CONSIDERATIONS

1. Whether they post their resume or respond to your ad, your prospect is likely talking to a lot of recruiters and companies direct, so you don’t have a lot of time to qualify, present and close your placement.

2. Candidate control is more difficult since you may not meet the candidate. Take extra care to establish control.

3. You are likely to get resumes from many unqualified applicants but probably should respond to them as well.

4. Know what you are selling and communicate it to the qualified prospects to get their attention and turn them into candidates. You may be surprised how many junior recruiters waste the prospect’s time and sound the same - differentiate yourself through your knowledge of your industry, your client and the position to be filled.

5. Make sure your client is prepared to respond quickly and predictably in order to maintain candidate control and in order to close your placement within the short window of opportunity.

TWO-PRONGED APPROACH

1. Posting job at Internet posting sites and awaiting a response.

2. Searching Internet resume services and newsgroups.

You will need an Internet dial up account, a web browser, an email account and a newsreader for the newsgroups.

Costs to use Internet job-posting services and resume services range from zero for some commercial sites and newsgroups (all newsgroups are free) and up to $500.00+ per month for some commercial sites. The successful services actively seek out new candidates to populate their databases and most do not charge the candidate to post their resume. The well-known services are national in scope but some of the larger cities have sites that are dedicated to a specific area.

Posting Jobs on the Internet:

Why post?

A well-placed posting may quickly generate a number of qualified applicants, just as any other advertisement may. Like print advertising, the more targeted the posting, the more qualified the response. Also, by posting your jobs, you definitely increase your candidate flow as many candidates might not post their resumes for all to see but will answer ads.

Where to post?

The Internet contains many job-posting sites, both free (Headhunter.net, http://www.headhunter.net) and pay (OCC, http://www.occ.com) actively seeking candidates to their sites to answer your ads. Also, newsgroups (usa.jobs) can produce a steady response of qualified candidates if the posting are regularly updated.

When and How post?

Post as often as you can and post as many jobs as you can. In addition to locating qualified candidates via your postings you also want to begin the process of establishing your Internet presence. The more people see your name the better known you become.

If you have an ongoing need for a particular type of candidate, you may choose a generic posting to create ongoing resume flow. If you have a immediate need for a new job requirement and choose to use a newsgroup, you may want to post to it late in the day, say 6PM, so that your posting is one of the first things newsgroup participants see when they log on at night. Make sure to refresh your newsgroup postings daily so they stay near the top of the list. Some commercial services will automatically post your jobs for you.

If you join a posting service like OCC, you receive a password that allows you to post onto their forum. A few sites have you use their own software for postings and searches. Even some of the free sites require you to register and obtain a password. You can use newsreader software to automate these tasks. This software can be obtained from shareware, such as FreeAgent or DejaNews.

Posting Tips:

· Use as many KEYWORDS as possible that relate to your order.

· Don’t irritate people. Don’t have a catchy or technical sounding subject like “CORBA Question” when searching for a CORBA prospect. When the CORBA prospect you want opens your message to try to help you and finds out you are a recruiter trying to find a CORBA candidate, they are going to be annoyed (or worse) that you deceived them and wasted their time.

· Have a subject line that says that you are a recruiter and what you want. Example: “CORBA Architect - Chicago - Recruiter” If a CORBA architect sees that subject and is looking, they will very likely respond to you.

· Make your key points in the first sentence or two as your prospect will give your message about as much time as you give a resume (10-30 seconds).

· Like print advertising, after you hook them in the first one or two sentences, sell the job in a short, but sufficiently detailed position description in order to get the prospect to take action and respond to your posting.

· Keep a word processing document current with all your needs. When you are filling out job posting screens, you can simply cut and paste from your document to the posting screen.

Searching Resumes on the Internet:

Why Search?

You can see instant results. Log onto the board, enter your search parameters and within five minutes you are perusing resumes of live candidates who are ready for your call. Job-postings are fine but this is a more proactive approach to finding the right candidate. Also, you know all about the person before you make the call. Another reason is quick turn-around. You download the resume directly from the Internet. You have the resume before you even call the candidate.

Where to Search?

Using the same two services as an example, Headhunter.net is a free service and OCC is a pay service. Both services let you both post jobs and search their resume database. Again, newsgroups (usa.jobs.resumes) are a good source of potential candidates but are not searchable unless you have software (or a specialized website) to search the newsgroups for you. Another positive about newsgroups is they often have newsgroups for specific cities. Not including newsgroups, there are 30-40 well-known sites to search resumes. The actual number of resume databases is much higher. A good way to locate new resume databases is to go to any internet search engine (Yahoo, Alta Vista, etc.) and enter the word ‘resumes’ as the search phrase. Not all results will be good matches but you will be amazed at how many internet sites offer potential for new candidates. Often websites for professional associations have membership lists online.

When and How to Search?

Search daily. Candidates begin to get many calls once they post. If you call them a couple of weeks after they post they could easily be in the final stages of interviews with potential employers.

Your basic search methodology is to log onto your preferred service and enter keywords or other search parameters (the more parameters you enter the closer your results will match – do not over-screen), run you search, weed out the good from the bad, download (with the resume on the screen, click ‘File’ from the menu bar, then click ‘Save As’ from the drop down menu, name the document and then click ‘OK’) the good resumes, log off the internet and start calling.

You can also begin communication via email. Most resumes have the candidates email address. Have a standard response to an internet candidate worked up a word processing document. You can then cut and past from the document to your email message with ease.

Learn Boolean techniques. Most resume database front ends use Boolean to search the resumes. For example, to search for any candidate in the St. Louis, MO area you might have to run separate searches including ‘st. and louis and 314’ and ‘mo and 314’ and ‘missouri and 314’ and ‘illinois and 618’ and ‘il and 618’. Boolean also allows you to use AND’s and OR’s and NOT’s, etc. but you have to know how. Some services allow you to search by geography, job title, salary, skills, etc. Also, some of the services have ‘spiders’ that continuously search the databases while you sleep and email you the results for when you arrive in the morning.

Searching Tips:

· Again, search daily. Time is critical when you use the internet as a recruiting supplement.

· Be persistent, you need to preview a lot of resumes in order to get a very few good ones.

· Pay for a service. The freebies are fine but have heavy traffic. The pay boards offer candidates that get fewer calls than the candidates found on the free boards.