This month, we’re looking at recruiting and interviewing on the COATS blog. We’ll examine various angles on how to get the best possible candidates and prepare them to land the job.
“Oh, no. Another post about social media. Yup, I already know about how to use LinkedIn for recruiting and how to search a candidate’s social media profiles. Bor-ing.” Don’t worry. This post won’t rehash any of that territory because it’s about social media outlets just for recruiters.
It’s so easy to get caught up in finding the best people and getting them interested in your clients’ jobs, especially if it’s directly tied to your livelihood. But it’s also important to take a little bit of time, at least once a week, to focus on your own professional development, what the late Stephen Covey called “sharpening the saw.”
One of the simplest ways to keep your saw sharp is by joining or at least observing online communities of recruiters, whether they’re on social networking sites or in the comments sections of blogs. Keeping up with developments in the recruitment field and getting new perspectives on the industry are just two of the potential benefits of these communities.
Recruiting blogs
Blogs can be great for learning: ideally, the blogger researches and writes about a topic, then the commenters add their own perception to the issue. Many of the blogs on this list come pretty close to that ideal:
Talent HQ: This is a biggie, but for good reason. The posts are well-written, they cover the recruiting sphere pretty comprehensively and there are lots of additional resources, such as webinars and downloadable presentations.
Fistful of Talent: Like Talent HQ, but with a distinct edge. This site uses more than a dozen different bloggers, all of whom seem to have an irreverent, yet extremely knowledgable, take on HR.
Blogging 4 Jobs: Possibly even edgier than Fistful of Talent; a sample title is “HR Tech Review Without the Bulls**t”… minus the asterisks.
The Recruiters Lounge: Mostly the work of one guy, Jim Stroud. Fortunately, he’s extremely knowledgable about HR, and almost every post contains clear instructions about how to do your job better.
S0cial networks for recruiters
LinkedIn Groups: There are nearly 7,000 LinkedIn groups for recruiters. You can join a general group, such as The Recruiter Network, or drill down into your niche or your geographical region (or both!). Usually in these groups, someone will start a discussion with a link to a blog post, then other members will discuss it. Larger groups also post open jobs for recruiters, just in case you’re looking…
LinkedIn Answers: Sort of like groups without the group. In the Answers section of LinkedIn, any member can ask a question and any other member can take a stab at answering it. There are currently hundreds of questions open in the “Staffing and Recruiting” section of Answers.
Quora: Sort of like an entire website version of LinkedIn Answers. Quora exists solely for asking and answering questions; its social component involves the ability to “follow” people to see what answers they’re giving or what questions they’re asking. The design is… minimalist, to say the least, and you need to be on at least one social network already to log in, but the Recruiting section is pretty robust, so you might give it a try.
YouTube: There are a lot of recruiting channels for individual companies, but what caught our eye was something called “Top Recruiter,” which appears to be a competition show for recruiters. Hey, it’s good for taking a break, anyway.
What kinds of social media do you use to keep your recruiting saw sharp? Let us know in the comments!