Recruiter Techniques and Tricks

I like to follow recruiter blogs to see what they are up to and their overall mindset on various things.  Afterall, they are a big part of the job search process and understanding what makes them tick helps understand how they fit and can be helpful.Â

On Dave Mendoza’s blog I came across a post from Steve Levy about common misconceptions that newbie recruiters have about what recruiting is…. and he says he is going to set it straight in 3 posts.  This first post is called “Recruiting planning by focusing on the business side (who your targets are).” I liked what Steve had to say here because he has specific examples of some tricks recruiters know to manage some of the competitive intelligence that helps them do their jobs better – specifically, knowing what industries and companies are hot, and which are about to (or are tanking).

Isn’t this something that you should be doing???Â

Trust me, for all this industry analysis that recruiters are doing to piece together the potential market, they aren’t going to sit with you for a few hours and give you the run-down.  Remember, they don’t work for you.  They work for the client - you may be a big part of them filling their job or getting a nice commission - but they aren’t your best friend (unless you are lucky ;)).  As far as I’ve seen, they would rather spend time doing something moving towards their commission than giving you the 411 on stuff you should already know.

So just what does Steve tell other recruiters to do?  You need to read the whole article here because reading it from his perspective helps you understand what a recruiter is to you (and how they work).  I’ve picked out some specific tools that he recommends to really know where things are at:

• Get the financial low-down at the New York Times Interactive Sector Snapshot – this is a very cool tool that financial geeks must love, but if you are looking at different sectors to move into (or wondering how yours is doing) you need to check it out
• Yahoo Finance allows you to create financial portfolios that you can track – not just for your personal investments anymore – consider this to measure/monitor the health of that new industry you’ve been eyeing!Â
• In addition to various e-mail lists you can get on you can check out MarketWatch for another perspective and source of information.

I think you get the point… others that care about finding people jobs are using tools like this to see where the jobs are, or where talent might be coming from (that’s the point of Steve’s post – remember, he is a recruiter telling other recruiters where to find talent)… but know that these tools are available to you also.  This can help in a career transition or in actually doing your job (getting competitive intelligence)… good luck!Â