Early on in my career, I developed a reputation as a top recruiter among my peers. Unfortunately, I wasn't really sure how I did it. The company I was working for at the time announced they were expanding in to a new market in Denver, Colorado. I was the one charged with recruiting candidates for these new stores. So off I went to Denver for a three day trip to "recruit" as many quality candidates as I could find. I arrived at Cherry Creek Mall, recruiting materials in my bag, and eager to meet our next great employee. After about thirty minutes of wandering the mall, I hadn't even struck up a conversation. I quickly began to realize, I didn't know anything about recruiting!! I went to the food court and sat down with a coffee and the mall directory thinking to myself, "How did I get this reputation as this recruiting genius?!" I realized that my success in the past with filling local positions, was me simply arranging interviews for people I had met on my lunch breaks, or in line for coffee around the mall. I started to get really nervous because this was something WAY out of my comfort zone! So I decided that I would focus on the stores that were our competitors. I hit every mall in the Denver area in my three days, and just focussed as much as possible on making friends with these employees. I knew no other way. By sheer luck, I had met our first Denver market Store Manager, and my trip was saved! Although I went home realizing exactly how overwhelmed I was, and I never wanted to do that again!
A month passed and travel plans were made for a second trip to Colorado. I got that butterfly feeling again because I was still convinced that my first trip's success was pure luck. This time I took a more determined approach. A few days before my trip, I pulled out my mall directories and my personnel notebook (notebook divided by state, mall, store, and listed as many employees in each store that I could meet). I started calling all the stores that I had already visited. Then I called most of the remaining stores. My script was very simple. I announced that I would be coming to town, and would like to set up "meetings" (I prefer to use the word "meeting" when setting up blind interviews. It tends to bring a more "real" version of the candidate since they don't feel the pressure of an interview) to discuss opportunities with my company. I was shocked! I had almost the entire second half of my trip already booked with people that were interested in talking with me! I arrived in Denver this time packed full of confidence since I already had most of my trip planned. I spent the majority of my first day saying hello to all the people I had met on my previous trip. I got two more meetings scheduled! Things were going great. The next two days I spent drinking coffee and having meeting after meeting. I was excited to see my company was starting to generate a "buzz" from my presence alone, but was a little disappointed in the quality of the candidates I was meeting. From probably more than twenty-five candidates I approved six or seven to move on to the next step in our hiring process. More success! We hired two more store managers and an assistant manager. One of the store managers had some great people that were loyal to her, and she had the rest of her store staffed within a week. I also had placed hiring packets and applications at the information desks for each mall we were opening in. These produced the majority of the sales force for all the stores. I now had three out of seven stores preparing to staff themselves and open their doors! I couldn't believe that I had done that.
When I decided I was interested in going into retail management, my first District Manager said to me, "You always want to be the "Mayor of the Mall". If your peers always see you happy about your job, you will be the one that comes to mind when they or someone they know start looking for something new." That is how I started to build such a successful network. As a recruiter, you are the new candidate for "Mayor" and you must get yourself out there. THERE ARE GREAT PEOPLE EVERYWHERE!
A few years later, I joined a new company. They were very excited about my recruiting background, and I was off to Denver after only two weeks on the job! Because I made the effort to maintain my "mayor" status in keeping in touch with several of the people I had met years before, my 24-hour trip produced both the assistant and store managers that I was sent to find.
A month passed and travel plans were made for a second trip to Colorado. I got that butterfly feeling again because I was still convinced that my first trip's success was pure luck. This time I took a more determined approach. A few days before my trip, I pulled out my mall directories and my personnel notebook (notebook divided by state, mall, store, and listed as many employees in each store that I could meet). I started calling all the stores that I had already visited. Then I called most of the remaining stores. My script was very simple. I announced that I would be coming to town, and would like to set up "meetings" (I prefer to use the word "meeting" when setting up blind interviews. It tends to bring a more "real" version of the candidate since they don't feel the pressure of an interview) to discuss opportunities with my company. I was shocked! I had almost the entire second half of my trip already booked with people that were interested in talking with me! I arrived in Denver this time packed full of confidence since I already had most of my trip planned. I spent the majority of my first day saying hello to all the people I had met on my previous trip. I got two more meetings scheduled! Things were going great. The next two days I spent drinking coffee and having meeting after meeting. I was excited to see my company was starting to generate a "buzz" from my presence alone, but was a little disappointed in the quality of the candidates I was meeting. From probably more than twenty-five candidates I approved six or seven to move on to the next step in our hiring process. More success! We hired two more store managers and an assistant manager. One of the store managers had some great people that were loyal to her, and she had the rest of her store staffed within a week. I also had placed hiring packets and applications at the information desks for each mall we were opening in. These produced the majority of the sales force for all the stores. I now had three out of seven stores preparing to staff themselves and open their doors! I couldn't believe that I had done that.
When I decided I was interested in going into retail management, my first District Manager said to me, "You always want to be the "Mayor of the Mall". If your peers always see you happy about your job, you will be the one that comes to mind when they or someone they know start looking for something new." That is how I started to build such a successful network. As a recruiter, you are the new candidate for "Mayor" and you must get yourself out there. THERE ARE GREAT PEOPLE EVERYWHERE!
A few years later, I joined a new company. They were very excited about my recruiting background, and I was off to Denver after only two weeks on the job! Because I made the effort to maintain my "mayor" status in keeping in touch with several of the people I had met years before, my 24-hour trip produced both the assistant and store managers that I was sent to find.
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