Creative Thinking – The Recruiting Tool You Can Use Today

 You can’t always use that same old system for every placement you make. Sometimes, you’ve got to change up your approach to make the win-win happen.

Recruiting can be a wonderful thing.  As an independent recruiter you make your own hours, work from wherever you want and choose whom you want to work with. It’s not always mangoes and sunshine, but it’s a wonderful feeling when you make that connection. A candidate gets a great job, your client gets a great new employee, and you get a nice sum of money.  That’s a win win-win situation.

I recently received an email from a former candidate who’s on my ‘Hot Opportunities’ email list.  He was asking if I ever worked with college students.  His son, Kevin, was about to graduate from Villanova.

I wrote back: “Sure, send him over.”  I had a good conversation with Kevin.  He seemed like a bright and passionate kid.  He was very marketable – but, unfortunately, not to my clients.

Companies that are paying recruiters fees usually want the position filled yesterday and with a candidates that has at least a few years’ experience.  Kevin did a summer internship at Google and wasn’t graduating for another couple of months.  This was going to be a tough sell.

It took a creative pitch to the client: “You and I have been searching for senior devs for a while now at 120-160K.  And we can’t find any.  Think of Kevin as a ‘diamond in the rough’. At 80K he’s going to work really hard and he’s very talented.  In a few months he’ll be up to speed and I think you’ll get greater value in the long run from him than from the more experienced senior developers.”

Within a week I had Kevin interviewing with 3 of my clients.  By the end of the following week he had 2 offers.  He accepted one and was ecstatic.  A week later, I received a wonderful thank you letter from his father.

It felt great to make a family happy.   Kevin can finish up his college graduation with the knowledge that a great job is waiting for him.

Lessons Learned

1. An email list (like The Hire Syndicate E-Blast keeps candidate relationships from dying out.

2. College recruiting can work – in some situations recruiting and shopping soon-to-be-grads can pay off.

3. Create a win for both sides through creative thinking. Look at what both client and candidate want and then find a way to meet those needs.