[...and what that has to do with recruitment and social networking]
How do you get a girl to dance with you? The answer of course is to just ask. May I dance with you? She may say no, but that is not the end and besides there are plenty of other girls to ask as well, even if you’re full of pimples and president of the math club. Let me take you back a few years.
As a young teenager growing up in suburban Milwaukee in 1973, advice about girls was in no short supply. Jimmy, the older boy across the street seemed to have a lot of it, which he dispensed freely, perhaps indicating its value. “Connections, you gotta have connections,” he would say. And those connections, yup, he had them. The girl he wanted to dance with was the sister of one of his best friends. They went to Hebrew school together. It was a sure thing. Yada, yada. Connections. The era of “The French Connection”. Gene Hackman. You had to have connections.
You know how this story goes. Jimmy never popped the question, never asked her to dance, never got the girl. Twenty years later, still unmarried, Jimmy was still talking about connections. Sad.
People have the same problem today when they want a job. With their friends, they IM, they Facebook, they email, they Twitter, they Pownce. They create their network, their own personal brand. “The Brand of You”! Woohoo! But they never apply for the job, never get the girl. Sad.
We recruiters have the same problem as well. We’ve studied social networks and have figured out how to create a community of passive job-seekers. We do newsletters, blogs, industry round-tables, and so on ad nauseam. “Create Your Employer Brand”. Woohoo! But without asking a real job seeker for a real interview, we have no candidate. We never get the girl. Sad.
So go on. Do it. Whoever it is that you need, whatever it is you want. Just ask. You might very well get the girl.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Gregg, this is a truly GREAT post. There are tons of posts equating dating with recruiting but this one is beautiful in its simplicity. Sure wish it was on RecruitingBlogs so I could feature it
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Thanks Maren. Coming from you, that is a huge compliment. I hope my wife can deal with my ego for the next few days.
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