THE MINDSET OF A SUCCESSFUL IT RECRUITER : PART 3

5) Your database is NOT the candidate pool

You are embarking on a career in networking. Whether it’s through LinkedIn, word of mouth, handing out a business card, or just dropping a hint about what you do in casual conversation. The truth is, what you might think of as the ‘Active Candidate Pool’ i.e. people who respond to your job adverts, or send in CVs to be put onto your database, represent around 15% of the labour force. These are people who aren’t necessarily the best candidates for your important roles, these are people who are simply – by definition – looking for work.

In today’s candidate driven market, the game has changed. A Search mentality is what is needed. Source jobs for good people you’ve found – and not just people for the jobs you have.

There is an additional candidate pool of around 20% more in the workforce who are classed as ‘Semi-active, Semi-passive’ candidates. These are amazingly talented and sought after, but they are in work. In work, not necessarily because they are blissfully happy, but because they haven’t got their act together in terms of going on that job hunting spree. Their CV is not ready, they are not on databases.

But if someone contacted them and sold them a blinder, they would be all over it. So without making this a “Lead Generating Skills 101′ article, I just want you to get into the habit of ALWAYS asking simple questions that will lead to tremendous results.

So you must always have a lead generation mindset in place. Use questions such as these coming up to open up new names (and notice how I have framed them, so as not to cause offence or irritation)

1) “By the way we’re always looking for excellent candidates like yourself, because the client will consider more than one hire for this. Do you know of any friends or colleagues who might also be interested? If they don’t have their CV together, no problems we can have a quick chat on the phone.”

2) “Are there any colleagues from the past who may have moved to another company you would like to work with again?”

3) “Do you know of any high-profile projects in your sector that you’d like me to represent you into? “

You get the idea. Always have lead generation at the back of your mind. Good leads aren’t always active or apparent. They need to be wooed.

6) Keep it simple, keep it tight

Whether you are a resourcer or a Business Developer, I have distilled your roles down into the slides below. Keep it simple. Do the basic stuff well. Rinse. Repeat.

If you’re a resourcer it’s this:

If you’re a consultant opening up new clients it’s this:

That’s it for now. The final article in this series deals with the idea of becoming a networking beast! Read on.