Bob M.
Career Search Instructor and Workshop Designer│Mentor│Program Coordinator | Career Search Blogger | LinkedIn Trainer
Recruiters, HR, Employers: Do you search for talent on LinkedIn ALONE?
If you use others sources, what percentage of your search for talent is done using LinkedIn? What benefits do you find in LinkedIn?
Good Answers (2)
Bill H.
RecruiterGuy.com, Speaker, Recruitment Consultant and Author
Best Answers in: Staffing and Recruiting (10), Job Search (1), Event Marketing and Promotions (1), Advertising (1)
LinkedIn is an arrow in the quivver that is available for both corporate and independent recruiters.
However, successful recruiters tend to like being able to pull many arrows out of their quivver in order to find the best fit. In my case, I like to be able to use my experience to be creative in developing my search plan for candidates. You never know where the successful candidate is going to be. The key is to be there at the same time (I once recruited a candidate who was being interviewed by another recruiter over lunch in Washington, DC. The other recruiter got up and I introduced myself. She interviewed with my client and had an offer that she accepted the next morning!) You make your own luck!
I like the ability to search a candidate's response to questions on LinkedIn. It can give me a sense for their depth of knowledge within their field. You can sometimes also develop a sense for their current state of mind. How many others have seen someone slam someone else or a company in this forum?
Links:
Bob
Whilst I use the LI Recruiter tool to search - and it is the first that i turn to - I tend to find that communicating with my network to be the most valuable source of candidates, however it does depend on the type of search being performed. LI is good for certain types of people in certain geographies but fails in others as is my network. I therefore will make use of varied resources to meet all of the demands of the business.
As for the benfits LI will allow you to identify a potential candidate and give you a bit of background prior to making a direct approach via email or if you are clever enough with the phone. Not only that it will allow you to maintain a "project" to keep track of potentials with required skills for a certain BU or region etc.
It is not perfect but it is easy to use and its search mechanism is very intuitive
More Answers (10)
Scott B.
Sr. Technical Recruiter at Compuware - CIR
Best Answers in: Staffing and Recruiting (7), Job Search (2), Web Development (1), Using LinkedIn (1)
I don't and hope others don't use only one source either (LI or not).
I use my local network first, our ATS, LI, one job board, employees.
LI is nice because you can learn a little about the person before contacting them.
Deb H.
Full cycle recruiter, sourcer, recruiting manager
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Nope. Depends on the search. People in some sectors don't use LinkedIn, so it won't do me that much good in that case. But, regardless of the search, I never ONLY depend on LinkedIn.
LI benefits........some are the recommendations, career history, groups a candidate has joined, other people familiar with candidate.
I would never use only one source for finding talent.
Online job boards and my own database of candidates would be used 80% of the time.
10% of the time (and often the better quality candidates) come from referrals from my own network,
Linked in is probably used 5% of the time,
Facebook (great for graduate and junior roles), career expos, events and seminars are used the other 5% of the time.
The percentages will skew depending on how hard the role is to fill.
I've just posted my first job ad for a Sales and Business Development Manager on LinkedIn. I am still learning how to leverage LinkedIn as a recruiting tool and while I enjoy the benefits and potential, (Profile matching and recommendations for example) it is not my sole searching tool for talent.
Talent sourcing should align with the organization and it's industry and for us that means using sources in conjuction with LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is still emerging and my response could be very different in a couple of years.
Happy Recruiting
Amanda
This may not be a particularly popular answer but - here goes; anyone who only uses Linked In to search for talent doesn't deserve to be paid a fee (if external) or their remuneration (if internal).
There are an entire generation of recruiters who seem to think that headhunting is calling a couple of names they've found on a search on Linked In.
Bar the technology function and sector the site is only perhaps at best 5 percent useful for retained search; in particular at senior levels.No self respecting retained executive search consultant would use it first second or third in their methodology.
It is very useful for hiring anyone in the recruitment sector tho!
I think it would be career suicide if you relied on LinkedIn alone.
1. It is limited (amount of users)
2. People can fabricate their professional exposure.
LinkedIn is a good source of information, and networking device.
Google is probably as good, or even better if used correctly.
Good luck!
I wish searching for talent could be from just one source (life would so easy). I use referrals, ask employees for referrals, Internet job boards, social media (I have not real actual hires useing FaceBook) and company website.
Christine H.
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Yes
It's easy and provides me with relevant information to move forward.
Well, it depends on the position I mean if you are looking for a Jr. Engineer on LinkedIn you can take some time cuz you will be able always to reach Sr/consultant people first then you can contact less experience people they know (it is because experienced people has more connections), so for a Jr position I will go for webpages and for more experienced positions I use LinkedIn.
Regarding the benefits, with LinkedIn you can stay in touch with the potential candidate/employeer no matter the result of the hiring process, if you use webpages you normally just cold call him/her if she/he doesn't fit you won't know anything nor them will know anything from you in a while.
Clarification added March 17, 2010:
Nevertheless, I think you have to use all the resources you have to find the best fit, not only one.
Linked in is good for certain roles but not all roles, so it would depend.
