Headhunter: 'You Think LinkedIn And Facebook Can Replace Us? C'mon!'

We recently interviewed a former head hunter who told us LinkedIn killed the recruiting industry. But Dan Martineau, president of Martineau Recruiting Technology — which specializes in IT executive positions with salaries of $85,000 to $200,000 —is defending his industry and tells us that it's better than ever. He says that recruiting is much different than just opening up a job site and searching for people who appear to have the necessary credentials. "We're expensive. If you can get those candidates on the Internet, then what am I doing?" Martineau says. "That means I'm bringing you jack."

                                   

                            

Instead, the head hunter tells us that the candidates companies are searching for aren't even online, and most of the time, they don't want to leave their jobs. That's why you won't find them on LinkedIn or any other job site. "Most of the time — probably 85 percent — we recruit people who don't want to leave their jobs," he says. "We ask for their assistance, tell them about the position and ask them if they know any strong candidates that could fill the position." "It's not 'Hey, here's a job!' In fact, when a recruiter contacts you, sometimes they want to recruit you, but other times, they are trying to get information from you, and the thing is, you'll never know and, sometimes, the head hunter doesn't know either until they speak with you. Martineau says job sites, LinkedIn and other social media sites are tools and technology that recruiters use to leverage their research, but it's hardly the core of their method in recruiting. In truth, it's all about strategy, and leveraging those relationships that you already have. "What we're really doing is, we're sales people," Martineau says. "At the end of the day, the job of a sales person is understanding the needs of a customer and aligning it with the product. They will never be a customer if I don't find them the right thing." "And that's why we approach people, we open up their eyes and ears to the possibility of an even brighter future and we listen to their vision for their career. If it aligns with something we have open, we recruit them for that job. If not, they go in the database." And Martineau tells us he has a database of more than 20,000 contacts. "The only way you can access those people is through cold call recruiting. With LinkedIn, they send out emails and the only people responding are the ones who are looking and interested."

But the ones who are interested aren't always the "best candidates." Martineau says that he only places one unemployed person a year into a position, and the reason why is "the best person is almost, always employed." "An average head hunter makes $87,000 and a professional one makes anywhere between $200,000 to $700,000," he says. "The reason why companies pay us that much money is because we have the resources LinkedIn doesn't." "You think LinkedIn and Facebook can replace us? C'mon!"