{"id":999881460,"date":"2012-12-18T20:47:00","date_gmt":"2012-12-18T20:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dice.com\/?p=343735628"},"modified":"2012-12-18T20:47:00","modified_gmt":"2012-12-18T20:47:00","slug":"recruit-the-unrecruitable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dice.com\/hiring\/recruitment\/recruit-the-unrecruitable","title":{"rendered":"3 Tricks to Recruit the Unrecruitable"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align:center;\">[youtube http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=dUnIyCTwk2U wmode=window h=315]<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m a recruiter and candidates don\u2019t like me or they\u2019re indifferent,\u201d admits Jim Durbin (<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/smheadhunter\">@smheadhunter<\/a>), Founder of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.socialmediaheadhunter.com\/\">Social Media Headhunter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>At\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/talentnetlive.com\/\">TalentNet Live<\/a>\u00a0Dallas, Durbin and Bob Neelbauer, CEO of <a href=\"http:\/\/sortiq.com\/\">SortIQ<\/a>, tried to answer the question, \u201cHow do you reach the unreachable?\u201d Referring, of course, to the candidates you really want who often seem untouchable.<\/p>\n<p><b>1. Assume they don&#8217;t like you<\/b><\/p>\n<p>While you don\u2019t want to think that candidates hate you, use it as a default position when you approach top hires, says Durbin. Earn candidates&#8217; attention by being uniquely likable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCompanies recruit the same way they did thirty years ago, applying the old model to new technology,\u201d he says of the way top tech talent thinks of tech recruiters. \u201cYou must be different. How do you make yourself not boring without being weird? How do you reach out and talk to someone who doesn\u2019t want to talk to you?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b>2. Customize solutions to their problems<\/b><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you\u2019re trying to reach this younger generation, you have to explain what you\u2019re giving them. If you sell them foosball tables and flexible hours, you\u2019re not telling them what you\u2019re doing for them,\u201d said Durbin. \u201cDon\u2019t pitch them on salary and opportunity, find out what their needs are.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For example, Neelbauer had a top-level candidate that his company absolutely needed. The real issue preventing the candidate from accepting the job was travel time to and from work. So they offered him a car and a driver, which alleviated his concern and also made him more valuable to the company in available work time.<\/p>\n<p>That may be an extreme example, but have you ever considered custom solutions for candidate&#8217;s issues? Durbin asks, &#8220;Would you go so far as to giving an employee a driver?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Top talent won\u2019t be convinced by salary or options. \u201cThey don\u2019t want to give up their life for your model. So you have to adapt to their model of living,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3. Be one of them<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Embed yourself as a member of the community you want to recruit, advises\u00a0Neelbauer.<\/p>\n<p>He engaged with upcoming talent by hosting a video game tournament at a local university. The goal was to start forming relationships, so instead of showing up with resume collection boxes, he dressed like them and just hung out. He wanted to casually establish relationships so these future\u00a0candidates\u00a0would return his calls the next time he did college recruiting. And more importantly, he wanted these talented students to tell their friends about him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[youtube http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=dUnIyCTwk2U wmode=window h=315] \u00a0\u201cI\u2019m a recruiter and candidates don\u2019t like me or they\u2019re indifferent,\u201d admits Jim Durbin (@smheadhunter), Founder of Social Media Headhunter. At\u00a0TalentNet Live\u00a0Dallas, Durbin and Bob Neelbauer, CEO of SortIQ, tried to answer the question, \u201cHow do you reach the unreachable?\u201d Referring, of course, to the candidates you really want who often [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":343735628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2155,2154],"class_list":["post-999881460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hiring-candidates","category-sourcing-candidates"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>3 Tricks to Recruit the Unrecruitable - Dice Hiring<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m a recruiter and candidates don\u2019t like me or they\u2019re indifferent,\u201d admits Jim Durbin (@smheadhunter), Founder of Social Media Headhunter.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dice.com\/hiring\/recruitment\/recruit-the-unrecruitable\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"3 Tricks to Recruit the Unrecruitable\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m a recruiter and candidates don\u2019t like me or they\u2019re indifferent,\u201d admits Jim Durbin (@smheadhunter), Founder of Social Media Headhunter.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dice.com\/hiring\/recruitment\/recruit-the-unrecruitable\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dice Hiring\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-12-18T20:47:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dice.com\/hiring\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Poached-2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dice Staff\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Dicedotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Dicedotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dice Staff\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dice.com\\\/hiring\\\/recruitment\\\/recruit-the-unrecruitable#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dice.com\\\/hiring\\\/recruitment\\\/recruit-the-unrecruitable\"},\"author\":{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"name\":\"Dice Staff\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dice.com\\\/hiring\\\/authors\\\/dice-staff\"},\"headline\":\"3 Tricks to Recruit the Unrecruitable\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-12-18T20:47:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dice.com\\\/hiring\\\/recruitment\\\/recruit-the-unrecruitable\"},\"wordCount\":443,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dice.com\\\/hiring\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dice.com\\\/hiring\\\/recruitment\\\/recruit-the-unrecruitable#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dice.com\\\/hiring\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/Poached-2.jpg.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Hiring Candidates\",\"Sourcing Candidates\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dice.com\\\/hiring\\\/recruitment\\\/recruit-the-unrecruitable#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dice.com\\\/hiring\\\/recruitment\\\/recruit-the-unrecruitable\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dice.com\\\/hiring\\\/recruitment\\\/recruit-the-unrecruitable\",\"name\":\"3 Tricks to Recruit the Unrecruitable - 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