If you’ve received a call from a recruiter out of the blue, you’ve probably wondered how the recruiter found your name especially if you’re not looking for a job.
Recruiters often tell you something to the effect of “I was confidentially referred to you” or something like that which is just to get you off the subject and not worry about where they found you.
It normally has the effect of making people feel important because someone apparently thought enough of them that they told the recruiter “you must give this call this person and help them out!”
The truth is that it usually isn’t that impressive especially these days when people can be so readily found through the Internet alone. Sorry to burst your bubble.
These days, it probably isn’t difficult to figure out how a recruiter found you given the numerous online methods that we can use to advertise our name ie. Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and of course numerous job boards that you might have posted your resume to.
If you’ve written online articles, have a blog, run a website or get quoted in online publications, your name is going to be somewhere on the Internet available for people like recruiters to see.
In the old days – that would be pre-Internet – recruiters used various and sometimes interesting methods to find people. My first boss in the IT recruitment industry who began in the industry back in the 1970s before they even had fax machines let alone the Internet once told me that he used to go through the phone book white pages and look for certain last names and would cold call them asking if they worked in IT based on the premise that many people in IT at the time were from certain ethnic groups. Seriously!
Needless to say, sourcing methods to locate job searchers have improved since then…
These days recruiters tend to still use some of the following methods to find people who may or may not be looking for a job at the time:
1. Referrals: Recruiters get names of people from people that they are speaking with. Often they’ll ask for the names of a few people you know who are looking for a job and also names of people who aren’t necessarily looking for a job. They build up a network by speaking and meeting with people and getting them to refer the recruiter to others.
2. References: We spoke about this back in the keeping your references close to your chest blog. Recruiters often like to use the references you gave them to see if they help them find a job, too. Or if they’re a hiring manager, the recruiter will see if they can help them with their hiring requirements. This is why it’s important to protect your references.
3. A Google search: If you’ve ever Googled your name, you might have to go through a few pages of search results before you find a webpage that refers to you specifically especially if you have a common or popular name! Having said that, as mentioned above if you write articles or get quoted on the Internet, have a blog, use online social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter, run a website or belong to some group or organization that has an online presence, chances are your name is somewhere on the Internet just waiting to be found by a recruiter.
4. Dialing for Names I: Here’s an old-school method that some recruiters still use – I’ve had a few recruiters find me in the past this way and I admit I used it myself. The recruiter calls into the main switchboard number of your company and when they go to the automated attendant, they search the employee directory by last name and if you work for a small company with say 20 staff or so, they’ll jot down the name (and extension if given) of every staff member that shows up. Some people mention their job title or functional area in their voice prompt so that makes it even easier. If I’m searching for an HR rep and I hear an employee prompt that says “Jane Smith, HR, ext 111″ well, I know that Jane is an HR staffer and I’ll give her a call.
5. Dialing for Names II: This is a more sophisticated method than Dialing for Names I. The recruiter calls into reception and asks to speak with the person who holds the job that they’re trying to fill. For example if I’m looking to fill a Network Administrator position, I’ll ask to speak with the Network Administrator. Sometimes the receptionist will ask who I am and why I want to speak with this employee (if they’ve been trained to weed out recruiters) so the recruiter typically makes up an excuse and pretends they have a legitimate need to speak with this person. If I’m looking for a salesperson or someone in accounts receivable though, that’s even easier. How many receptionists are going to question why I want to speak with a sales rep? Uh, because I’d like to buy something.
6. Dialing for Names III: This is even more sophisticated than Dialing for Names I & II. This is when the recruiter calls into your company and asks the receptionist for the names of various staff members usually starting with a manager or executive since it tends to be less obvious. The recruiter will jot down the name of the executive or manager and then ask how many people that person has in their group and ask for a few names and job titles. If at any point the receptionist questions the motive for the call, the recruiter will tell them they’re doing due diligence or research or something like that.
7. Company directories: The easiest way to get a list of the employees in a company is to get a list of the employees in the company. If your company still prints paper copies or printable versions of your staff directory, chances are it’s sitting on the desk of several or more recruiters.
8. Cold calling someone and asking for their help: This is a method I’ve used numerous times with a fair bit of success actually. The first two jobs I was working on where I tried this, it resulted in me filling two positions within one week. I take a job that I’m working on and start calling into companies that I know would have employees who have the type of job I’m trying to fill. I ask to speak to the hiring manager and when I get this person on the phone or on voice mail, I let them know I’m a recruiter, let them know the type of job I’m trying to fill and I ask for their help (even though they don’t even know me!): I ask who they know that could do the job I’m trying to fill and make it clear I’m not trying to take any of their current employees of course. I suggest that they might have a friend or former colleague who might be interested in the job and ask that they refer me to that person. The whole thing takes me about 30 seconds to say and it has yielded great results when the hiring manager refers me to someone they typically used to work with. Often, I end up keeping in touch with the hiring manager too and helping them.
Those are some of the most popular methods but certainly not an exhaustive list.
When I first got into recruitment back in 2000, the online job boards were already in existence although they weren’t nearly as prevalent or widespread as they are today. Social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn and Twitter and so on didn’t exist either. People weren’t used to seeing their name everywhere or making themselves as publicly available as they are these days.
Think about it: If someone had told you 5 years ago that by 2009, millions of people around the world would be telling anyone who cares what they’re doing at all hours of the day by typing 140 characters or less, would you have believed them?
In case you haven’t used Twitter before, that’s what I’m talking about.
Back in 2000, I still had job searchers frequently asking where I’d found their name because they were genuinely surprised when I cold called them but these days with the prevalence of Internet resources and how available our names are to the general public, it’s not as big a deal.
But in case you were wondering how recruiters found your name, now you know.
