Recruiting From the Outside, Looking In…

Maren Hogan Driving Productivity, Maren Hogan, Recruiting, Sourcing, Working With Recruiters

I can’t say that Miss Lee’s missive regarding Third Party Recruiters and retention has nothing to do with my post today. But hey, we’re all here to make each other better at what we do and she inspired me, so let the opinions roll.

As a third party recruiter, it took me a great long while to figure out why no one liked me. I was like theOutside_looking_in ill-fated little match girl in Hans Christian Anderson’s fable, staring through the window at the warmth that was, cold-call after cold-call, denied to me. It was a lonely place to be. I was befuddled that moi, a well-liked (except for that scary 7th grade year…) person in general, would incur so much wrath, simply for following in the family business.

What I quickly learned was what I suppose a lot of lawyers learn. One, that if your profession has a bad rap, be WORLDS better at it. Second, if you take people out for fancy meals and bill a high hourly rate, oddly that equates to respect in the business world. Hey, don’t get mad, I don’t make the rules.

Realizing, from a respected source, that an outside consultant often gets more respect than the in-house team, I set out to be the best third party recruiter I could be. I upped the ante for the folks in my hometown, read every article in my industry and the industry I recruit for, checked out the latest and greatest tools and asked every successful person who would give me the time of day what they would do in my shoes.

I’m not that smart (I actually AM, but I’m driving home a point here) what I do is WORK HARD. I’m a great 3PV because I make it my business to know what technologies are being implemented in target companies, because I pay attention to how long reqs stay open at competitors or targets, because I keep calling, even though the internal recruiter has lost interest (betcha the HM with the urgent need hasn’t).

When I started, I thought all 3PVs were in it for the cash, and that’s partially true. It is quite a lot of cash. But, the best recruiters see that and the scummy rep as motivating factors and then you know what?

They break the window and get the warmth.