Life of a Sourcer During a Quarantine

Life of a Sourcer During a Quarantine

As I always say, in recruiting you will face major ups and major downs. You will likely experience a roller coaster of emotions throughout the course of a single week. However, over my 10+ years in the recruiting field, I have not experienced anything quite as unique as being self-quarantined in my house in Minnesota.

Yes, we can still go out to get the basic essentials like groceries and go for a walk. But, all my normal routines of meeting with friends, going to restaurants, or going out to the movies have been put on hold for the foreseeable future.

One thing that hasn’t stopped has been my role in recruiting. We still have openings and are hiring nationwide. I am thankful that we’re not experiencing a hiring freeze. However, with so many states going under “shelter in place” orders, there have been new and unique challenges. I started my career during the recession and remember understanding how difficult it was for recruiters during that period. I was given some solid advice during my first few years within the field and below are the suggestions I’ve given to my own team.

Building Strong Relationships

It’s always good to tap your network for potential leads. Instead of just mass-messaging other recruiters, take the time to build a pipeline of potential leads. Whether your job is secure or you are facing layoffs, it’s a great time to focus on building relationships so that you have a secured network to fall back on. Build and network for job openings whenever you have a free moment.

Advice for Working Remotely

Many Recruiters will be working remotely for the first time. Having worked remotely for a large percentage of my career in recruiting, I have a few tips to offer. Keep the same routines, set boundaries, and set daily goals for yourself. I wrote an article about Tips for Recruiters working remotely here.

Building Daily Routines

Get up at the same time you did before and stick to it. Get dressed like you are going to the office (no working all day in your pajamas). You will feel better and be more productive as opposed to just rolling out of bed and turning on your computer. I wrote an article about building a daily routine as a Recruiter.

Work on Yourself During the Down Time

When it comes to recruiting and sourcing, one needs to stay updated on the latest recruiting trends within our industry. Whether it’s learning about AI, automation, screening, behavioral-based interviewing, or recruiting tools, Recruiters and Sourcers need to be continuously learning. Here’s my top 12 Recruiting books to read during your down time.

Working on your Recruiting Super Power

Recruiters are great listeners and during this time I feel like I’ve become a counselor for some. I’ve heard many stories of upheaval, chaos, uncertainty, and fear. We can use our Recruiting super powers to help job seekers in need. I wrote a post about using our recruiting super powers for good. If you see someone who has been laid off try and do your best to reach out. Give them job seeking tips, review there resume, or just give them advice on now to network. Recruiters need to step up and support our community during this time.

Overall, I hope these tips are useful for you during this uncertain time. More than ever you need to invest in yourself and your future.

Authors

Jonathan Kidder

Jonathan Kidder, AKA the “WizardSourcer,” is a top-ranked technical talent sourcing recruiter, staffing expert, and corporate trainer who assists organizations of all sizes in identifying and attracting top talent. A wizard at harnessing the power of social networking, Boolean strings, search aggregators, deep web searching, scrapers, and other advanced technology tricks and tools. In 2015, he founded a recruiting blog called WizardSourcer.com, which has become one of the leading knowledge resources for recruiters online. He is the author of the book Top Talent Sourcing Tools for Recruiters which is available on Amazon.