By Betsy Goldberg, contributor

From:  Money Magazine, March 2010

(Money Magazine) — Decent job listings are pretty scarce these days — which is why it’s more important than ever to get your résumé in front of the top headhunters in your field. Executive-search professionals serve their client companies by quietly cherry-picking candidates for high-level jobs, many of which are never advertised. And if you’re not on the recruiters’ radar, you may miss out on prime opportunities. These strategies can help you get on the gatekeepers’ good sides:

Headhunters often specialize by industry or job function. Thus, the best way to find someone is via your network. You’re likely to get a better response if you’ve been referred, so ask friends in your field which pros were helpful to them, or use LinkedIn to check whether current or former co-workers are connected to recruiters; alternatively, see whether your industry association can suggest someone. It’s worthwhile doing all this even if you’re not job hunting just yet. Building a network takes time, and you might as well get a headstart. Read the rest of this entry »

Courtesy of Recruiting & Staffing Solutions magazine, March/April 2009 issue

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Leveraging Your Network for Survival, Profitability & Growth
by Manny Rao, Chairman of the Board of Directors, NPA

Use your network to:

• Find work
• Expand the market you serve
• Seek advice and coaching
• Cut costs
• Benchmark results

These times are no time to go it alone. Businesses are failing at record pace and the current economic conditions are not likely to quickly recover. So, all business leaders, including recruiting and staffing executives are smart to examine new and creative ways to leverage existing assets to deliver improved results. Looking for ideas, help, feedback, and coaching from your established peer network is a logical first step. Recruiters that have built a strong network of industry partners will benefit from the knowledge and expertise these networks can provide with the challenges ahead. Read the rest of this entry »

by Jason Elias

It is a truism that relationships are the key to success in economic downturns. Naturally your relationship with your NPA partners will be more important than ever; just ask Jim Sullivan who survived the 9/11 aftermath by working closely with NPA partners. Here are a few reasons why a strong recruiter network likeNPA is more important now than ever:

• Getting jobs on is getting tighter; your NPA partners are an instant source of active qualified openings.
• Developing new business is harder; your NPA partners can offer warm leads into existing clients to provide recruitment in your industry or geography.
• Pitching for business is trickier; NPA provides you with a comparative advantage over your competitors. Tell your clients you are willing to give away half your fee to help them find the right candidate.
• Business issues get complex; why not brainstorm with other owners or consultants whose experience and fresh perspective can solve your problem.
• Great candidates are coming out of the woodwork, but you may not have a role for them now. Share with your partners and convert opportunities into placementshappy candidates and clients lead to repeat business.
• You are never too old to learn; keep up your skills and brush up on the all too easily forgotten basics, with NPA’s training and webinars.
• Maintain the relationships in your recruiter network in a great collegiate atmosphere at meetings and conferences.

The Scenario:
Manufacturing company in Indiana needed sales and marketing GM in Australia.

The director of human resources was planning to make a trip to Australia to source candidates. He was nervous about a successful outcome since he had no contacts in Australia to help with the search. Read the rest of this entry »

Laura Schmieder, Premier Placement Inc., NPA 1315

Long ago I read “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”. It’s a philosophy/travel book that mixes discourses on Eastern and Western culture with the blessings/burdens modern technology bestows on us. It’s a quirky book but I often go back and think about the lessons I learned reading it. Repeated throughout is the conviction that you must live a life of quality but also give quality to life around you.

There are many precepts about life throughout the book. Things about not allowing technology to take over your life but using it to your advantage – to produce good work. To instill patience, care and attentiveness in my work are to achieve peace of mind. Peace of mind produces right values that produce right thoughts (stay with me on this). Right thoughts produce right actions that produce quality work. Read the rest of this entry »

Gary Eastwood, Beck/Eastwood Recruitment Solutions, NPA 6770

One technique Beck/Eastwood has frequently employed as a best practice over the past 10 years has been to utilize contrary logic in order to pinpoint what exactly a client is looking to employ as a skill set for high level positions.

Huh? I know, it sounds bewildering. For us, it works like this:

When we take on a new assignment (we often work across the board in every discipline for our best clients) we ask for and receive the company published job description. This is one of the least helpful documents in talent acquisition in my humble opinion. Read the rest of this entry »

Kimberley Chesney, CPC, Prime Management Group,NPA 7525

How many times have you been asked to provide more resumes so your client can make a hiring decision? As annoying as it may be, we have to look at this from the client’s point of view. How you react to this request should be dependent on how well you know your client. Read the rest of this entry »

Gary Eastwood, Beck/Eastwood Recruitment Solutions, Valencia, CA

The beauty of the NPA experience is that there’s no wrong way to work successfully with a trading partner, if the importer and exporter are on the same page. Following is a case study in developing a new trading partner met at an annual conference and developing a partnership that yields multiple split placements.

In my experience, the backbone of a great NPA partnership is finding a process between importer and exporter that is efficient, particularly if you’re working with several different types of positions with different clients. In my case, I met Jeff Kortes from Human Asset Management in Milwaukee at last year’s Nashville conference.

Read the rest of this entry »

Recent financial events have me thinking about our globally connected world and the importance of diversification. We have long understood the continued globalization of world economies but it is highlighted when China’s demand for commodities has an impact on Main Street. These signs of change can cause many to retreat to our comfort zones and expect that our world won’t really change. Or we assume, perhaps even hope, that what we do will remain unchanged.

If you haven’t been touched by globalization and the flattened world, you are either in a uniquely localized market or in a niche that is insulated from the global economy. Most recruiting businesses are touched, impacted, maybe even clobbered by the growing worldwide influences on our economy and particularly on the industries we serve. Ask someone in the auto industry.

Read the rest of this entry »

It saves time, effort, and frustration, and gets results. Representation by an experienced recruiter greatly increases your chances of interviewing success for several reasons:

• Better information about the client and their hiring preferences, work environment, and compensation package
• A recruiter can check your references and promote you in a way you could never do yourself
• A recruiter serves as a buffer to smooth the interview and hiring process and can often circumvent misunderstandings
• Provides feedback on the interview
• He can let you know your realistic chances of getting an interview for a particular position
• Gets your resume noticed
• Companies that enlist the services of a recruiter are serious about hiring a talented engineer
• He can tell you when your job change expectations are unrealistic

Robert Ambs

Ambs Chemical Search