Though the employment picture remains bleak, technical recruiting is showing signs of recovery. As one of the panelists at a Fuqua School of Business (Duke University) event last Wednesday, I learned firsthand from some attendees that several major management consulting firms are aggressively recruiting specialized talent. This puts a premium on innovative methods to surface key technical candidates for unique job openings. To that end, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) techniques, that many web marketers have employed religiously for the last few years to drive more sales of their products and services, are now being employed for recruiting efforts. One SEO technique paying dividends is listing on local search directories. I recently interviewed three local search experts to gain their insights.

Andrew Shotland founder of Local SEO Guide (www.localseoguide.com) was fascinated by the amount of attention local search has garnered over the last six months. To uncover optimum directories for your niche and ensure that job seekers can find you he suggested, “You need to (first) go to Google, plug in all the search terms that are relevant to your business and see what sites come up. (The caveat is) If the local directories are not listed on the first page for your search terms, then they are irrelevant to you.” Therefore, the first step is to find those directories that are ranked well for your key search terms on Google. “The next step is to claim your profile. Go to Google Maps (http://maps.google.com/) find your profile, update your profile and add descriptions to ensure that your profile is correctly targeting those keywords that are relevant to your target audience. It’s no longer enough to just have your website rank highly, you need to also ensure that your company’s local directory page ranks highly as well,” said Mr. Shotland.

Some of the best general local directories are:

1. http://www.yelp.com

2. http://www.yellowpages.com

3. http://www.superpages.com

4. http://chicago.citysearch.com

5. http://www.dexknows.com

However, depending upon your niche you may want to uncover and list on more specialized local directories.  Doing so will take a lot of work, but will also pay you multiple benefits including:

1. Promoting your company to key candidates that you seek.

2. Driving potential employees more quickly to your site based upon your niche.

3. Driving more customers to your business.

Consultant Steve Espinosa (http://stephenespinosa.com/) added, “The best thing your company can do is take control of your listing. Correct any data that is inaccurate and add data that is relevant.” He also shared that there are three major data sources that distribute local listing data to the other independent local directories:

1. http://www.localeze.com

2. http://www.infousa.com

3. www.acxiom.com

Mike Belasco President of seOverflow (www.seoverflow.com) added that small companies that have not taken advantage of local directories have several resources that can assist them:

Our Blog: http://www.seoverflow.com/blog

Get Listed http://getlisted.org/index.aspx

Get Listed Local University http://getlisted.org/university/

Our Media Page: http://www.seoverflow.com/media.html

Our Events Page: http://www.seoverflow.com/events.html

Local Related Blog Posts

http://www.seoverflow.com/blog/local-seo/new-google-guidelines-checklist/

http://www.seoverflow.com/blog/local-seo/citations-and-local-search/

http://www.seoverflow.com/blog/seoverflow/mike-belasco-wins-2010-semmy-for-analytics/

http://www.seoverflow.com/blog/call-tracking/roll-your-own-phone-call-tracking-program-it-is-easy/

http://www.seoverflow.com/blog/seoverflow/planet-ocean-announces-local-search-expert-mary-bowling/

Presentations

http://www.seoverflow.com/blog/ses2009/mike-belascos-slides-from-ses-chicago-local-search-summit/

http://www.seoverflow.com/blog/seoverflow/soar-with-local-seo-presentation-slides/

The bottom line is recruiting key technical personnel is becoming increasingly more difficult. Especially with staffing accelerating at many companies, one SEO technique that can be helpful is listing in appropriate local directories. This will provide you with the dual benefit of attracting both desired candidates and customers. The caveat is more companies are discovering this pathway. Therefore, you need to act quickly in order to tap into this valuable resource.

Executive recruiters (aka headhunters) can provide a valuable resource to help you land your next job. Unfortunately, many candidates do not understand the proper rules of engagement. Often they wrongly expect executive recruiters like myself to be unpaid servants who will gladly meet their every employment need. Instead, I am guided by the requirements of the paying customer, the employer. Employers retain me to find specific talent per their recruiting requirements. However, during the executive search process, just like a realtor who needs to balance the needs of the home buyer and seller, I too have to meet the needs of both parties because: a) hiring companies pay my fees and b) job seekers can provide a wealth of candidate referrals, which can translate into my fees.

