There is a common marketing approach used in recruiting that states some form of “we locate the candidates who aren’t looking.”  I suppose the hook is that we can find amazing candidates that you can’t find.  It’s a hook, I guess.  Anyway, here is one I received in an unsolicited email:

What we do is go after the best candidates & the elite that are not currently looking for a job as they already have one. We personally present and sell your specific company’s opportunity to their individual needs. Our clients find that these hidden candidates are more stable, more qualified and haven’t been interviewing all over town.

Stable?  More qualified?  How does one do this?  He talks about presenting and selling your opportunity, but not about qualifying candidates who can succeed in the position.  This fact is an important distinction.

I would be wary of any recruiter who attempts to sell a salesperson on an opportunity.  Have a discussion, look for fit, determine their abilities…the onus is on the sales candidate to sell you.  I would avoid any self-proclaimed sales recruiter who takes the aforementioned approach.

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My apologies to Bob Dylan, but the chapter 11 bankruptcy of one of our local papers, the StarTribune, has been a slow train coming.  Clearly this is one of the worst dailies in the entire US.  Mismanaged, cash-strapped and unbelievably biased, this newspaper has been on the edge of inevitability for 2 years.  Yesterday they finally filed.

I am certain they will cut costs and restructure their debt before coming out of bankruptcy, but in the end I don’t think it will matter.  The game has changed; day-old news printed on paper is a thing of the past.  The world is steadily moving towards instant, on-demand.

Clearly reporting will continue…it needs to, but I think the only sustainable media for newspapers is online.  Develop the website, draw in the visitors and charge advertisers for those pages.

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