How to Switch Desk Specialties by Bill Radin

If you're recruiting in an industry that's at death's door and nothing you do seems to revive it, a change in desk specialties may be in order.

You don't necessarily have to drop your existing specialty altogether; you can keep your "core" constituency active while mining for gold in other areas. However, to get the most out of your efforts, the more concentrated time you spend on your prospective market, the better.

As you begin the exploration process, look for a niche that draws on your existing assets, such as your database of candidates and companies, plus your industry knowledge and technical expertise. For example, if software developers are no longer in demand, there may be a market for software sales managers. If no linkage to your assets can be found, then you may be forced to rebuild your desk from scratch.

To increase the odds of a successful transition, consider the following tips:

1. Find a niche that's in demand, not only now, but promises to be in the future. The last thing you want to do is reinvent yourself all over again in two or three years.

2. Make sure you have some degree of affinity for the population you'll be mingling with, and at least a modicum of interest in the new field's technology, skill set or culture. It's hard to be an advocate on behalf of an industry—or a candidate population—that leaves you cold or makes you feel uncomfortable.

3. Don't expect instant success. It takes time to learn the nuances of a new desk specialty and reach the point when the pieces begin to fit together. It's been said that a prospect needs to be contacted six or seven times before any sort of name recognition or rapport can be built.

4. Remember the basics. Your primary objective is to arrange sendouts, either by candidate marketing or by writing job orders. The more interviews you set up, the faster you'll get your production on track.

5. Stay focused. If you wander in too many directions, you'll end up with a Balkanized desk, comprised of disparate candidate and company populations that have no common language. The trick to desk specialty management is to keep your nose to the scent of new business, without taking too many forks in the road.

Bear in mind that the fundamentals of the business will remain constant, even if you switch your desk specialty. If your technique is sound, you'll make progress quickly, provided there's business to be found in your new area of interest.

However, you might want to brush up on (or rehearse) your marketing presentations and recruiting calls before you start making calls to new prospects. Your seniority in the old specialty may have masked weaknesses in technique, and if you're starting fresh, you'll want to make a good first impression, even if you have many years of recruiting under your belt.

Bill Radin is a top-producing recruiter whose innovative books, tapes, CDs and training seminars have helped thousands of recruiting professionals and search consultants achieve peak performance and career satisfaction. Please visit Bill online at www.billradin.com.

Top 10 Worst Tech Predictions Of All Time

1. The iPod will never take off.
:: Sir Alan Sugar in 2005

2. No need for a computer in the home.
:: Ken Olsen, founder of Digital Equipment Corp in 1977

3. Nuclear-powered vacuum cleaners will probably be a reality within 10 years.
:: Sir Alan Sugar in 2005

4. TV won't last because people will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.
:: Sir Alan Sugar in 2005

5. After the first flight of the Boeing 247, a plane that could hold 10 people: There will bever be a bigger plane built.
:: Proud Boeing engineer in 1933

6. We stand on the threshold of rocket mail.
:: US postmaster-general Arthur Summerfield in 1959

7. Nobody would ever need more than 640KB of memory on their personal computer.
:: Bill Gates in 1981, allegedly

8. The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys.
:: Sir William Preece, chief engineer of the British Post Office in 1878.

9. Spam will be solved.
:: Bill Gates in 2004

10. X-rays will proved to be a hoax.
:: Lord Kelvin, president of the Royal Society, in 1883.

Top 50 HR Blogs

Very excited that I was included in the Top 50 HR Blogs as published by BSchool.com Business Schools Directory (Campus and Online MBA Degrees) - what a great honour.

The top 8 Recruitment Blogs that made it to the list are as follows:

Cheezhead. This popular recruitment blog offers a main course of recruitment issues with a nice side dish of other HR topics.

Recruiting Fly. From applicant tracking systems to specific corporate job opportunities, this blog covers the latest news in recruiting.

Magic Pot of Jobs. These IT recruiters have put together a blog to help job searchers know what steps to take to give themselves the best advantage when it comes to landing the interview and the job.

