How Desperate is Your Desperate?

 

Well I am not sure if our society has hit its peak of thriving or shame, but every time I read the news the stories being released are growing more astonishing.  I am actually not sure why I am surprised, when in reality I should just be repeating over and over again in my head- typical.

 We all know the stigmas with dating websites- only the weirdo’s of society are on them or our parents.  But as 2014 starts to get rolling, people are increasingly starting to come out of the woodwork confessing they are using them.  So after reading a rather “astonishing” article today, it leads me to believe how dating websites perhaps are not that bad!  Well if you are looking for love then yes they are still bad, but if you are trying to advance your career then yes you should be hoping onto match.com.

 A staffing recruiter has confessed to using dating websites as his major source for finding top talent for placing candidates into new positions.  He expresses how you are able to find enough detailed personal information that you are able to “get savvy” enough to understand what people have been doing/want to do career wise.  As well he lists all of the quality attributes to the newest recruiting technique of 2014:

 “You do find out quite a bit about the person based on these interactions, which could make for better cultural hiring fits.”

“You can find out how crazy someone is, which also might help in finding out a bad hire—before you hire them.”

“Specialized dating sites like Black People Meet, etc. could offer a great pool for diversity hiring.”

So before you decide to throw away all of your techniques, research skills, and list of contacts in your network as a recruiter/head hunter and join a dating website, you should really reflect on how truly desperate you are within your love life.  Oh excuse me I meant professional life.  With the increases in social media costs to advertise and limitations on attending different networking events- this could be a cost efficient new tool for the staffing world to begin using.  Oh and may I add right before you decide to change your whole business development strategy, I thought I should mention that the recruiter that wrote the article and joined all these dating websites is married… 

The Husband List

We spend most of our days making matches. Figuring out what candidate will be the best match for our clients. Everything from personality, to job history to education comes into play. This is a typical day for us here at Search Solution Group. We love it!! I guess we have come to be EXPERT MATCH MAKERS, better than any silly TV show on NBC, ABC or FOX.

With that being said it is an honor to play the “Dating Game” with one of our favorite female co-workers. While we were sitting around eating lunch on Wednesday I discovered an email that she sent to me describing her ideal husband a few months ago. Actually what she sent to me was a list titled the Top 17 Must Haves for Marriage. So here it is, the magical list of must haves for one of our key employees. If you are interested please APPLY, but follow the rules:

RULES:

1. Include a picture or link to your

17 Must Haves for Marriage

Facebook page or LinkedIn account. Helping to prove you are legit.

2. Explain how you meet all of her 17 must haves. She likes a good story.

3. Please be respectful of her privacy

4. Sending chocolate and food to the office will only make her happy

What kind of leader are you?

I was driving to a meeting  this week when I turned on ESPN radio just as the Colin Cowherd radio show was about to start. I am not sure if I like him or not, but I am pretty sure that is part of his marketing/branding of himself.  He says just enough to get your attention and get you to agree with him and then just enough to get the other half not to like his thoughts or opinions for that day.

 On this particular morning Colin started off his show talking about coaches and the difference that they can make. I think his point was not that one coach really knew a secret play or had a great trick play, but that certain coaches have higher expectations than others. Colin used an example when he was watching Nick Saban from Alabama yell at one of his wide receivers for dropping a catch in PRACTICE. Colin had remembered that the previous year he was watching another college coach during a practice and how that coach did nothing and did not react to a dropped ball in practice. One year later, one coach is playing for the National Championship and the other Coach is out of work.

 That got me thinking about my expectations here at Search Solution Group and how I can make an impact. I am not a Nick Saban fan, but I do appreciate and respect winning. I am not sure that yelling at one of my employees for not making a call or getting a sale would be the right motivation for my team or an example I want to set on a regular basis. I like to think that the last few years the approach that I have taken is that most situations are teachable and that we can learn from them. Sometimes it is easier to just yell or get made or make people run around a tree (inside joke), but in the office it is so much more challenging. It is so important to me that we are all learning and getting better. For most of us that means making a few mistakes and learning from them.

Sales is so tricky in the recruiting world. No two candidates are the same and no two clients are the same, what works for one might scare the other away. How do you teach that???  How do get a sales person to understand that just because the last ten people said “NO” that you should not take it personally?  All of them are weekly scenarios that we encounter and need to get over to be successful in the sales world. But what I learned from Colin’s radio show is that I need to get better and I need to make sure that I am paying attention to my team. I need to listen, mentor and coach them to success. I am not trying to be Nick Saban and make people cry (Manuel Wright) but I certainly would not mind being lumped into a conversation about Nick Saban and all the success he has had in coaching.