I recently had a chance to attend Recruiting Innovation Summit held at LinkedIn Headquarters in May’2011. The session “Behind The Wall with Social Recruiting” by Susan Strayer, David Kippen started off with an interesting question “Recruiting isn’t social until you take it offline“. The audience were asked to wear a tag to indicate if they agree or disagree. The question is bit tricky and opinions vary depending on whom you ask.
The big professional / social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and FourSquare have provided recruiters with unlimited access to millions of potential hires, provided ways for recruiters to observe, engage and communicate with their target hires. Social networks have really made it easy to reach out to potential hires.
Given I’m on LinkedIn, I get a lot of emails from recruiters asking if I would be interested to take up a new job. Of all these emails, certainly 2 emails stood out and totally 180 degrees apart in their approach.
Here is the first email (only posted part of the text that is relevant)
Subject: Not your typical recruiter…here is why
I differentiate myself from other recruiters by approaching our relationship with honesty, transparency, and integrity. My goal is to build long-term, lasting relationships and helping to find the best possible jobs for each individual
I have my fingers on the pulse of the job market, and am glad to share my knowledge and make introductions. Let me know when would be a good time for me to call and introduce myself to you over the phone.
Here is how the second email goes
Subject: Senior Java Developer
My client is looking for a senior java developer. Is this something you are interested in? If so, can you forward your resume.
For various reasons, the first email was intriguing.
It gave me an opportunity to know the recruiter, help the recruiter understand what my interests and needs are and when I might be looking for a job.
Obviously, the audience had varying few points. If you are doing mass hiring, it’s not feasible to reach out to every individual potential and talk to them. But if you are actively sourcing passive candidates in fewer #’s, take it offline to know each other better.
Reaching out to the potential hire via the social network is “not the end of it”. In fact, it is just the beginning of a relationship.
What are your thoughts on this? What worked and didn’t work for you. Please share your comments below.
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