how to find a job when the economy sucks

How to Find a Job (when the economy sucks) Part 1 of 3
Posted by Jim StroudAugust 12, 2008
I recently gave a webinar on job hunting for Recruiters that were unemployed, under-employed or unhappily-employed. It seems to me that there is a need for this type of information, especially in these “interesting” times. That being the case, I have decided to post the slides and notes from my webinar here for all to use. Please pass on these notes to other recruiters, HR personnel, or anyone looking for a new opportunity.
The title of the webinar was “Confessions of a Job Search Strategist.” Enjoy…

2002 was not a happy time for me; at least, not initially.

I was in a position where my wife laid off, I was laid off, I had a little one to take care of and bills that would not stop coming in. So, being the responsible man of the house I began looking for work in the the most common ways: Online job boards, newspaper classifieds, career fairs and networking groups. And the more I did those things, the more frustrated I became because I was not getting the results I needed. For the matter, neither was anyone else I was associated with as several people at the time were looking for work and all doing the same things I was.
And then it hit me, I said to myself, “Jim, do something different…” (And so I did)

I reflected on my many years in Recruiting and how I found people for opportunities I was trying to fill; then I simply put the process in reverse. The end result was a sort of push/pull strategy. On one end of my process, I would strategically circulate my resume to companies I was interested in and on the other end, I would position myself to be found by recruiters looking for passive candidates.
In our time together, I am going to show you things I did to find work in the last recession. I am also going to show you things I wish I had done in the last recession. Finally, I am going to show you how implementing all of what I show you here will place you in the most-desired position of all; referring jobs to others because you are already gainfully employed.

In preparing this webinar, I knew from experience that there were a lot of recruiters with profiles on Linkedin and inside Recruiter Networking groups, but I was curious as to how many actually had their resumes posted on a homepage somewhere. So I did the following search:
intitle:resume -jobs -sample -template -apply -submit recruiter education
At the time I ran this search, I found 16 resumes in the first 50 results. I also noticed that there were 11,900 results returned and all of them were not resumes. When I added city names and states, the results were (of course) significantly less. For example, when I added Houston, TX (194 results), San Francisco, CA (294 results) and Atlanta, GA (237 results). Of course, I could have played with that a bit more with area codes and other criteria, but I would still get a low return.
All of this suggested to me something that was very ironic; recruiters (overall) tend not to put their own resumes online. Go figure…

As I reviewed the resumes that returned in my search, what was also surprising was the fact that Recruiters did not classify themselves by the type of recruiting they did. As a Recruiter you know, going through a long list of search results can be tedious. Why not make it easier for the next Recruiter or Hiring Manager or HR Generalist? Should you decide to add your resume to a homepage, give it a title that would catch the attention of a recruiter.
Here are a few ideas:
Resume - I Recruited 25 Executives in 2007
Resume - I Staffed 18 Startups in 2007
Resume - Technical Recruiter – 5 Years Experience
Resume – I Recruit Recruiters
Resume – Recruiting Healthcare Professionals since 1997
Resume - Retail Staffing - I put butts in seats
###
End Part 1
Related Posts
White House says, “What recession?”
How to Find a Job (when the economy sucks) Part 2 of 3
Lessons In Sports Recruiting (Part 2)
But, I would make more money if I was paid in Euros
How to Find a Job (when the economy sucks) Part 3 of 3
ShareThis
Recruiting Rants and Commentary
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.