Recruiting Animal. This collaborative blog, an extension of The Recruiting Animal Show, offers posts with timely topics that relate to the world of recruiting.

Amitai Givertz’s Recruitomatic Blog. This recruiting specialist shares his expertise through original blog posts including topics offering recruiting help as well as news about the recruiting industry.

Research Goddess. Get the latest news from the recruitment world brought to you in the posts at this blog.

A Recruiter Diary. This IT recruiter shares his knowledge with news and tips collected from several sources.

Recruiter Guy Blog. Stay on top of recruiting trends with information about what recruiters are using and what job-seekers find helpful with this fun and flashy blog.

*** Happy hunting folks***

:: Top 50 recruiting blog!

I made it to the TOP 50 of TheRecruiting Watch blog community - http://www.recruitingwatch.com/community.

At recruitingwatch.com they are constantly monitoring the top blogs and blog posts on Recruiting.

Do give them a visit and if you find that your favorite blog is not on the list you can recommend it to be included in the list.

:: Top 100 HR bloggers!

Such a great and new feeling to see myself included amongst such esteemed company in the Top 100 HR bloggers as compiled by Laura Milligan at Bootstrapper.

Here are the list of the top recruitment blogs in alphabetical order.

1. Amitai Givertz’s Recruitomatic Blog: This recruiting professional reveals some of her best tools for attracting talent.
2. AmyBeth Hale: Research Goddess!: This fun to read blog is a great resource for connecting you with other HR sites and blogs across the Web.
3. A Recruiter Diary: Author Joe Neitham shares “the ups and downs, lessons learnt, success stories,” and more in his recruiting blog.
4. Ask the Recruiter: Post your questions or just browse through other readers’ inquiries to learn more about the recruiting industry.
5. Cheezhead: Cheezhead is an attractive, popular blog about recruitment trends, with special attention paid to issues unique to working on the Internet.
6. Confessions of an Executive Restaurant Recruiter: Even if you’re not in the restaurant business, you’ll have a good time reading this blog, which is full of recruiting tales and tips that will leave you hungry for more.
7. Confessions of a Recruiting Newbie: Follow the author’s journey through a career in HR recruiting.
8. Cyber Sleuthing: Use this blog to learn the sneakiest tips for using the Web as your main recuritment tool.
9. Director of Recruiting: Catch up on all the latest “news and views” you need to know as a recruiter.
10. ERE Expo Blog: The ERE Expo is the principle convention held each year for recruiting professionals. Sign up to attend, check out their blog entries, or preview the event’s schedule.
11. Expert Recruiter Resource: Don’t miss this blog. Use it to discover a wealth of advice and tips that will help boost your career.
12. Hire Strategies: Learn about the power of e-recruitment, especially within the retail industry.
13. IT Recruiting Diary: On this blog, you can read inspirational stories and valuable tips about recruiting.
14. IT Toolbox Recruitment Blog: The IT Toolbox Recruitment Blog features short but thorough postings with expert advice on the newest recruitment ideas and trends.
15. The Asia Pacific Headhunter: This blog discusses trends in recruiting, and is a great resource for professionals and job searchers alike.

Lost your job – what do you do?

The scenario:

“Yikes! You just lost your job! You’ve been so busy at *work* that you don’t feel your network is as strong as you would like it to be! What are you going to do with (and to) your network in the next 6 weeks as you begin an aggresive job search campaign? And, outside of your network, what job search tactics will you employ? Or your best networking tips related to job searches”. - Blog carnival by Jason Alba

Phone & e-mail:

