How an Old Dog Can Teach You New Recruitment Tricks

As many of you may know, I am based in Connecticut, where Mark Twain once said “If you don’t like the weather in New England, wait five minutes”. This weather has not been particularly easy on Murphy, my 8 year old King Cavalier, who has been braving -13 F temps in the evenings and early mornings. In spite of the elements, he goes outside every day for a brief walk and fresh air.

He sniffs, digs holes, and does circles before he settles on the perfect spot to do his “business”…So what does or should a recruiter have in common with man’s best friend?

“Sniffing” out my network

First my research team works our vast database, while I’m busy calling my industry contacts- who are always an excellent source for referrals. For example, four of the nine referrals I recently received responded that they weren’t looking. Yet one of the referrals was spot on, leading me to find the candidate who fit my search perfectly.

Digging and clearing paths

In recruiting, I figuratively dig and clear paths every day to find contacts and get through gatekeepers, while moving in lots of circles if I don’t have the correct information. While many recruiters primarily use LinkedIn and job boards to find candidates, I enjoy the thrill of the hunt that comes from researching and making cold calls. I find it to be the most rewarding and refreshing part of my job!

Finding the “perfect spot”

I get such satisfaction from dialing out to someone I never knew existed, and discovering that they are very close or spot on to what my client wants. On rare occasions, weeks after a candidate is placed in their new job, I find that they were right under my nose the entire time- located in our CRM system!  Perfect example of how I didn’t sniff in my own backyard as well as I thought I had!  (…and makes me realize how extensive our database is!)  

Amazing what you can learn from a dog’s tenacity. It has taught me to take my time and trust my instincts more, just like Murphy does- subzero temps and all.

-Gerry