My career is taking me away from training and development and into recruiting. How could I gain education, mentoring or experience before pursuing the move in earnest?
—Making a Transition, educational consultant, finance/insurance/real estate, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
—Making a Transition, educational consultant, finance/insurance/real estate, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
First off, realize that during tough economic times, the challenges facing a new recruiter are multiplied many times. So if you expect to succeed, you need to be prepared to make a maximum effort.
Like sales, recruiting is a profession that doesn't benefit from a great deal of academic attention in universities. Because so few universities offer courses in recruiting, becoming an excellent recruiter requires a lot of initiative and self-development.
Depending on your level of exposure to multiple companies, you have probably already realized that there are two types of recruiters: those who actually go out and actively source great talent and deliver exceptional customer services, and those who sit back and "process" applicants who come to them. The latter group (administrators-turned-recruiters) gives recruiting a bad name, and they are often among the first people laid off when the economy takes a nose dive, so you should strive to fit into the first category.
Begin by making a list of the skills and capabilities that you need to master. You can do this by looking at a variety of recruiter job descriptions from companies that are well known for valuing top talent. Such descriptions are readily available on major job boards or on job boards specifically for recruiters.
Be aware that the personal attributes necessary to be a successful recruiter differ from those required in training. Although both fields require skills in research (candidate sourcing/competitive intelligence) and assessment (interviewing), recruiters need to be more competitive and even aggressive. They also need strong "sales" skills to close tough candidates. (In fact, the sales profession bears similarities to recruiting such that many recruiting managers opt to send new recruiters to sales training versus recruiter training.)
The inexpensive way to learn corporate recruiting is by reading articles written by thought leaders and leading corporate practitioners on the Internet. A good place to start is the online Recruiting and Staffing channel of Workforce.com. Also, there are several recruiting-oriented Web sites and online communities that provide readers with hundreds of articles covering every aspect of recruiting. They also offer forums for asking questions and sharing ideas with literally thousands of other recruiters from every industry and region throughout the world.
There is so much content on recruiting available that staying on top of it can be overwhelming. You can keep track of the latest tools and practices (employment branding, social network recruiting, etc.) or the best firms (e.g., Google, Microsoft, Ernst & Young, Sodexo) by creating an electronic "alert" on search engines such as Google covering any topic in recruiting. These alerts scan newly indexed news, blog posts, etc., and send the information to you via e-mail.
If formal training is desired, look at sales training first. For formal training on sourcing, consider firms like AIRS and JobMachine. To learn more about subjects beyond recruiting, consider spending a day with legendary recruiters such as Michael Homula and Lou Adler.
Finally, getting one or more recruiters to mentor you is also an excellent idea. You can identify potential mentors in online forums and discussion groups. You can also find them on social networking sites like LinkedIn (most recruiters are on it) and Facebook.
The most effective way to meet a large number of potential mentors face to face is at professional meetings. Most metropolitan areas have professional associations for recruiters. A great example is the Northwest Recruiters Association, founded by Jason Warner (now a recruiting/training leader at Google). Such groups often hold regular monthly meetings. In addition, there are national recruiter conferences where you can run into a bevy of leading recruiters and thought leaders. National event producers include ERE.net, Kennedy Information, SHRM/EMA, HCI and IQPC.
SOURCE: John Sullivan, San Francisco State University, November 6, 2008
Like sales, recruiting is a profession that doesn't benefit from a great deal of academic attention in universities. Because so few universities offer courses in recruiting, becoming an excellent recruiter requires a lot of initiative and self-development.
Depending on your level of exposure to multiple companies, you have probably already realized that there are two types of recruiters: those who actually go out and actively source great talent and deliver exceptional customer services, and those who sit back and "process" applicants who come to them. The latter group (administrators-turned-
Begin by making a list of the skills and capabilities that you need to master. You can do this by looking at a variety of recruiter job descriptions from companies that are well known for valuing top talent. Such descriptions are readily available on major job boards or on job boards specifically for recruiters.
Be aware that the personal attributes necessary to be a successful recruiter differ from those required in training. Although both fields require skills in research (candidate sourcing/competitive intelligence) and assessment (interviewing), recruiters need to be more competitive and even aggressive. They also need strong "sales" skills to close tough candidates. (In fact, the sales profession bears similarities to recruiting such that many recruiting managers opt to send new recruiters to sales training versus recruiter training.)
The inexpensive way to learn corporate recruiting is by reading articles written by thought leaders and leading corporate practitioners on the Internet. A good place to start is the online Recruiting and Staffing channel of Workforce.com. Also, there are several recruiting-oriented Web sites and online communities that provide readers with hundreds of articles covering every aspect of recruiting. They also offer forums for asking questions and sharing ideas with literally thousands of other recruiters from every industry and region throughout the world.
There is so much content on recruiting available that staying on top of it can be overwhelming. You can keep track of the latest tools and practices (employment branding, social network recruiting, etc.) or the best firms (e.g., Google, Microsoft, Ernst & Young, Sodexo) by creating an electronic "alert" on search engines such as Google covering any topic in recruiting. These alerts scan newly indexed news, blog posts, etc., and send the information to you via e-mail.
If formal training is desired, look at sales training first. For formal training on sourcing, consider firms like AIRS and JobMachine. To learn more about subjects beyond recruiting, consider spending a day with legendary recruiters such as Michael Homula and Lou Adler.
Finally, getting one or more recruiters to mentor you is also an excellent idea. You can identify potential mentors in online forums and discussion groups. You can also find them on social networking sites like LinkedIn (most recruiters are on it) and Facebook.
The most effective way to meet a large number of potential mentors face to face is at professional meetings. Most metropolitan areas have professional associations for recruiters. A great example is the Northwest Recruiters Association, founded by Jason Warner (now a recruiting/training leader at Google). Such groups often hold regular monthly meetings. In addition, there are national recruiter conferences where you can run into a bevy of leading recruiters and thought leaders. National event producers include ERE.net, Kennedy Information, SHRM/EMA, HCI and IQPC.
SOURCE: John Sullivan, San Francisco State University, November 6, 2008
