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Intelligent Software: An interview with Shane McCusker at #recruitfest

Radical Recruitment — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 02:51:15 +0000

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Recruitfest has come and gone. This won’t be another recap as there are plenty of those at this point. However, Geoff Webb (@RadicalRecruit) was nice gather some bright minds and bring some of their technolgy and innvoations to the community.

First up is Shane McCusker of Intellugent Software out of the UK. Enjoy and pass it on.

Recruiters are full of SH*T…

admin — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 16:52:12 +0000

Recruiters are full of Shit. I know I am one.

We are in the running to present at SXSW this year and we need your vote. I’ll be paneling with some of the craziest personalities online in the recruiting world and we’d love your support. We’ll have a room full of hungry eyes looking to hear the dirty little secrets of recruiters and why we are full of Shit.

This session will be unedited, direct and in your face jam packed with hundreds of people listening in!

Your vote counts and it’s the only way we can get in to present! Bring the pain.

Click here - set up your profile
Click the green thumb in the upper left corner and that’s it.

Thank you again! Please help us out by submitting your vote.

Questions Answered during this session:

What’s the quickest way to gain the attention of headhunters?
Do you really “need” a recruiter?
The biggest myth in the job search industry.
Why is turn over in the industry so high and how does it affect me?
Where’s the best place to “be seen” while looking for a job?

P.S. Do you subscribe to this kickass blog? Subscribe me so I can win so cool stuff.

#Recruiting Tools Carnival: #Socialrecruiting #HR #Sourcing and More!

admin — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 03:20:00 +0000

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RecruitingTools.com is set to host another Recruiting carnival this upcoming September. In efforts to build the best posting lineup we can, we are actively searching out bloggers and recruiters of all types. This carnival will be a bit different than before. Sure we will have some of the regular favorites for everyone to read, but we want to give those that may not have the opportunity to publish themselves on a regular basis to be heard.

If you are interested in contributing just email us HERE and in the interim read up on some of the most popular articles from our past carnivals.

Most popular articles from previous recruiting carnivals:

Three Elements of a World Class Marketing Call by Mike Ramer: http://bit.ly/9Vaa5Q

Gonzo Sourcing and the Evolution of online Social Networks: http://bit.ly/aETEuJ

Deep into the Web: A brief guide for Recruiters: http://bit.ly/aEE8OD

Social Capital: What it Means, Why it Matters, and How Science is about to Change the HR World: http://bit.ly/cj20oH

These are just a few of the many we’ve had that made this event a success. View all of the contributions to the last Recruiting Carnival Here: http://bit.ly/ar15KW

Free Tactical #Sourcing & #Recruiting Webinar w/ @jimstroud & @ryanleary June 15th http://bit.ly/9gUTFa

admin — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 17:01:49 +0000

Jim Stroud and Ryan Leary are presenting:

RECRUITING 24: HOW TO SOURCE LEADS LIKE JACK BAUER

Register Here (Click)

Date: June 15th

Time: 2pm – 3pm EST

As a Sourcer, you are a key member of your talent acquisition team and are depended upon to be a capable agent. Like Jack Bauer you are expected to find and deliver solutions quickly in the face of impossible odds. When the Job Boards do not produce the “perfect candidate” and the leads within the ATS have been exhausted, the pressure is on for you to find the left-handed purple squirrel that will satisfy the whims of your client. Unfortunately, time is running out, so what do you do?

RECRUITING 24: HOW TO SOURCE LEADS LIKE JACK BAUER

IN 60-MINUTES YOU WILL LEARN!

How to Source Candidates in real time with real results
Creative crowd sourcing strategies to uncover overlooked talent and new clients for your recruiting business.
Free online research tools that will streamline your sourcing efforts
Tactical sourcing secrets that will make you go hmmm…..

PLUS: If you have time, stay for the “after party” where we will take your questions and solve issues in real time.

