This is guest post from Mike Jewsbury who is a recruitment technology/social media trainer for Barclay Jones. Having a background in contingency recruitment his message certainly resonates with me.
As a recruiter do you want a reciprocal network of people you consider your ideal contacts (candidate or client) that sees you as an industry sector specialist? If so, then bite your tongue, puff out your chest and read on!
CV Snatcher definition: A person working within the recruitment industry, found frequently prowling around LinkedIn in search of one thing and one thing only – CVs. “LinkedIn is full of walking CVs” is a mantra for the more hard core recruiter.
How to recognise a LinkedIn CV Snatcher: Their name ends in LION, their header (below their name) states “Recruiter” and little else, their industry sector is “Staffing and Recruiting” and their updates mostly consist of job adverts.
As we all know recruiters don’t have a particularly glittering reputation as being knights in shining armour. (If you’re a recruiter and this is news to you check your left hand, check your right, knock on your chest. If the result is “no sword”, “no shield” and “no tin” then feel free to check for a horse under your bum and if the answer is still “nope”, then you have your answer. Sorry!)
It Takes One to Know One
Back in my day of recruiting (“when I were a lad..!”) my boss coined the phrase “CV Snatcher” because my fellow recruiters and I were frantically working to source candidates for the silly amount of jobs we were working and basically bombarded unsuspecting candidates with emails and phone calls because their CV remotely resembled the skill set we were looking for. What we were doing then still happens now only on a much higher impersonal basis.
I know how hard recruiters work because I lovingly work with them week in, week out – hell, I used to be one! But looking through the eyes of the public recruiters seem to scour their recruitment system (CRM/ATS) or LinkedIn network looking for candidates that might loosely fit their clients’ job specification. A little harsh, but I know too many recruiters that would admit to this and I still regularly receive connection requests from recruiters because they have a job that “I am a perfect match for”. (I’ve never been a developer with C# or Java experience?!?).
Attract to Source
At Barclay Jones we see Recruiters building effective networks in LinkedIn by sharing content that is engaging and is valued as helping people in their current role. These candidates are likely to be passive (not currently looking for a new job). Passives do at some point become active and it could be you they contact first! This also goes for clients too!
Confessions of a CV Snatcher
Answer the following questions honestly:
• On a weekly basis, other than posting jobs as a LinkedIn update, how often do you share news / articles related to the industry sector you recruit for?
• How often in a week do you share your views in other connections’ shared articles or conversations in groups?
• Do you truly believe that your LinkedIn network looks at you as a valuable connection who knows about their industry sector and they gain value from what you share and say?
If your answers are “not often” and “no” then requesting to connect with someone is likely to be met with annoyance and a certain air of “another recruiter after my CV for a job I’m not looking for”.
It’s too easy for recruiters to connect and email unsuspecting LinkedIn members and this does little to improve their reputation. Considering only a very small percentage of LinkedIn is made up of recruiters, we do make up for it with noise!
Recruiter Detox
If I were standing in front of a bunch of recruiters now these are some simple steps I would talk about to help increase their chance of attracting and reaching their ideal talent (in this order as well please!):
1. Pump up the volume of your LinkedIn Profile. Be seen less as a CV Snatcher and more as a recruitment professional that understands their industry/industries (look like the people you want to attract).
2. Be sociable. Share insightful industry sector content. Comment on your network’s updates from your main news feed as well as in groups. Congratulate people on their new job, promotion or birthday. (Check out our video on this feature)
3. Add a personalised message when requesting to connect with someone that is more demonstrative of your experience and knowledge within their industry and less “I see you’re a Java Developer. I have a job you’re gonna be interested in…”
Not everyone on LinkedIn is looking for a job but a recruiter who appears on the radar of their ideal talent may find that they might start attracting the passives as well as the actives… Who knows, give it a few months and the shining armour might just fit!
