Category: Recruiting

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The Trouble with Recruiters

There is trouble in recruiter-land.

Talk to any in-house recruiter and they know it. Talk to any job candidate and they suspect it.

Heck, as someone who has run small, medium, and large size talent acquisition operations I even know it.

You probably do too.

So what’s going on?

Back in the pre-online application days, circa 1996,  internal recruiters working for employers customarily carried (preface: at least the good employers who knew to balance workload with quality) 10-15 job requisitions – openings they were trying to fill – at any one time.… Read the rest

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(Almost) Never Take the Counter Offer

The question from a Quora post was not-so-unusual,

 

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“I am working for a company from last 8 months. I resigned there because i was getting better offer in terms of money anywhere else. My present employer counter offered same salary. Work wise both companies are same. Will things change if i stay in my current company (like perspective of manager and HRs towards me)?

… Read the rest
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[Life Back West] January 2012 – Paging Amelia Earhart

Trailblazer, aviator and stereotype breaker Amelia Earhart once said “When a great adventure is offered, you don’t refuse it.”

Amelia, however, wasn’t helping raise a son. She also hadn’t just rebuilt a coaching practice working with individuals and teams back to pre-Great Recession levels.

Taking a risk for her, covering a gamble, was perhaps easier, with less downside to go along with any upside.… Read the rest

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The Hiring Game: One More Secret

Turns out just when I thought I knew many of the tricks of the trade in the world of executive search consultants (also known as headhunters), one more tip crossed my radar.

While meeting this week about a very interesting corporate global role with a San Francisco firm (more on the opportunity in an upcoming post), I got to also shoot the quick breeze (time is, in this business, money if you’ve got a full slate of searches) with a couple of senior consultants about a headhunter’s life.… Read the rest

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The Talent Test: The Problem with “High Potentials”

The headline in the Wall Street Journal earlier this month blared “Employees with ‘High Potential’ Need to Know.”

There’s just one problem. If you want to screw up talent, tell them they’ve got high potential – shorthand for they’ve been tapped and they’re great.

Why?

Research (Carol Dweck) shows that labeling folks doesn’t work to improve performance. In fact, labeling folks (“great,” “high-potential,” etc.… Read the rest