A Day in the Life of a Recruiter: Challenges in 2013

When asked what I do for a living, naturally I reply that I am a recruiter. Many people respond by referring to me as a headhunter… if only it were that easy! Heads are plentiful, qualified IT candidates… not necessarily so. Some of the high-level IT opportunities that we work on have an unemployment rate of less than 1 percent.

The recruiting industry has changed quite a bit over the last few years and has posed recruiter challenges in 2013. Job descriptions have become hybrids of multiple functions in many cases. It can be a real challenge to find someone with the proper mix of skills, interest in the position and the availability to fill a role in short time frame. Add this to the increased paper and regulatory activities required and it becomes very time consuming to deal with multiple candidates for numerous positions. Recruiting isn’t for thin-skinned people. Screening duplicate resumes or resumes that are nearly identical is another facet of recruiting that most folks don’t take into account. Let’s not forget coordinating interviews and prepping candidates, which also take considerable time.Often times, after doing all the work to place a contractor or full-time candidate, he or she may have second thoughts, receive a better offer or have their current employer counter. This can take the wind out of the sails of the best recruiters.

In 2013, there is a lot of value added beyond just traditional recruiting for our clients. There are so many regulatory laws and statutes surrounding background checks, credit checks, employment verification, etc. that recruiters now have to work hand-in-hand with administrative personnel just to weed through all the non-recruiting activities.

The goal of a recruiter is straightforward – to submit as many qualified candidates to as many clients as possible.

The sheer number of resumes in our proprietary database, and the continued harvesting of more resumes from social media, job boards and our own robust tools grow exponentially. It is almost impossible for recruiters to make as many personal calls these days as opposed to 10 years ago. Yet, developing personal relationships and helping qualified candidates in their career growth with new opportunities cannot take a back seat.  Good recruiters establish a rapport with “go to” resources they can depend upon for specific engagements.

While people might use the phrase headhunter, it in no way describes the all of the challenges recruiters face each and every day. If you’re in need of help with recruiting challenges of your own, contact us today.