Return of the Recruiter

In Silicon Valley, the determination of its economic health has always depended on who is doing the measuring and from what perspective. 

One measure of that is how much hiring is done using recruiters to identify and capture talent. Coming out of the last recession in 2003 when there was no hiring, the first dribble of job openings went to friends and colleagues looking for work.

In 2004, the job openings went to friends of friends and word of mouth through the grapevine. People in companies started sending me job openings, asking me to refer people. Of course, they assumed in wanting to help my unemployed clients, I would not request a finders fee. They thought right.

The Valley's economic evolution has been like the Sinatra song,  It Was a Very Good Year. Yes, 2005 was a very good year compared to the previous 4 years. It was a year that saw the proliferation of job postings on Linkedin, and the use of niche job sites by employers like the The Ladders . It fired up the popularity of Simply Hired, billed as the largest job search engine on the planet. Hey, now there was something to search for.

2006 has been the best year yet, for recruiters. They have come back on the scene after a 5 year hiatus. It's been a long dry spell. Many of them resorted to becoming expert career coaches, like me, helping the unemployed to write resumes for non-existant jobs. Some morphed into expert management consultants to help all those troubled dot.coms make a turn-around.

In 2006, the unforeseeable by most of the Valley, has happened. Companies have been having trouble finding and hiring talent through their own devices. Yes, not all the jobs were shipped off-shore. The long predicted "talent shortage" is finally bubbling up like a fine champagne in 2006.

Up to now, companies looking for talent would do anything but use a recruiter. That's understandable because they charge a hefty percentage of the candidate's 1st year salary. It's not exactly the salad days of the late 90's  when it comes to their fees but it's a living again.

I'd say that the Valley is getting back to good economic health again because recruiters are making money finding people, the right people though.