Now, even recruiters increasingly find themselves under pressure from job boards, like monster.com, Career Builder and Yahoo Hot Jobs and in somce cases the overworked and understaffed client to produce resumes fast, fast, fast. Many recruiters now flood the job boards with postings - even though their clients also have those same postings there - and spend their day combing through the thousands of resumes that flood their email boxes.

Candidates also visit, of course.  They also go directly to company web sites to post resumes and sign up for “job agents” that promise to electronically knock on their door with great opportunities as they’re posted.

Thankfully, great recruiters are fighting back. Not by jumping on board the frenetic search engine quest for resumes, but by reminding hiring authorities and those most special candidates that great opportunities and great candidates don’t belong in electronic want ads.  They remind all those who’ll listen that great candidates too often go unnoticed, lost in the database.

It reminds me of a placement that took place my first year in the business. It wasn’t mine, but it was beautiful to watch and hear about. A great learning experience from a guy who’d been in the business a while.

One of the guys had come up with a great candidate. She had a Harvard MBA, had been with one of the best advertising firms, had impeccable references and she was moving to Houston.

She had sent her resume to all the great companies in the area and had come up blank. Being from out of town, she didn’t know anyone. And this amazing person heard absolutely nothing as a result. So, she got in touch with my colleague. As soon as he talked to her, he started talking with his network. Two weeks later, she was working. Two weeks after that, without realizing she was already working, someone finally called her in response to her original blind resume blast and politely told her they didn’t have anything for her.

Well, everyone involved in this placement knew what this candidate could and would do for some lucky company. The hiring authority wasn’t going to let this lady come to town and slip through his fingers. He made a place for her.

And that’s what gets missed by the giant database that is the internet. These judgments don’t get posted on job boards. It starts with the people who make things happen - the people with the right relationships who have the knowledge and judgment to make the right connection. As convenient as the internet makes it to track resumes, jobs and to communicate, job boards are still want ads and can’t take the place of people who understand each other’s needs. A database tracks keywords. A recruiter gets to know people and their needs.

I’m a recruiter. I work to understand the real needs of client and candidates alike. I’m a builder of human networks otherwise known as relationships. If you need IP Counsel to support and advance your organization’s bottom line, first, you may need to form a relationship with me to convey an understanding of you and your organization. Through that understanding, I will find you the people you need to achieve your objectives.

Is there a shortage of the high quality candidate your organization needs?

Do you have special challenges in filling the opening, such as salary structure, location, cost of living, technical criteria or culture?

If you answer yes to one or more of these questions, you need a recruiting specialist who has the experience to analyze your needs the resources to identify the pool of candidates that will respond to your needs and the thoroughness & follow up to seal the deal.