When I talk to people who are looking for a job I always tell them the number one way to most of your best positions is through networking.According to Roberta Chinsky Matuson in her article entitled, Networking 101 on Monster.com, a leading career website,
A vast number of job openings never make it to the newspaper or job boards.
These positions are often referred to as the "hidden job market." Candidates
find out about these positions through word of mouth. The higher up the ladder
you go, the more likely a position will be filled this way.
And since recruiting is one of my key responsibilites at Bulldog Solutions I network in various locations always keeping my eyes open for a potential recruit.
When I joined Bulldog Solutions in March of 2006 I was recruited by our Vice President of Strategic Accounts, Heather Hoetger. She and I had worked together at CyberTrader, now a fully owned entity of Charles Schwab, as HR Managers. Since she knew that Bulldog was looking to hire their first HR manager and she knew that I was in the job market and had experience working with me, she contacted me and well the rest is history. What I found in joining Bulldog Solutions is that most of the people in our company were recruited simply from our own networks and that we'd recruited just about everyone that we knew to fill what positions we had. So my next task . . . find new blood.
Which we did and over the last two years we've been recruiting through a variety of sources and while we've continued to hire referrals there hasn't been a big push to really hone in on each others networks. Until now . . .
We are looking at starting an employee referral program and I thought I'd reach out to YOU! If your company has an employee referral program would you mind sharing how it works here on my blog. We're looking for both its successes and pitfalls.
Oh, and by the way . . . if you're looking for a job in the Austin, Texas area be sure to stop by our Career page and if you don't see something of interest that's okay too. Sign up to be part of our Kennel Club where we'll keep you abreast of positions as they become available.
