How The Internet And Social Media Complicate Recruiting

Many practice executives hoped the Internet and social media would make employment searches easier or simpler. Not so. Experience suggests they’ve complicated the recruiting process for practices and for candidates.

Every week I hear from candidates new to the job market. They declare their preference for working with a recruiter instead of posting their CV online or responding to Internet job listings. “Why not use the Internet?”, I asked a recent candidate.

His answer might surprise you.

“Using the Internet to apply for a position is like throwing your CV into a black hole. It goes in and nothing comes back. No feedback, no human contact. By working with a recruiter, I know my CV will get seen… and by the right type of practice for me”, he explained.

Furthermore, privacy and confidentiality concerns force many would-be candidates to stay in the background. Employed, talented candidates worry about posting their resumes on line. They fear losing anonymity and confidentiality. In addition, they know that posting contact information on line will subject them to spam email and computer viruses…. an historic failing of online job boards (even those protected sites that claim to be spam free).
Realize that tech-savvy candidates know how to probe Internet job postings and reverse engineer searches. That opens the potential to discovery of information about the practice… including the unflattering and false. Those inaccuracies (bad reviews, etc.) might damage your chances with a great candidate…killing a win/win opportunity.

Finally, I believe it’s a mistake to limit your search exclusively to Internet job boards.
They offer the illusion of productivity. Don’t confuse activity with results. If you limit your search to “typical” sources, you’ll overlook large pools of quality candidates who haven’t promoted themselves as looking for a position.