If you were to tell someone that you don’t have a Facebook account or a Twitter page or even a LinkedIn id, it would probably be considered a social blasphemy! In today’s day and age, when our “social circles” are made up more of virtual friends across different parts of the world and our “business associates” are identified by the number of 1st degree connections on our LinkedIn id, it's no surprise that reaching out to people for career opportunities has also gone virtual.
No longer are people discreet about looking for job opportunities. Finding a job is no longer restricted to a game of Chinese whispers, rather, it’s a game of enterprise and resourcefulness. More and more professionals over the years have started to proactively reach out to the “right “ channels that can actually help them get a better step-up in their career. Networking with batch mates or reaching out to Executive Search firms like us are all ways of ensuring that at least one such channel delivers.
Executive Search traditionally has always been a bastion of age-ripened relationships and the exchange of confidentialities. But of late, as is the case with almost everything else, even Executive Search modalities have entered Public Domain.
Whether it’s good or bad is anyone’s guess.
For search firms like us that always rely on collating real time data through headhunting rather than leaning on existing databanks, taking our search process public makes us enormously uncomfortable. It’s our ability to be discreet, handle candidate engagements carefully and ensure client delight through a quiet personalized approach that we consider our hallmark. But with the emergence of social media and the growing comfort amongst job seekers- specially at lower and middle management levels- to make their intentions known has made certain that most of the Search firms have had to realign the way they execute searches.
Having worked on International searches for over a decade now, Positive Moves has been using the Social Media judiciously to accomplish searches with the fastest turn around time specially those that come in markets where our networks are still building.
That is not to say that our approach in such cases comprises the sole use of such sites to reach relevant professionals, (who may or may not respond to your “invites” or mails). Unlike our competitors who use these networking platforms as the only way to identify potential talent, these sites act only as the guiding compass for us - to direct our searches to the right catchment areas of talent- and nothing more.
As the Emerging Markets’ specialists, we have tasted sweet success in geographies like South East Asia, Africa, South Asia, Europe and Middle East, not just by relying solely on the information on websites and online resumes and other such social media channels but also by mobilizing search processes that have proved successful year on year. We still build our own information bank on the talent that exists in these countries, reach out to them directly and validate their information, evaluating their personal profiles and then presenting our recommendations to our clients.
In our experience, despite the popularity of LinkedIn, Naymz etc and the inherent temptation to rely heavily on such sites because of easy access to generous information, we have still closed searches with speed and within challenging turn-around-times through traditional streamlined headhunting that gives us extremely accurate results.
Yes we do send out messages on LinkedIn, update “career opportunity” statuses on Facebook and send out Tweets to prospective candidates, but eventually, it’s our own customized search process that bears fruit.
So is Social Media still worth considering? We would say definitely- but know its limits. Using a holistic blend of the best headhunting approach combined with state of the art technology best meets the need.
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