The last webinar produced by Jim Stroud and Ryan Leary – “The Six Secrets of Boolean Search” (http://www.recruitingwbinars.com) empowered 900 satisfied customers with actionable information that they could immediately use on their open reqs. During the presentation 177 questions were posed and many of them were answered during the webinar “after party” which lasted several minutes after the official webinar had concluded.

Still not convinced that this is worth your time? See the last one at www.recruitingwebinars.com

Join the crew at: www.recruitingwebinars.com for the latest information on great webinars to come.

#LinkedIn with #Recruiting applications via @BillBoorman

admin — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 01:39:41 +0000

This post was contributed by Bill Boorman better known as @BillBoorman

There’s a new a function within LinkedIn applications that I think has real potential to help grow and combine your social recruiting channels, particularly talent and potential client pools. The Twitter application within LinkedIn now allows you to identify and follow connections that you are not following.

Most recruiters have been building LinkedIn networks for longer and in a more targeted way than their follow lists. The nature of LinkedIn also makes it simple to search and build your connections in a focused way specific to recruiting. I see a great benefit to joining up all your social connections between channels. I already use http://www.twables.com/ to combine my facebook friends to follow me on twitter and for me to follow them in return.

My new facebook friends are automatically given the opportunity to subscribe to my YouTube channel. With this new functionality it is now much easier to build a joined up network.

Sourcing Tip: Check out some nifty ways to source hidden names and titles from video games. Click Here

The way I see this working in practice is:

Locate and connect target talent and clients through regular and filtered LinkedIn searches.
Follow all LinkedIn connections on twitter by running a weekly update on the new LinkedIn application.
Monitor new follows to identify targets and enter in to conversation. (http://www.twittercloud.com and http://www.twittersheep.com can help you identify areas of common interest to make the first approach.). Twitter allows you to begin the conversation and start the dialogue.
The FB140 application in twables will automatically invite your new follow to friend you on facebook. This enables you to invite them to sign up for your fan page and subscribe to your YouTube channel. You also open up the opportunity for instant messaging for private conversation in much more than 140 characters.

Potentially that will give you 5 points of contact in 4 channels. Wherever they hang out most, you can regularly communicate and build stronger relationships quicker.

You can find the new function under the connections heading of the LinkedIn applications tab. I’ve been playing around with this today and I have already strengthened 700 connections.

Let me know how you find it, and keep being ambassadors for great social recruiting!

How I source 100+ leads in 2:32 with Ignite Conferences for #Recruiting

admin — Wed, 12 May 2010 05:58:57 +0000

Have you registered for the Free 6 Secrets to Boolean Searching Webinar: with @JimStroud and @CruiterTalk? Click Here

Hot of the phone with none other than Steve Levy from recruitinginferno I decided to share a bit of conferencing sourcing tips with everyone. This is not ground breaking but it is often overlooked for no other reason than laziness.

A sourcers job is to make friends. Amybeth Hale says it best: “I make friends for a living.” My wife thinks I play on Facebook all day, my friends still say I’m just a recruiter. Me, I say I can find out your history, your grandmothers history and if you’re lucky I will tell you what you will be doing in 5 years.

Back to the point of the video. “Conference Sourcing” is nothing more than either attending conference in person or even online if you need too. The goal for the attendance is to gather information and walk away with cold hard leads.

Here is just one way I have success at this. Take it for what it’s worth, but when you get good at this technique you can rip apart highly targeted conferences, saving yourself incredible amounts of time.

I was asked the other day, why do I share my secrets? The simple answer is that it’s highly unlikely you will be competing with me in my market and even if you are there is no excuse for me not to out source you and win the placement. If I lose the race, I shouldn’t have won.

How I gather 100+ technology leads in 2:32 including the recording.

*Note: As attendees at a conference do not sweat recruiters finding your contact info. It’s a compliment and can serve as a fantastic career move or business opportunity.

Consider subscribing to our posting updates: Subscribe here

Source Your Own Career Destinations: “10 Standards of Care” of Job Search Wisdom‏

admin — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 23:29:26 +0000

Have you subscribed yet? You should, we give away really cool things for free: Subscribe Here + Leave a comment on this post and be entered to win a FREE ReferYes PRO Membership. Drawing tomorrow.

