FROM: The LinkedIn Innovators Yahoo Group
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/LinkedInnovators/
Recruiter Networking Pushing the Limits…….
Posted by: “tamara719”
Tue Sep 12, 2006 10:52 pm (PST)
***Begin Quote***
Hello All
My name is Tamara. I am a recruiter based out of the Dallas/Ft.Worth
area.
I am enjoying my membership on Linked-in. I have found old friends,
business associates and made many new friends and contacts. I am
thankful for this resource.
However, I am becoming perturbed about Recruiters contacting
Recruiters for “referrals.” I am more then willing to aid a fellow
recruiter in a search for financial compensation. I do not work for
free (none of us do), and I will not fill positions without
consideration. I have been contacted with lures such as “if you help
me I’ll give you access to my vast network?”
Others have answered me in shock as if I had asked for something out
of this realm of existence. I have posted on my profile that I do
this for a living, having done so for over thirteen years now, and
that I am paid only if I place the candidate; or work on a retained
basis. And, I might add that in-house recruiters should not seek aid
from recruiters without compensation. If you want to utilize my
firm’s services please do so, with a signed agreement.
I am not striving to sound harsh or difficult to get along with.
However, I am being overwhelmed with requests for “who you know” or
“Can you recommend somebody for this role?” Yes, I probably can
however unless I know that you, the recruiter, will compensate me then
I will continue to work on my own openings for my own clients.
This is the nature of business. This is why all of us on Linked-in
are in business in one facet or another. To make a living; to pay our
bills, and to enjoy a certain quality of life.
Thus, I would like to be removed from the blasts asking for referrals.
Unless you intend to compensate me for my effort, which means to me:
a) Searching for a passive candidate
b) Qualifying them
c) Verifying their degree(s)
d) Checking previous employment
f) Checking three professional references
I will have to be compensated.
I have been meaning to write this a long time, and after opening
Linked-in today, I said that’s it, it is long over due for me to get
my message out to all concerned.
I love what I do. How many people in recruiting can say that? How
many people can say that about their current positions? Thus, nothing
would make me prouder or happier then to truly Link-in with other
recruiters as business partners. We can partner together to achieve
an ends to a means. I see everything right about this suggestion.
Tamara
President/Founder
Endeavor Group
Ft. Worth, TX
***End Quote***
HERE’S MY RESPONSE
>My name is Tamara. I am a recruiter based out of the Dallas/Ft.Worth
Hello, Tamara. Let me see if I can “react” to what you are saying.
>However, I am becoming perturbed about Recruiters contacting
I don’t think that LinkedIn was created for recruiters to earn money. I could be mistaken, but I thought it was about “networking”. It’s an evolving understanding, but it was to form voluntary connections between people for their mutual benefit.
>I will not fill positions without consideration
I understand that everyone has to make a buck. AND, I have run into some “interesting” tactics by recruiters to do that. But, if you don’t want to “help” then just say so.
>If you want to utilize my firm’s services please do so, with a signed agreement.
And, if you want to use the services of the average joe who’s just here to help out, please feel free to do so with a signed agreement with for example ME! You don’t get to have it both ways. Either it’s help freely offered and freely given or it’s a glorified meat market. And how do I get my “cut”?
>I am not striving to sound harsh or difficult to get along with.
Ahh, but you are. You are trying to form a business model in basically what is “supposedly” a free exchange of contact information.
Some of the more “sleezy” things I have found recruiters doing are:
(1) “taking hostages” — basically creating a profile for some one they are representing and not permitting any contact except for a fee. I found a fellow I knew in College, wanted to reconnect, and the recruiter refused unless I paid him. A plague on his house.
(2) “creating strawmen” — creating a profile for a candidate they were representing and attempting to leverage an agreement out of another recruiter to source him.
I think that both these are “immoral tactics”.
Bottom line: IMHO LinkedIn grew because of average shmoes like me wanted to bypass recruiters of all types — the corporate hr types and the retained / contingency search — and just connect on their own.
An invasion of recruiters, sensing a good thing, and “joined”. Now they are kludging up the works trying to retain value for themselves without concern to its impact on the resource. It’s akin to the tragedy of the commons argument.
>I will have to be compensated.
Me too. Don’t ask for what you are not prepared to give. It’s like the Creative Commons discussion. Share and share alike OR else.
>nothing would make me prouder or happier then to truly Link-in with other
>recruiters as business partners. We can partner together to achieve
Sure, because you are making money.
I think it is disingenuous to say on the one hand “share your information with me” under a certain set of engagement rules and then not to follow thru with your obligation.
>I see everything right about this suggestion.
I see it differently. LinkedIn asks me to join, share, and urge others to do the same. You want to join, take, but not share unless you get a cut.
Sorry, but I think that’s wrong.
Fjohn
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