Who’s Your Recruiting Alter Ego-- Scotty, Dr. Evil, or MacGyver?

3

Rate this Article: (4.4 Stars | 11 Votes)   Thanks for your rating!

One of the things that holds true for recruiters everywhere is that positions show up on our doorstep that on the surface seem impossible to fill - you know, looking for purple squirrels and such. When faced with such difficulties a recruiter can go down one of three paths – to go “Scotty,” to go “Dr. Evil,” or to go “MacGyver.”

As I was getting thoughts together to write this, it dawned on me that some people who might be reading were born in the late eighties and early nineties and might have no concept of the characters mentioned above. Besides being a complete shame for them, it also makes me feel extremely old. Ancient, really.

So before we get to strategy, here is the back-story on all three: 

• Montgomery “Scotty” Scott was on the original Star Trek TV shows and movies and was the chief engineer on the Enterprise. His big claim to fame is Captain Kirk commanding him, “Beam me up, Scotty.”
• Dr. Evil was Austin Powers’ arch enemy in all three Austin Powers movies and is well known for his use of the word ‘frickin’ and his bumbling sidekicks. Additionally, as he points out when he is referred to as ‘Mr. Evil’ – “I didn't spend six years in evil medical school to be called ‘Mister,’ thank you very much!” 
• MacGyver was a show on in the eighties whose main character (Angus MacGyver) was able to use everyday objects to perform extraordinary feats - like the time he made a hot air balloon from homemade glue, random scraps of nylon, a metal shed, and gas canisters.

So getting back to recruiting strategy and being faced with an almost impossible position, we are going to explore the different ways that these three characters would handle finding a needle in a field of haystacks.

Going Scotty

I will be the first to tell you that I am not a Trekky – I don’t watch the reruns over and over, I haven’t seen all of the movies, I don’t have a Captain Kirk action figure and you will never find me at the annual Star Trek convention. However, there is one thing I do know about Star Trek – it seems like Scotty was always whining about something.

Some recruiters do the same; even saying some of the same things that Scotty said, just in ‘recruiter speak’: 

• "There's nothing wrong with the bloody thing!" In recruiter talk that would equate to, “My recruiting strategy is fine, it’s the position / hiring manager / location that is at fault.” Sound familiar?
• “This equipment was designed for a different era. Now it's just a piece of junk.”To translate this from Trekky to recruiter speak, “Our tools stink, they are old, and they don’t work with today’s potential candidates.” I think I have heard this one a time or two over the years.
• "I'm giving you all she's got, Captain!" In recruiter jargon this translates to, “I’m doing all I can,” which normally translates to, “I’m doing the normal things that normally don’t work and hoping for the best.”

Going Dr. Evil:

When I was a bit younger, I was a big fan of the Austin Powers movies, and especially the antics of Dr. Evil and his organization. Thinking back, there are two things that recruiters do that are derived from his playbook: 

• He was never with the times.Whether it was that he thought “one million dollars” would go far in 1999 or that a billion bucks was not too much of a stretch for 1969, he seemed to never be up to speed on what was going on in the world. Many search professionals are the same – they are on a completely different page than the people they are recruiting and then wonder why success is so hard to come by.
• He always sends a henchman to do a job he ought to do himself. Dr. Evil had a henchman for just about any task. Depending on the job (and movie) he might send the guy who could throw his hat through a marble statue or maybe the guy who used his ‘lucky charms’ to get the job done. Whatever the case, he had a lot of them.

I know that this is going to ruffle the feathers of someone, but it needs to be said: if corporate search functions actually did their job, they would not need to farm out as many of their positions. I definitely do believe that there is a time and place to engage outside help, but when you see a company paying 20 percent to have an outside firm work on an easily filled customer service role, that is just a waste of money.

Going MacGyver

As mentioned before, MacGyver had a way of making something out of nothing. Sometimes in recruiting, you have to do the same thing. While you may never have to use a blood pressure cuff, stethoscope, and alarm clock to make a lie detector or have to use a fallen U.S. intelligence satellite, its parachute, and duct tape to make a hang glider you might have to really dig deep to get the most out of your current tools or reach out of your comfort zone and start using new ones.

Here are a few ways to go ‘Mac’ on any requisition you are working on:

Job boards: A few ways to get the most out of recruiting’s version old faithful.

• Look back to all of the resumes in the database, not just the most recent ones
• Look at old resumes that are one level below what you are seeking and try to snag someone that has moved up into the role since they posted their resume 
• Look for people that might work with the type of person you are looking for and put in a networking call – i.e., “who is the best _____ you ever worked with?”
• Try to find resumes posted that have references listed. Some of my best candidates have been another candidate’s reference 

Quora: Quora is a question and answer site that allows its users to ask and answer any question that their heart desires. Although you will not find resumes posted on Quora, you will find experts on just about every topic imaginable, and in many cases, links to their other sites and profiles.

VisualCV, EMurse & DevBistro:Sites that allows its users to upload resumes and make them searchable by Google (which makes them potential gold mines for recruiters).

Local career transition groups:Almost every community out there will have some sort of community based career networking group, whether it be in-person meetings that happen on a regular basis or virtual groups on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Google or Yahoo Groups. They can be a great resource of candidates.

Local user groups / professional associations:If you are hiring an accountant, go hang out where the accountants hang out— a no-brainer that is often overlooked by many recruiters.

YourOpenBook.com: Searching Facebook is no easy task, but with YourOpenBook you can search the status updates of really anyone whose profile is public. So if you are looking for sales professionals you might search “sales” or if you are searching for a network engineer you might search “Cisco” OR “ccna” (for a review of Boolean – i.e. why use quotation marks and OR – check out this earlier HRIQ post).

I hope that you found yourself more as a MacGyver than a Scotty or Dr. Evil s you read through this post. If not, there is time to become so in 2012.

Until next time, good hunting and good luck!

Contributor:   Matt LeBlanc

Matt LeBlanc is a Nashville, TN based HR professional with expertise in full life cycle technical recruitment, sourcing, research, training and workforce and career development. He writes about job-search/career related issues on Recruiters Guide to the Universe and recruiting/sourcing related issues on 12recruiters. You can connect with Matt on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/mattleblanc and Twitter at www.twitter.com/matthewjleblanc

You Should Check Out:

How to Become a Recruiting Rock Star

Why Your Recruiting Tactics Are a Lot Like a NASCAR Race...BORING!

Report Abuse   DLozano 01/26/2012 10:57:07 AM EST Take our poll and let us know who your recruiting alter ego is! on linked in : http://linkd.in/wuYi6y or on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/HumanResourcesIQFanpage thank you! Replies (0) Post a reply Sign in or Sign up to post a comment

Report Abuse   LebHR 01/25/2012 10:43:33 AM EST Interesting article, and I simply loved the analogies with Scotty, Dr. Evil, and MacGyver. I guess it applies to all sorts of jobs not only recruiter. Good job! ------------------- Are you a job seeker, employee, manager, or HR fanatic? check out www.lebhr.com for info and tips. LebHR - The Lebanese Human Resources Community Replies (0) Post a reply Sign in or Sign up to post a comment

Report Abuse   mpc123 01/24/2012 9:29:07 AM EST Hi Matt, Our group would have loved to hear some real-life examples of tough positions you've filled....other than the purple squirrels. We've only filled jobs with gray squirrels. Can you share a few? Thanks! Replies (0) Post a reply Sign in or Sign up to post a comment