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How do you prefer recruiters contact you?

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Dave Jensen
(@davejensencareertrax-com)
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We attended a recruiter training meeting yesterday sponsored by our major industry association for headhunters. It was interesting. There was one speaker who spoke about millennials and how they are a bit different than previous generations as far as how they like to be contacted about new jobs.

This information really surprised me. I'm still making "recruiting calls" where I am basically calling someone cold and asking if they'd have advice for me on the networking roster for a job -- and, of course, if that person is interested personally than they should be smart enough to throw their own hat in the ring.

But millennials, according to our speaker, greatly prefer to receive information about new job prospects via other means. They seem to overwhelmingly consider a call at their work phone to be an "invasion of privacy." For me personally, I remember getting calls from headhunters and I was always kind of impressed when they found me. I enjoyed those occasional calls.

Is this TRUE or FALSE for our audience here? Do you consider a recruiting call to be inappropriate during the work day? This speaker suggested that people prefer a text message, or a social media connection, or even an instant message (like the messaging system in LinkedIn). Personally, I think that if you're looking for a headhunter to approach you via a text message, you'll have a long time to wait, because how in the world are they going to get your cell phone number? I know that Gil A. Smith works as a process engineer at Genentech -- so why not just reach out to Gil and ask his advice on my search? Whats really wrong with that? In my view, not much, but according to our speaker, we risk offending some large percentage of the millennial population.

Love to have a discussion here,

Dave

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DX
 DX
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HI Dave,

I'm a GenX'er, and I don't mine if a recruiter reaches out to me during the work day, provided they use only 2 channels..my personal mobile phone or personal email. LinkedIn Messaging is a 3rd channel, that will notify me via my personal email anyways, so back to 2 channels.

Using those ways, i'm in control on how and when I pick up. Caroline addressed a potential issue with calling the work land line.

I absolutely HATE it when a recruiter use to contact me on my work-phone (land-line) and, if they really want a horrible and nasty response from me, if they contact me by my work email then my wrath is unleashed.

I really like the SMS idea (to the personal phone) that way you schedule a call, i'm free to decide if I respond or not.

DX


   
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Dick Woodward
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Dave:

While using the work phone number can be problematic, it is less of a problem than it was in 1992 when you recruited me for a position. At that point, almost nobody had email and almost nobody had mobile phones. This has obviously changed. It may still be, however, that the only means of connecting that a recruiter has is through an office line. In that case, most if not all recruiters will try to find that person on LinkedIn and contact them either through LinkedIn or through their email (which should be on LinkedIn).

There are still times when the only way that you can contact a person is through the office number. The advantage now is that they can call you back on their mobile from a place with more privacy and at a better time.

Dick


   
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Dave Jensen
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Dave: There are still times when the only way that you can contact a person is through the office number. The advantage now is that they can call you back on their mobile from a place with more privacy and at a better time.

Dick

That's the problem. I see that people don't like it, but that's the only way to reach them. First off, I would never launch into some discussion about a job and try to direct recruit them for it. I would simply ask "I'm in the networking process for a search we're doing for a Director of Breeding, and I wondered if you can take a three minute call for me to ask you for some advice." They are free to say "can you call me after X PM" or whatever.

I can't see any other options. LinkedIn messaging I guess? How do you find out people's cell phon numbers or get a text message to them?

Dave

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(@rlemertmindspring-com)
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... yes, it would be highly embarrassing to be overheard by colleagues in a busy office muttering something along the lines of "yes, I am on the lookout for opportunities at the moment, but can you call me later.."

The only five words in this response that are at all necessary are the last five - "can you call me later". You can optionally preface this with "I can't talk now" and add "on me cell phone" (or home phone, or whatever non-work number you prefer, but you don't need to make any remark about what the call is all about.


   
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Dave Jensen
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... yes, it would be highly embarrassing to be overheard by colleagues in a busy office muttering something along the lines of "yes, I am on the lookout for opportunities at the moment, but can you call me later.."

The only five words in this response that are at all necessary are the last five - "can you call me later". You can optionally preface this with "I can't talk now" and add "on me cell phone" (or home phone, or whatever non-work number you prefer, but you don't need to make any remark about what the call is all about.

Perfect response, Rich. That's all you need to say, and any recruiter will stop at that point and make an arrangement to call you at another time.

Generally, the less senior the person, the more issues they have in being reached by phone during the work day. When I call CEO's about a CEO search, I'll get their assistant first, and I'll just tell her or him that I am a recruiter working on an assignment for a Board and that I was hoping for five minutes of advice, or a good time to call back. Generally, they take the call. No subterfuge necessary.

Dave

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 PG
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For me this is mostly a question about probability. I dont actually mind if a recruiter calls me at my office phone but I dont have an assistant that will take the call and the amount of time that I spend in my office available for a call is very low.
Sending an e-mail or contacting me through linkedin and setting a time for a Telephone discussion has a lot higher probability of success.

Linkedin is also by far the most common way that I am being contacted for different positions.


   
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Dave Jensen
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Not a millennial. E-mail or LinkedIn private message (gets to my email) are also my preferred routes to either schedule a call or copy a couple of my contact emails for the recruiter if I think they would be more interested in such opportunity.

Do you know it costs about $10 or so PER EMAIL to use LinkedIn's mail function?
How could any business that makes dozens or a hundred contacts in a day really do that?

Should a small business (some single person doing a recruiting job) pay$300,000 a year in LinkedIn "InMail" charges (when they earn substantially less than this) or pay the exorbitant bulk pricing and "Recruiter" charges the website imposes?

I don't think that's practical. You can only message people for free if you are first person connected. If I do a search even in an area I know well, and have 100 in the list, 20 of them will be first connections and the other 80 will be people I'd have to pay $10 to reach. That is not a workable solution.

Dave

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 PG
(@per-grufmancepheid-se)
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Also not a millenial. For me anything works as long as you are actually able to reach me and as I said my office phone is unlikely to accomplish that while linkedin, e-mail (Company or personal) as well as mobile phone will usually succeed. If I get contacted by for example my Company e-mail about receiving advice regarding a position I will move that dicussion to my personal e-mail or phone if it would be a position that I have some type of interest in. Also note that I am in Europe meaning that the Company I work for have very limited possibilities to monitor also my Company phone or e-mail unless they have reason to for example suspect a crime.

The way this usually works for the moment is that I get an invite on linkedin to connect with someone from a recruiting Company only saying Hi, my name is xxx and I work as a senior recruiter for yyy and would like to connect with you. Once I accept we can exchange messages more easily.
I usually accept invites from recruiters with activities in my field since a contact is of mutual benefit regardless if I am currently interested in a new position or not since I both have a network of other people that might be relevant and that I also sometimes needs to recruit of course my situation may also change in the future.


   
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