If your recruiter is not a “C” employee in his or her firm, you’re wasting your time.
Not an average employee. A “connected” employee.
This is the professional who has the connections you need to get in front of the best hiring managers in your industry. Technology is great. Tools are essential. But relationships are what make your recruiter succeed.
That’s the advice of recruiting guru Greg Savage in his article titled “Only hire recruiters from Generation C.” Savage underscores the prime quality in the best recruiters: relationships.
A ‘Generation C’ recruiter will be well-connected of course, but they will also be great connectors. Building a digital brand is woven into their DNA, they love social, they are likely to create content, and will develop a community of connections across a wide spectrum of platforms. They see LinkedIn more as a branding platform than a sourcing platform, and they behave there accordingly, sharing insights, answering questions, provoking debate.
Relationships—connectedness—is the key. The depth and breadth of those relationships will determine how well the recruiter knows both the client needs and the candidate’s expectations. How the recruiter uses these relationships makes the difference between a few job submittals on a candidate’s behalf, or a well-crafted presentation of what the candidate brings to the table to top hiring managers in the field.
Virgin Group founder Richard Branson echoes this need for connectedness:
Succeeding in business is all about making connections. While we at the Virgin Group have never hired anybody whose job description was limited to making internal and external contacts, it is implicit that almost everyone on staff has these skills. This has helped Virgin to expand into so many different industries, from music to mobile phone services: As we build connections in other areas, we have been able to grow our expertise and multiply our reach.
And, of course, the “C” recruiter is practicing connectedness every day. It’s not a skill as much as an innate quality within the best recruiters. And, according to Savage, it’s obvious to those who know these connected professionals.
‘Generation C’ are excellent users of technology, especially social, to build a network, but they are also great connectors in real life, having hundreds of cups of coffee a year, thanking people, being generous with time and information, connecting people together without thought of immediate gain. They go to events, and they send thank-you notes.
Unafraid of tools and technology in the recruiting business, connected recruiters use technology and automation to enhance, not replace, the quality of their work on behalf of both client and candidate. There is no substitute for building relationships.
In today’s market, job change is more the norm than the exception. So find an advocate who does more than just email. Find the “C” recruiter—the connected one—who will pull out all the stops to get you noticed and hired.