Last New Years Eve, my wife and I toasted champagne glasses to a refrain I assume familiar to many within our industry that night, “To the end of 2009!”

I’ve read many a blog article suggesting a more upbeat assessment of the economic landscape, to some extent as if believing made it so. If 2009 taught us anything, you do not wait for the rising tide to lift all boats – you create your own fortune through the brunt force of tenacity. 2010 proceeds precisely as you navigate it and the product of due diligence on behalf of your client and overall career pursuits. Fate is what you make it.

I understand, it’s difficult in a very personal, emotional way that takes a toll on you and those you love. What we are witnessing is an overwhelming issue of uncertainty in the macro economy. Businesses don’t know what their tax rates are going to be this year. They know in 2011 they are going up. Should Federal Healthcare Reform prevail, we are seeing the combined top tax rate for small businesses in Wisconsin for example, at 54.27%. We have huge regulatory uncertainty in 2010. Costs inherent in Cap & Trade, will be just as easily supplemented by EPA regulatory fiat, should it fail to pass.

So what is a hiring manager going to think about the future? Projecting headcount at Fortune 500 companies is done within a landscape in flux. Corporations factor the ability to attract capital, corporate market share, inventories, GDP and unemployment as a whole. Moreover, weakness in labor markets and the sharp fall in labor income ensures a self fulfilling, weak recovery due to weak consumer confidence; increasing the risk of a double dip recession.

A few important factors to take into account if you wait for economic bell weathers to determine your next step:

While the official unemployment rate is already 10%, when you include discouraged workers and partially employed workers the figure is a whopping 17.5%.
Many firms are telling their workers to cut hours, take furloughs and accept lower wages. Specifically, that fall in hours worked is equivalent to another 3 million full time jobs lost on top of the 7.5 million jobs formally lost.
The average length of unemployment is at an all time high; the ratio of job applicants to vacancies is 6 to 1.

The ratio of job applicants to vacancies is particularly relevant to recruiters competing for finite openings. To illustrate: When I featured a key technology company’s call for over 200 staffing openings, over 1,000 applied to my post. In this particular scenario and ongoing to date, Senior level contract recruiters and sourcers long accustomed to the luxury of being virtual and corp-to-corp faced increasing rejection due to on-site and w-2 requirements.

The W-2 issue alone plays a factor that previous capital expenditures as write-offs are endangered, which exacerbate the amount of time to recoup losses in business savings that weathered 2009. Even the recent news of a positive 5.7% quarter of economic growth offers only part of the story. Businesses eventually have no other choice but to increase inventories and make obligatory investments they have otherwise put off.

As you gasp and sigh, I am determined to breakdown the obstacles, to remind you that it is not in the macro-economic data that determines your fate, it is in the specificity of your hunt, – the micro is your personal approach. The question posed is not simply “what is going to be the shape of tan eventual recovery,” but rather, how are you as a recruiter going to ensure risks are identified and your game plan managed? First things first, stop praying in front of a job board after each Boolean Search i.e., (Recruiter OR Talent OR Sourcer OR Recruitment OR Staffing). Due diligence takes a broader approach to identify opportunity.

I propose each of the following exercises as part of a broader strategic effort to add value to the fundamentals of both job search and career success:

