Tag: passive

Developing a Network of Passive Seekers

May 6th, 2008

I saw this plate the other day…

A few days ago, I wrote about how hard it is for good, employed job seekers to search for new work while retaining anonymity.

But what if a candidate is not really “looking”, but also wouldn’t pass up the right opportunity if it, well, fell in their lap…?

Sometimes the difference between someone “happily employed” and “happily employed… but listening” isn’t very much.  As an employer, how can you be attuned to those subtle shifts in perception of both your company as an employer, and their outlook as a candidate?

As far as I can tell, there is no way for someone to easily, passively and privately tell a company, “yeah, if you had something great for me, I would be interested.”

Is there?

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Posted in Better Recruiting, Company Culture, Hiring, Talent Management

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Anonymity Challenge for Passive Seekers

April 29th, 2008

Today, I listened to Peter Clayton’s Total Picture Radio interview with Jim McGovern of ItzBig.  In the interview, he addressed something in a way–I am embarassed to admit–I never fully grasped before:

The Anonymity Problem for Job Seekers

The simple fact of the matter is, the Recruiting Industry has long been too sympathetic to the employer or hiring manager, and far too hard on the seeker.

Regularly, I have HR/Hiring managers confess to me their worst sins… like throwing out a whole stack of resumes or deleting their whole “candidates” folder in their email program “on accident” because they needed to clean up space on their hard-drive to make room for their grandson’s little league photos.

At the end of the day, I do believe job-seekers work too hard to have their careers tossed into black holes, set to puree, and hopefully something turns out at the other end.

More than that, McGovern is right–truly excellent, talented candidates who are currently employed can’t afford to be found looking around.  In an economy like ours where “bouncing back” from being fired would be relatively hard… passive candidates need better tools to keep their identity private when job-seeking until they are ready to reveal it.

ItzBig’s subtitle says it all: “Be Found — Not Found Out” I wish them all the luck.

Popularity: 19% [?]

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Posted in Better Recruiting, Economy, Getting Hired, Jobsearch, Know The Ropes, My Side of the Desk, Tools & Resources

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