Stepping Up the Job Search

Some unemployed individuals are trawling for jobs at trade shows or conferences, striking up conversations with potential employers, while others are increasing networking efforts, either in-person or online. And while referrals are growing as a way to find a job, some seekers are finding themselves desperate enough to consider paying for an introduction.

By David Cotriss

Twelve years ago, a person looking for job would spend the morning reading the classified ads in the newspaper. Today, that person goes online and visits social-networking sites, career sites and job boards.

Newspaper ads were the conduit for 29 percent of external hires in 1998, according to CareerXroads, a recruiting consultancy based in Kendall Park, N.J. In 2009, newspaper ads didn't even make the top five in its Sources of Hire study.

The study also found an increase in the successful use of employee referrals, which comprised 27 percent of all hires in 2009, from 20 percent a year earlier.

In fact, referrals were the leading job generator, according to the study. And in this time, when demand exceeds supply, having the right contacts may be essential to finding a job, especially with unemployment remaining constant at 9.6 percent.

"Hiring companies are extremely reluctant to bring on permanent employees," says Tony Trasatti, vice president of recruiting services at recruiting firm DoubleStar Inc., a recruiting and outsourcing company based in West Chester, Pa. "There are fewer opportunities for high-level jobs but there are many opportunities for consulting."

As a result, many job seekers who have been unemployed for a long time have given up on the traditional employee role and are transitioning to consulting, he says.

And many of them, he says, are going to conferences and trade shows, walking the exposition floors and visiting every vendor booth looking for project work.

Doug Arms, senior vice president at professional staffing firm Ajilon, headquartered in Melville, N.Y., puts it a bit harsher, noting that some desperate, unemployed job seekers have been stalking vendor personnel at trade shows.

He also says he has heard of people just showing up at a company's headquarters and demanding an interview.

Some companies that do have openings are bypassing executive-recruiting firms and doing candidate searches themselves on social networks, often without ever posting job openings, says Mark Anderson, president of Execunet, a membership-driven network of senior-level executives based in Norwalk, Conn.

Validating that view are the results of Burlingame, Calif.-based software-application provider Jobvite's 2010 Social Recruiting Survey, showing that 83 percent of responding companies use, or plan to use, social networks as a recruiting tool this year.

Additionally, nearly half (46 percent) are spending more on social recruiting in 2010 than they did in 2009. At the same time, more than one-third (36 percent) of companies are spending less on job boards while 38 percent are spending less on third-party recruiters and search firms.

An online resource that may signal how desperate some job seekers are becoming is Ntroduction, a company that is combining the need for a job with the trend toward social networking and referrals.

It puts money at the heart of the job search, providing a means for job seekers and people willing to provide introductions to hiring companies to find each other -- for a fee.

Individuals can post listings for $15 each per month and if there is a match, the parties negotiate a fee and contract terms. Ntroduction takes a 20-percent cut of the negotiated fee, which is held in escrow for six weeks in case something goes wrong with the introduction process.

Fees range from a few hundred to several thousand dollars. People can also ask for sales introductions on the site.

Ram Prasad, Ntroduction co-founder and COO, says a provider will make a digital introduction only if a company is ready to hire, noting that the availability of a specific job is what sets his service apart from social-networking sites.

On LinkedIn or Facebook, he says, "you might be linked to the right set of people but their company is not ready to hire."

Nonetheless, Prasad maintains two groups on LinkedIn and encourages users to leverage their LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter contacts for use on Ntroduction.

Why would someone want to recommend a stranger and risk losing credibility with the hiring company should it turn out the job seeker is not qualified?

Prasad says about 60 percent of job seekers and interview providers actually meet face-to-face before the provider makes an introduction, and when geographical distance makes that impractical, the two parties usually have a phone conversation.

While many providers are company employees or ex-employees, about one-third (35 percent) are recruiters.

It is left to the provider to share with the hiring manager the fact that he or she is being paid to make the introduction and Prasad states that about half of them do tell the hiring manager about the fee.

But it's also possible that a recruiter can be paid by both the job seeker and the hiring company without the company knowing about the arrangement.

Recruiting-firm executives are skeptical about the value of referrals from such an impersonal method.

"It's like purchasing a list of C-level executives; there's no personal connection or value," says Trasatti.

Arms also doubts the effectiveness of such an approach because, in this economic climate, hiring companies want to make sure they are getting the best talent and there are better ways to achieve that.

And that means more than relying on social networking. In hard economic times, people often inflate their resumes.

And in an environment in which people "friend" and connect to individuals they do not even know, hiring managers may get referrals or recommendations from people who know nothing about a candidate's skills or personality.

Many companies, he says, don't want to commit to full-time hiring.

"Job seekers need to be willing to start with temporary positions and take that step in the door and work it," Arms says, noting that many temporary positions convert to permanent ones in eight to 14 weeks.

Alan McKisson, vice president of human resources at Manpower U.S., based in Milwaukee, also sees an increase in temporary employment opportunities, while regular full-time employment remains flat.

On the hiring side, companies are being more rigorous in their criteria. But, he adds, "There is less stigma today connected to being out of work."