Understand your target industry(s): Navigate your job search and career advancement as you would if you were a day trader – watch as many cable news economic panelists as possible and do so regularly. Various corporate Quarterly reports and stock patterns provide a glimpse into what industries are flat, in growth mode, or projecting sustained growth. Company by Company, industry by industry – forgo setting your expectations on the broader economic news. Target specifically and efficiently. Avoid one size, fits all in the manner you distribute your resume or view advertised jobs: Too often senior recruiters make the same mistakes as the unemployed candidates they have hired or passed on. They apply the old fashioned way, by looking at known openings rather than assessing that fiscal year budgetary assumptions change head counts. Imagine your success looking the pre-digital way; be it the classified newspaper or on a job center wall. You couldn’t compete in today’s information autobahn. Rather, you apply for jobs yet unknown and unannounced. You don’t apply to an impersonal, careers email address, you seek the department or business group staffing executive if not a senior recruiter within the group. As in all things, go to the source of hire, by sourcing their contact info as specifically as possible. Find a name and title of a key decision-maker at “BigCompany” but don’t know their email? If you need to proceed further than you can try: Jigsaw, ZoomInfo or Google : FirstName.LastName email search via Google: Click
Research, database your targets, and invite … Repeat:. Where do you start? The low hanging fruit suggests Recuitingblogs.com and ERE as well as Linkedin recruiter groups, Google/Yahoo recruiter based groups are a few mentionable’s as the direct way to identify fellow peers. Moreover, lead databases such as Jigsaw, Zoominfo are quick ways to identify staffing executives and jumpstart your efforts to building corporate staffing org charts. For those who take great joy in peer searches, I like to try this String.
Create search strings on various search engines to broaden your knowledge of direct reports: Given that recruiters are blog and website savvy, try various search tools IceRocket, Tweepz, Gigablast, pipl, or Whois.domaintools.com-
Peer-to-Peer Open Networking: Connect to other recruiters, staffing executives and thought leaders. It’s not who you know, but who knows you. You can drink the Koolaid of “doesn’t know” and click delete, or you can realize that who you know is already in your Outlook contacts. Yes it’s true. Why wouldn’t it be? I assume by being unemployed you will have eventually exhausted your Outlook by now.
Social media is most effective when its observed as part of a broader strategy: It’s a process within a new solution, not a one step road to success. It’s the yellow brick road in the introduction journey: Linkedin is your next step to introducing yourself to them, becoming their Twitter followers as a means to then directly message them, moreover phase three onward to a Facebook invite with your prior recent connections mentioned as a point of origin to reintroduce yourself with your contact info and resume.
Don’t be “That Person”: The person who only contacts pertinent decision makers when he/she needs something. Who receives but rarely gives. Who says thank you that ‘one time.’ Keep in touch every few months and offer your assistance routinely and sincerely. Don’t be the person who people mock when they read “Contact me by cell if I can be of help” on the bottom of your Linkedin or Facebook Profile and yet you don’t include your actual number.” Complete that profile as thoroughly as possible with as many links to track you down as feasible so that a layoff doesn’t cut off your tracks to being found. (Yes I have seen that one too many times.)
Spreadsheeting or Databasing Updates don’t Start and End with a job Search: Regularly update and inquire on new contacts to add as if your position is never secure. In most instances it isn’t. 9/11 and Bank Sector crises happen when you least expect it. “Assume the next crisis is a day-to-day game changer. Be ahead of the game.”
Know what Questions need to be asked rather than simply seeking answers: The Staffing Industry profession Requires Us to be life long students. Technology and best practices dictate we adopt and assimilate, if not also innovate. You never stop learning. You never presume to know what you need is enough. Never resist an offer to be taught and always invite a Mentor in your life. Never assume the most junior member amongst you doesn’t have information you can use. You are as good as the mentors you keep in your inner circle and the contributions you make within it.
Try to understand your detractors as you would your friends and colleagues: Misunderstandings can be extremely superficial as they are repairable.
The worth of your various social relationships are not simply accounted for in the form of present monetary value. Don’t treat colleagues as assets according to who they know and can introduce you to as a means to an end. Knowledge gained from your contemporaries is its own reward as it is to extend sincere kindness. Learn to relish kindness as much as you embrace it to keep you warm on those cold and sullen days. Kindness makes you more productive and valuable as a coworker and as a human being. Be remembered for all the right reasons. Prove who you are in both the worst and best of times and serve as an example in your own right. Moreover, humble yourself in asking others the secrets to their success. To be succinct, ask of others and diligently follow through in assembling your circle of mentors and keep them close regardless of economic situations.
Know your world, the economy that affects our broader industry, and understand the business sector your niche is within. Above all, for you it’s not a spectator sport. Consider this analogy: It’s deeply personal, your horse is in the race. The jockey rides to victory on the horse he came on. Your search strings and how you relate within your industry, both virtually and, in person, will be the horse your job search success depends upon. Your due diligence in your job search and in meeting your long term career goals will likewise be reflected. It’s your destiny – start to respect it with a certain standard of care.

