Recruiting is difficult. Most of the top talent already have jobs and are rarely in the job market. As a recruiter (or a headhunter, or a talent scout) these are precisely the people that you should be trying to attract.
There are a few simple guidelines that might help you generate genuine interest in the role you’re trying to fill.
- Try to build relationships with candidates, not just a contact database. I need to know that you are someone I can work with and can be trusted to be discrete. Let’s have lunch together.
- Proof-read your email.
- Give me a detailed description of the role including the actual company name and location. Leave out the technology buzzwords - truly great developers can operate effectively in any landscape
- Do not ask me to send you “an updated copy of your resume in MS Word format”. I don’t know who you are or what you’re going to do with it; what happens if you unknowingly send my resume to my current employer?
- Be discrete. Don’t call me on my work phone. When you call my cell phone always ask first if it is OK to talk and listen to my answer. If I say no then just say, “OK, let’s talk later” and hang up.
Following these simple rules will dramatically increase the quality of your candidates and get a higher response rate to your communications. Who knows, you might even make more money because you’ll be able to consistently deliver the candidates that nobody else can find.