To leverage the same analogy – is there a tree that only has low hanging fruit?

In reality, while some candidates on the job boards may in fact be “low hanging fruit” (easy to find and aquire), there are many candidates that are what I would refer to as “high hanging fruit” – not to so easy to find and acquire.

On any given fruit tree, there is a mix of easily accessible (low hanging)and hard to get (top of the tree) fruit.

Those who are especially talented at searching information systems can, unlike many others, essentailly break out a ladder and head straight to the top of the tree to find and acquire that which others can’t – either due to inability or to the fact that they don’t even “see” them up there at the top – instead content to fill their basket with the low hanging fruit which requires little effort and skill to collect.

Lastly, Internet resumes and LinkedIn profiles are just as prone to be “low hanging fruit,” as they are free and everyone as access to them.

Just some food (fruit) for thought.

Scott – wow! Nice to hear from others who see things for what they are. I agree that too many people make the mistake of viewing the job boards as “job boards” – as you say; classifying them and perhaps even limiting them from leveraging the job boards for their full potential. In reality – the job boards are simply repositories of human capital data – much can be gleaned from the information in the resumes stored on them, and and every single person you can find on a job board knows and works with other people. I firmly believe that the job boards can be leveraged just like LinkedIn, and vice versa.

Part of the issue is functional fixedness.It’s all a matter of perspective – and unfortunately, many people can’t escape their subjective opinions (often based on feelings rather than facts or even experience) to begin to see and understand the objective reality.

Whoa – went a little deep on that one.

I am looking forward to more comments and thoughts – but a word to those who might leave a reply…please, keep it professional. I know this is a highly polarizing topic, but be respectful, and think before you write.

Thanks!

Let me get this out of the way: searching a board for a candidate for a ‘now’ position if you are in competition for some sort of contingent placement doesn’t make much sense. Others have probably already done it, including perhaps your client. While it is possible to place someone that way, by being better at positioning the opportunity, faster, more honest and true to your word, a better evaluator of ‘fit’, better on the phone, etc, it’s more likely that you’ll just waste time.

With that said – and I think this may shock some readers – Monster was LinkedIn before LinkedIn. They’re both repositories of names and peoples’ employment information. They’re both sources of referrals and they’re both sources of future hires. One can use either site to introduce oneself to a person and start a relationship. Does anyone really believe that the Java developer who posted on LinkedIn in 2005 was really looking to ‘network’? Come on. It was and to some extent remains a way for many people to put their very resume-like profiles online without generating too much concern from their employer. And yet so many in our profession felt they had earned genius status by recruiting on the site.

By the way, I am not talking about using Monster to post fake jobs in an effort to ‘pipeline’. That’s a whole ‘nother debate. I’m talking about reaching out to solid-looking potential candidates to relationship build. I’m talking about finding people who have listed references on their Monster resumes. I’m talking about using Monster as a source of market information, like salary ranges or ‘hmmm… a lot of people from X Corp lately – must be something going on there.’ And then calling the people to figure out what’s going on. Could be a great source company.

Granted – I’m aware the parallel is not perfect. I am not arguing that the functionality of boards and LinkedIn is the same. I won’t even go into the many differences here, but please don’t attack me on that front. I get it.

Most people don’t think creatively when they use the job boards. Oddly enough, their mistake is in thinking of them as job boards. If all you do on the board is search for hires for active positions and post jobs for active positions, then I’m a sourcing snob. If, on the other hand, you use them for what they are, information repositories with insights into roles, organizations, the market and a source of relationships, referrals, and future hires, then put me on the other side of the fence.

- Scott Hajer