Join me in making a toast to a year wiser, and moving forward regardless of the broader economic landscape.

Dave presents at global recruitment conferences, Staffing Management Association events, webinars and workshops. He co-presented at the AustralAsian Talent Conference on “Blogging for Talent” with thought leader, Kevin Wheeler, and served on a panel on “Social Media: How is Technology Impacting Recruitment?” Panelist at Kennedy Expo Vegas 2008’s “Ask the Experts — a Sourcing Summit Town Hall.” He served as Moderator for a Three Part Kennedy Info, Audio Series on “Blogging for Talent, Branding and Web 2.0 Relationships” and a Kennedy Conference & Expo General Assembly Panel, “Blogging from ‘Guerilla’ Marketing to Mainstream Recruiting,” Co-Presented both “Mastering Linkedin” an ERE “Full Day Master Session, Advanced Sourcing Workshop” with Shally Steckerl and Glenn Gutmacher.

Few in the recruiting business take “networking” more seriously or pursue it more passionately. Dave is a leading advocate for microsite talent communities; building aggressive talent pipelines and research capabilities while maintaining substantive social networking relationships.

You can learn more about Dave at the following:

http://sixdegreesfromdave.com/speaking-engagements
http://sixdegreesfromdave.com/testimonials

What’s Wrong with your Sandwich Maker?

admin — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:44:00 +0000

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So I wanted to purchase one of those cool sandwich makers “as seen on TV”. You know the ones…throw a bunch of “stuff” into a skillet / press type appliance, press it down and wait for a hot, tasty treat? I did a little online research on different models. I was surprised to learn that the prices varied so much; up to $110 in some cases.

I lucked out, however. I found one that looked quite reasonable. Just $9 and free shipping! So I placed my order. It said it would take 10-15 business days to arrive. To my pleasant surprise, it took just two days for my new little miracle of science to arrive. I ran to try it out right away. It even had a little “recipe book”.

Then my excitement came to a halt. My first attempt at my hot, flattened sandwich with pretty griddle marks resulted in something that once resembled a sandwich now burnt to a crisp. Several more attempts…each time, it was either charred beyond recognition or severely undercooked and soggy. My sandwich press now sits alongside my “ab isolator” and my “juice making bullet” in a box in storage.

So what does this failed attempt at culinary arts have to do with Recruitment? Quality. In this case, lack thereof…

As Recruitment professionals, we do produce and market a product. It’s Human Capital. I realize that doesn’t sell well via a slick talking pitchman during re-runs of Gomer Pyle but the products we provide allow businesses great or small in having their strategic vision realized.

Fine, Bill. But that has little to do with cheap sandwich makers. Correct. But it has everything to do with the quality of the product we produce for our customers. Recruitment is a process and it should be held to metrics scrutiny just like any other processes in business. The problem is, the metrics most Recruitment organizations continue to cling to are Time to Fill and Cost per Hire: dated, pedestrian measurements that do very little to allow us to be Strategic Professionals in our craft. Break this cycle in 2010 and start now! Strong hires produce 3 times their salary in worth to an organization. Business impact like that needs to be enhanced through effective measurement.

If I measured my sandwich maker purchase based on time and cost factors alone, it would have scored very high. It was a low cost investment that showed up on my door in a couple short days. What happens when we measure the product on quality? Food that tasted like Calcutta ditch water.

I’ve outlined some steps for establishing a Quality of Hire metric into your Recruitment practice:

1) Establish a scorecard to send to your customers to rank the performance of your Recruitment Team. Measuring between 5-10 factors is ideal. My email address is included at the conclusion of this post. Feel free to email me for examples of how this template can be constructed (what to measure, scoring scale, etc). Doing some simple online research / benchmarking on the subject should prove helpful to getting you started as well.

