your quota this year!” is far more appealing than “Looking for an account manager”.  So what happens when you send out that catchy In-mail and no one takes the “bait”?  You get to know your audience and readjust your bait.  Surely if you were fishing and the first line you cast didn’t result in a catch you wouldn’t pack up your tackle box and go home.   What does your company have to offer?  Has your company hit over 100% of their target year after year?  Great culture?  Free beer in the break-room?  A fish is more likely to bite a live worm than a bottle cap.

Trolling   So you’ve adjusted your bait and you are ready to get on that boat and try again (The definition of trolling in fishing is a method of fishing where one or more fishing lines are used). You are overloaded with reqs and they all need to be sourced, you decide to send out bulk in mails to your chosen ones, definitely increases your odds of getting a hit, after all this is just a numbers game, right?

Location What happens when you send out all of your crafty, near- genius emails to 50 potential candidates and no one responds?  Maybe you are looking in the wrong place, after all, you can’t catch a tuna in a pond.  Being the rock star recruiter that you are, you research your competitors, follow the news for companies laying-off and/or being acquired, pack up and head to the ocean.  What do you know, within the first ten minutes you see a school of fish!

Catfish You finally catch a break after going to a new location, adjusting your bait and using more than one line.  You have a bite! You steadily lead them to the boat by giving them enough slack to reel them in.  You pull them in only to find out after careful evaluation that you just caught a catfish.  This candidate who seemed so good on paper is lacking in communication, has been fired on more than one occasion and is pedestrian at best. So you throw them back – they just aren’t a keeper.

The Catch You’ve spent many hours perfecting your bait, trolling, changing locations and getting over the blow of the catfish you caught and finally you have made a great catch!  An A player, the big kahuna, the white whale, an 830 pound bluefin tuna!  You can sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor.  Just kidding, you’re a recruiter… you need to get back on that boat and start all over again!

So will being a rock star recruiter guarantee you to be a good angler? I have no idea that was just my bait.  Contrary to what some people think, recruiting is not easy and not everyone will thrive in the profession; it takes a lot of patience, practice and skill to perfect your craft.  You will log many hours sitting idle on the boat, catching seaweed and adjusting your bait.  But as any good recruiter or angler knows: There’s plenty of fish in the sea! 

Happy fishing!

By: Lynn Monaghan