Archive for August 1st, 2007

Message to Employers: Recruit or Die

Published by Ryan Healy on August 1st, 2007 in Books, Recruiting | 18 Comments

The title may be a little over the top, but authors Chris Resto, Ian Ybarra and Ramit Sethi are definitely onto something with their new book, Recruit or Die.

Read the subtitle and you'll discover that Recruit or Die reveals "how any business can beat the big guys in the war for young talent." The authors use Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, and Mckinsey as benchmarks for recruiting success and break down exactly how your small company can compete with the giants.

I have to admit, having finished the recruiting process from a candidate's side and not being heavily involved with recruiting for my company, I was curious to find out if this book would spark my interest. Two days and 276 pages later, I was amazed at how spot-on the author's observations about young people were. It certainly kept my attention.

The authors explain why Microsoft, Goldman Sachs and Mckinsey have in fact attained gold-standard recruiting practices. They won't settle for anything less than the exact recruits they want, and they work harder and smarter than their competitors to understand these candidates.

These may be fairly obvious observations, but from my experience, most companies don't have the luxury of only accepting the recruits they want because they struggle to identify with their target audience. Microsoft doesn't just nab recruits because they're Microsoft. They're smart, and they take recruiting seriously.

My favorite quote from the book comes from the section, "Young and Confused, Yet Absolutely Certain":

You can take the "When I was your age" approach, dismiss their expectations as delusions of entitlement, and go about recruiting them as if they should feel lucky to work for you and have a chance to pay their dues for a while. Or, you can embrace this new paradigm and appeal to their aspirations.

You better believe that in today's job market, talented young people have a choice in employment. Organizations as a whole must deal with this new paradigm shift, but recruiters, above all, must embrace it.

Another insightful tip Recruit or Die gives is to openly discuss how your company can be a spring board to entrepreneurship. This might seem counter-intuitive, but some of your new hires already plan to leave corporate America in search of their own business. Why not encourage this dream?

Another great tip is to talk about money. Millennials may be more concerned with fulfilling, meaningful work than a slight pay raise, but discussions about salaries, rent and other expenses are not taboo. We don't keep personal finance on the hush, so go ahead and tell us how much we can potentially earn with the company, one, two and five years down the line.

The authors do offer a warning: Don't tell young people how much they can retire with! The "R" word is off limits in any recruiting pitch.

Recruit or Die is an absolute must-read for recruiters, human resource employees and small company managers. I also recommend young people pick up a copy. If nothing else, you'll learn a few techniques for sniffing out the frauds in your next job search. In today's job market, that's a skill we can all profit from.

Also, check out my Wall Street Journal podcast with Co-author Ramit Sethi.