2) Set goals for your team – what results from these scorecards are you striving for?

3) Set up a simple tracking system (Outlook Calendar?) and send the scorecard to your customers 6 months after hire.

4) Monitor the results and adjust at your discretion.

There’s nothing wrong with bringing quality talent into an organization quickly or at a low cost. But “quality talent” needs to be the focus. Take time today to examine how you can build measures of quality into your process and stop delivering burnt sandwiches to your customers – they don’t want them quickly or inexpensively, trust me.

For ideas or questions on establishing a Quality of Hire Measurement into your recruitment process, contact me at bmccabe@fsc.follett.com.

About the author:

Bill McCabe has nearly 15 years of Recruitment experience, the last few in Management. Bill’s current role is Manager, Sourcing and Recruitment for Follett Software Company in McHenry, IL. After employing Social Media into his Integrated Recruitment Strategy, Follett Software was named “One of the Top 50 Employers Using Twitter” by JobHunt.org.

Decrease your candidate screenings 72%: Ovia: Video recruiting done right

Don’t be different; Be Better

admin — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:21:10 +0000

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I was reading a blog post discussing “Why do we always have to be different? Why can’t we just be better?” and it got me thinking… How many times have you heard someone say, “Huh, that’s different.” It’s not necessarily a compliment. Different will only get you so far, it may grab someone’s attention however to keep it, you need to be better, more importantly you need to be effective.

The technology landscape has changed dramatically over the last few years. Every month new tools are emerging within social media, video, mobile technologies, etc. and tools to manage all the tools. With so many avenues available it is easy to get swept up into using something different because it is new. I am a huge fan of technology so I am not suggesting that we shouldn’t be innovative or dismiss new tools, but rather evaluate our successes and failures and determine how to get to the next level.

Social Media has been a great resource for me professionally (and personally) to learn from and meet some great recruiters, sourcers, and thought leaders in the recruiting and hr industry. I’ve watched several in the industry be innovative and implement successful programs. For many, it was not an overnight success but the result of a lot of hard work, trying different tools, and taking calculated risks. Moreover, it could be stated that key components to their success were strategic planning and evaluating how they would be more effective.

Currently I have been evaluating video and the possibilities of how it could be integrated to engage candidates. I have considered what has been done in the past, with respect to candidate contact, and how to best incorporate the tools available to deliver a personable, compelling message. Ultimately, following new trends may make you different but being effective will make you better.

My challenge to you is to

Build on the basics
Take notice and evaluate trends/new tools
Strive to improve
Ask yourself how will this help me be more effective

Here are some sample questions when you are evaluating a new tool

What is your goal?
Will this tool help you achieve it in ways others won’t? Faster? Cheaper? Better?
Are you using it just to test it? Do you have time for that?
Is the tool reliable?
Is it better than similar tools out there?
Does it need to be compatible with other programs you’re using?
How can you measure/track your results?

About the author:

Marianthe Verver has been active in Corporate Recruiting and HR Roles for 10+ years. Currently she is the Corporate Recruiter for NeoSpire, where she specializes in full life cycle recruiting for IT and Sales positions. In 2009 she was honored with “Employee of the Year” for her contribution in placing top talent.

Marianthe is a member of DFW TRN (Texas Recruiters Network) and is currently serving on the Social Media Committee. She actively speaks and enjoys volunteering for Job Seeker Workshops and Recruiting Panels.

Feel free to connect:

Twitter: @mverver
Linked In: http://www.linkedin.com/in/verver
Email: mariantheverver@gmail.com
Blog: http://marianthe.wordpress.com

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#Recruiters: Are You a “Know-It-All?” Ask Your Mentor.

admin — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:51:56 +0000

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Since you are reading this blog post and others, you hopefully have a thirst for new knowledge. Even so, you might still be limiting yourself in thinking you know enough about certain subjects that are key to your success.