However, in order to gain maximum benefit from a headhunter you will need to follow four simple rules. First, be aware that I am guided by the paying customer’s needs first and foremost. Second, each headhunter only has a limited number of clients and openings. Therefore, do not expect me to be a one-stop supermarket for all job openings. Instead, you need to contact several executive recruiters and follow many avenues to meet your employment needs. Third, when a recruiter like myself asks for certain information, please provide it. This will help me to best meet your needs. Finally, please do not expect a lot of personal guidance. Though I provide a lot more free resources than most recruiters including 1) a weekly blog at http://www.strategicsearch.com/interview-preparation-blog/ and 2) monthly instructional videos called “The 12 Commandments of Interviewing” at http://www.strategicsearch.com/interview-preparation-tips/index.php I cannot provide customized assistance. For that, you will need to retain me on a consulting basis.

To demonstrate the anthethis of how to properly utilize an executive recruiter, I reference a Prima donna who contacted me today. I met this person several times at various SEO (Search Engine Optimization) functions. To date he has never sent me his resume or any relevant career information. Furthermore, when I requested pertinent information from him today by directing him to: http://www.strategicsearch.com/interview-preparation-contact.php he refused. Instead, his response was, “I’m not a resume in a database, I’m a person. When you’d like to actually follow up, please let me know.” He went on to lecture me about “his” rules of engagement including how I should comport myself, provide him regular updates and work to quickly place him in his dream job. Needless to say I will never work with this candidate.

Remember, headhunters can assist you in finding a job. However, you will need to follow these four simple rules in order to foster a good relationship.

Many hiring companies constantly espouse the need to recruit the best and brightest possible candidates for their open positions. However, few pay much attention to cultivating and nurturing that talent. Instead, Duke’s win yesterday as 2010 men’s NCAA basketball champion proves that it is not enough to just recruit the best. Once you have that top talent in place, you need to offer them the latitude and opportunity to succeed.

To prove my point, please wind the clock back to 1980, which was Mike Krzyzewski’s first year at Duke. It was also my first year at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business MBA program. Then Duke athletic director Tom Butters had recently recruited Coach Krzyzewski from Army to replace Bill Foster who had 27-7, 22-8 and 24-9 finishes in his last three seasons including the runner-up to Kentucky as NCAA champion in 1978. Therefore, most at Duke were extremely unhappy with Coach K’s 17-13 and 10-17 finishes in his first two seasons. In fact, things got so bad that when he had a lecture, I was one of only a handful of students to attend. Furthermore, most were calling for his ouster (and that of Mr. Butters if he didn’t cooperate). Luckily Tom Butters stuck to his convictions, was patient and offered a lot of support and latitude to Coach K. The rest is history.

He is now only the third coach in NCAA history to win four national championships. The only others in that elite group are John Wooden of UCLA and Adolph Rupp of Kentucky. Furthermore, in his 30 seasons at Duke he has taken the Blue Devils to 11 Final Fours and 8 championship game appearances. In today’s era of reduced scholarships and increased scrutiny these accomplishments may even exceed John Wooden’s achievements. Add to that the tough academic standards of Duke and he may be the best coach of all time!

Contrast this with what most hiring managers do. They offer little in the way of development for their prized pupils. Furthermore, they are quick to “pull the trigger” and fire that talent on the first misstep. Instead they should take a page out of Tom Butters book at Duke and be patient and offer a lot of support for their top recruits. The result may be the next Mike Krzyzewski on your payroll!

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced yesterday that manufacturing created 17,000 new jobs in March. For the three months of this year, this sector has now created 45,000 net new jobs. As a result, some technical jobs are getting harder to fill due to a lack of talent. Therefore, I recommend using the internet to better investigate candidates. Please go to http://www.strategicsearch.com/technical-recruiting-tips/ and click on 10TH (below) to learn more.

The key is a lot of candidate information exists on the Internet especially on social media sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn. Therefore, you need to dig deep.

Please go to http://www.strategicsearch.com/interview-preparation-tips/index.php and click on 10TH (below) to view this month’s interviewing tip, which is “how do you handle a low-ball offer?”

For example, an employer offering you a $70,000 salary when you were making $80,000. Often times this is just a interview test to see how you will react. Unfortunately, many job candidates fail the test because they get angry and overreact!

Instead, I recommend a 3-step process:

1. Confirm. For example, “Mr. Jones, do I understand that you are offering me $70,000?” He may say no and then your comeback should be, “what are you offering me?”

2. Once you know what the real offer is, then you are ready for the 2nd step, which is compliment and postpone. For example, “Mr. Jones, I really like your company because (then offer some legitimate reasons: this is the compliment part), but I need a couple of days to crunch the numbers (the postpone). Most companies will allow this.

3. Finally, the 3rd step is negotiate. This is where you offer a counteroffer. For example, “Mr. Jones, I crunched the numbers over the last few days and I really need $77,000 because (offer some legitimate reasons why).”

The result will be you will either get the amount that you wanted or you can move on to other opportunities. So remember to employ this 3-step process to handling low-ball job offers.