Social Networking and Headhunters

I’ve always been kind of fascinated by headhunters.  Even though they are technically just recruiters, when I think of headhunters I think of the kind of recruiter that solicits people for jobs, not the recruiters that facilitate the interview process in the human resources department of some businesses.  For the purpose of this post, I’m only referring to the former.

The social networking scene has really revolutionized the headhunting business.  With Facebook, Myspace and especially LinkedIn, there is an endless supply of people who offer their employer name and plenty of personal details.  Before sites like these, the headhunters were required to be much more creative in finding potential candidates for their clients.  It’s as if they were private detectives. 

Is this a good thing or a bad thing?  On a personal level, I always thought that getting calls from headhunters symbolized that you had arrived at a great place in your career.  But now that I’ve gotten a few calls from them, it does not feel as good as I always thought it would.  Headhunters can be quite sneaky, leaving vague messages on your work voicemail to increase the chance that you’ll return their call, then trying to lure you away from your present job.  This is just the kind of call you want to get if you are on the job hunt, but if you are not looking, it can be rather off-putting. 

I would love to hear from a headhunter who is willing to share how they use the social networking sites to recruit and if this new Internet rage has improved their business.  And if you’ve been contacted by headhunters as a result of your profile on social networking sites, we’d love to hear from you, too. 

And be sure to check out all the other posts this month for more information about social networking and the job search.