Author Archives: Talent Architect Pat Sharp

Applicants are People. Be Kind, but Honest.

by Talent Architect Pat Sharp

Biz writers often refer to stakeholders in organizations. Stakeholders go beyond those who “own” the company, to those who have some kind of interest in an organization: vendors, customers, stockholders, community members, and employees. Organizations show their concern for stakeholders by creating comprehensive mission statements. Many require new employees to memorize the mission statement and to be prepared to recite it at a moment’s notice.
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How to Simplify your Hiring Priorities

by Talent Architect Pat Sharp

Everybody’s too busy – far too busy – to wade through the volumes of applicants to find nuggets of talent. Hiring managers are doing their “real” jobs. Recruiters juggle between posting jobs, screening resumes, managing interviews, and other elements of a complicated hiring processes. Automation tools, designed to make things easier, often make things more complicated. Smart recruiters can focus on three elements to make things easier for everyone, applicants included.

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Baby Boomers Workin’ a College Town

by Talent Architect Pat Sharp

“Baby Boomers Workin’ a College Town” was inspired by Hank Amundsen‘s comment on my post, Connecting People and Opportunity.

He wanted ideas on how older people (like me) could compete in the labor markets of college towns, where the competition for jobs can be quite youthful and fierce. I lived in San Rafael, CA, from 2003-2009. Read more

Recruiting Automation vs. Hiring Facilitation

by Talent Architect Pat Sharp

As I continue to reflect on David Smooke’s question, “What can we do to connect people with opportunity?” I wonder why, in this age of light-speed communication, multitudinous weak-tied tribes, and a bandwagon of technology tools to bring it all together, we even have to ask this question. It should be easy—to find a job, to find qualified people, to make good hires. But, it is not.

When I come in and start working with a client on recruitment processes, the first to embrace me are the overwhelmed HR and recruiting staff. The first to resist me are the hiring managers, because I make them sit down and talk to me. Read more

Connecting People and Opportunity

by Talent Architect Pat Sharp

David Smooke is a blogger’s best friend when they are blocked. He asked me to write about the “industry” so I asked him to define the industry for me. The title of this post is his definition.

I don’t share his definition, by the way, but I do think his definition is how those of us involved in any form of recruitment, staffing, hiring, or talent acquisition, should think about what we do.

There are plenty of people thinking about the opportunity side of the equation; that’s where the money is. Read more

Recruiting with Pareto’s Principle

by Talent Architect Pat Sharp

Leela Srinivasan posted a response to my recent blog on passive candidates; she wrote, “Leaving aside the debate over whether passive candidates are ‘better’ or not, the fact of the matter is there are simply many more passive than active candidates ‘out there’. If you don’t consider passive candidates, you’re ignoring 80% or more of the talent pool. That’s not a risk that most companies with an interest in hiring the best are willing to take.” For those of you who don’t know Leela Read more

Are “Passive” Candidates Superior?

by Talent Architect Pat Sharp

Are “Passive” Candidates Superior? In the olden days, before the internet, when search consultants (recruiters) received fees of 25% or more for white collar professionals with 3-5 years of experience (those were the “good” olden days, believe me!), those of us who wanted to catch the big fish, realized that the money was in finding great candidates who worked for the client company’s direct competitor. We guarded our Rolodexes with our lives. We didn’t call them “passive” candidates, Read more

Recruiting, a Fishy Business

by Talent Architect Pat Sharp

I’ve lived and worked all over the US: Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Phoenix, Chicago, Oregon, and the east coast. I chose to make my homebase in middle Tennessee, just south of Nashville. Tennesseans have many passions: football, music (all kinds) and fishing are at the top. I fit right in. I love football; I came here for the music; and the fishing is fantastic.

Since football season is over and the daffodils are popping up everywhere, it’s only natural to think about fishing. As I fantasized about fishing, I realized how similar recruiting is to fishing. Recruiters have distinct styles that correlate to 4 types of fishers: Noodlers, Opportunists, Net fishers, and Fly fishers. What type best describes your recruiting style?

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Career Page EEEssentials

by Talent Architect Pat Sharp

John Sumser “published” an HRxaminer article, Star Candidate Experience in 17 steps on Jan 25.

I clicked to read it right away – intrigued – for candidate experience is not usually the focus of articles on recruiting strategy. The article was as you would expect from one of the oldest and most respected voices in Internet recruiting, John Sumser. But, 17 steps is a lot to remember. In fact, the 18^th step of the article reads, “and so on.” Then John wrote, “If this list seems familiar, it might be because it’s a seven year old piece,” which links back to a post published in July 2006.

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