When you’ve been in the same role for a while, it is so easy to become complacent. The world keeps evolving, do you? In these situations, some so-called experts “don’t know what they don’t know.” I prefer to think I know very little about my profession and I need to continually learn. And one of the most effective ways to do this is to have a mentoring plan. This is nothing fancy. It is simply a list of people and resources you can connect with to learn new things. Many know exactly what belongs on this list, but do not commit to it. After creating your list, you should attach an action plan to each one. My personal list for mentoring covers a lot of the ground. If any of the following are new to you, you might find the ideas useful.

When Social Media started to pick up in popularity, I started to interact with other recruiters around the globe. I quickly realized that most of these folks enjoy sharing their views and don’t mind offering insights on tackling challenges in our industry. I rely on channels such as Twitter, BlogTalkRadio, and email to have valuable exchanges with these colleagues. Oh, and don’t forget that old piece of equipment with the buttons on it—I think it’s still called a telephone.

Sometimes a quick exchange isn’t enough. My business partner, Craig Fisher (@Fishdogs), and I have quick update conversations all the time. But periodically, we have a long, tear-it-up, cover-all-things-pertinent kind of discussion. Most times, this leads to brainstorming on new ideas or a look-back on old ones. Every time we have a discussion like this, I learn something new and we have a list of things to tackle. Do you have someone you trust to have these kinds of conversations? Do you have scheduled meetings?

Obviously, there is more information in “written” word out there than we can handle. Reading blogs and articles within our industry can be helpful. However, you need to choose blogs and books wisely so that you can stick to a routine. It helps to pick authors you easily relate to, but also to pick ones you often don’t agree with. Think of them as your devil’s advocates.

When picking these formal and informal mentors, also consider people outside your industry. There are many elements of our jobs embedded in other roles we’re not in touch with day-to-day. Sales and Marketing. Communications and Community Relations. Some of us even have to deal with Accounting and Legal issues. It pays to have friends in these areas. They can draw parallels to our challenges very easily and offer a unique perspective.

Also consider in your mentoring plan, that you need to think about “taking it to the next level.” When you truly feel you know everything you are going to learn from your current mentor circle, you need to think about looking to someone who knows more. Of course, you first have to admit you still can learn more. I recently committed to an organized road bike trek across America this fall. I’ve been riding a while, and have put many miles on my road bike in the last several years. And I’ve had several mentors in this area, too. Several of whom I attribute getting me to this point. But a wake-up call such as this has highlighted that I am a long way from being able to pull it off. Nutrition. Endurance. Conditioning. All terms I have ignored for years. Needless-to-say, I have enlisted a professional coach to train me all year. What are the areas you’ve been ignoring where you need professional assistance? Writing? Presentations? Negotiations? Think about it.

Lastly, I would urge you to consider being a mentor to others. What you’ve learned over your career can be valuable insights to those who are just starting out or are in over the heads. It is a great feeling to share thoughts with others and see light bulbs going on. But there is a bonus. Many times when I’ve helped others, I’ve learned something new myself. A fresh perspective from a mentee can get you thinking about your own habits or approaches.

We all learn in different ways. The message here is to find creative ways to keep learning and hold yourself accountable to a plan centered on learning. I think Mahatma Gandhi put it best: “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”

About the author:

Jeff Lipschultz is a founding partner of A-List Solutions, a premier recruiting firm in Dallas-Fort Worth. Jeff has built and managed diverse teams in engineering, marketing/sales, program/process management, and client relations for over 20 years working at several Fortune 500 companies, start-ups, and a small OEM. Jeff has a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin and University of Illinois-Chicago, respectively. He has a Master’s in Business Administration from Southern Methodist University with a focus in Marketing.

Jeff blogs about the hiring process from all perspectives, employment trends, and sometimes quirky observations of society. You can find his posts in his blog, AOL’s emurse, and Job-Hunt.org. He is a Six Sigma Black Belt and a charter member of the Drucker Society of Dallas (www.druckerdallas.org). Jeff is also an avid road cyclist, die-hard Cubs fan, volunteer teacher, but most of all, a dedicated hubby and dad of two great kids.

Follow Jeff on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jlipschultz