Firstly, I would update my mentor (if you don’t have one yet, this is the right time to do so) on my unfortunate situation and seek his immediate advice and also share with him on my plan of action and listen to what he has to say. Secondly, pick up the phone and talk to my favorite recruiter and also later call my not-so-favorite recruiters. Thirdly, I would then personally call up all my networks, spend time catching up with them and subtly enquire from them if they are aware of any new jobs around. I would try not to be too aggressive or desperate the first time around. Showing desperation at the first meeting/chat after a long gap can be perceived to be not a ‘cool’ thing to do and for some it might even sound rude or might even be construed to being taken for granted. One has to be respectful and not take any relationship for granted, very basic and important. After all the talk is done suggest a personal meeting over a cup of coffee or lunch/dinner, provided you and your network are within the same city or vicinity. Personal meeting are always more effective then catching up over the phone. I’ll proceed to update my network on my situation, be nice and enquire about his health, about the market/industry, whatever, and be prepared to share my plans and my actual situation. I would then follow up this meeting with a phone call after 3-4 days and this time round I can be completely open with him and share my intention to look for a job immediately. I will check with him if he is aware of any job openings that will suit my profile and request him to talk to his network to enquire any relevant job openings on my behalf. I will be assertive about my intentions but will not show any sign of desperation. To those in my next level of network, I’ll try calling them else make sure I write to them and update them on my situation and enquire from them if they would be kind enough to refer if they know of any openings that would be suitable for my experience. I would also remember to thank them in anticipation of their help/assistance.

Messengers:

I’d use the messenger and the contacts to spread the word around that I’m seeking for a new job. Sometime, those contacts even though they might not be recruiters will know of recruiters whom they can touch base and enquire for any job openings on my behalf. Some folks do have this strong tendency to go out of their way to help others, pray you do have such contacts in your list.

LinkedIn/Orkut/Jibberjobber:

I would also start paying close attention to all my contacts and my contact’s contacts. And try getting myself introduce to them or connecting to them.

Professional Membership:

I’d also find out about the members within the memberships that I currently belong and look around for anyone whom I can network with and get their advice/help/references.

Blogroll:

If you do blog within the relevant area of your professional practice, do get in touch with all your fellow bloggers and subtly enquire around for any relevant job openings.

Mailing group:

If you are part of a mailing group (e.g.; like yahoogroups), do check for any relevant job postings by fellow group members. Also do touch base directly with some of the members whom you think might be able to assist you.

When all the above means are exhausted, the next best option is to go to Job sites and job boards and news paper/magazine advertisements and start checking out the relevant job postings and start applying. This traditional mode of job search sometimes can be very effective and that’s because the openings are generally of urgent in nature and that’s one reason why in the first place the job has been advertised.

Also, it might be worthwhile for me to shortlist few of the companies that I would like to work with, visit their website and check out if they have any relevant job postings on their website.

The last and the most extreme mode of job search outside of one’s network will be blogging. This is the age of web2.0, go ahead blog your way to the attention of your next employer. Blog about anything that is relevant to ‘the’ company that you really wish to work for, do your bit of digging and research, and impress them on how much you know about them, their products and services, talk about any market feedback if you know of any, et al.

And should all else fails, you might even try filming your CV and distributing it to all your prospective employers – this one is innovative but extreme and sure to attract attentions – both wanted and unwanted.

Finally, be passionate about yourself, your profession and your job search and you will find that sooner rather than later your search will land you your next job. Also in the process of searching for a new job and through the journey you would have importantly renewed and strengthen your network, met some wonderful new contacts, increased your knowledge and becoming wiser and more prepared should you have to search for a new job in the near future again.

*** Happy job hunting!***

Tips for Job Seekers - A recruiter's perspective

Searching for a job can often be very stressful and for some even emotionally and physically draining. The process could take time and hard work before one can find success. As a job seeker your search can become more effective if you learn how to streamline your effort and you do this by doing proper research and preparation.
As an IT recruiter I have had the experience of interacting with thousands of IT job seekers through the years and some of them truly impressed me with their approach and conduct and left in me an inedible mark and a positive influence. Unfortunately I cannot say the same for majority of the job seekers. These tips are meant especially for those job seekers who wish to improve and hone their job search skills - a recruiter's perspective.
1. Resume writing: In today's competitive market, it is imperative that you always have your resume ready and updated - you never could tell when and where from the next great opportunity will come to you. Design a resume which clearly states your experiences, achievements and basic information such as educational qualification, contact details et al. Always be prepared to customized your resume based on the prospective employer's requirements and expectations. Having said that it is equally important that you do not put anything extra in your resume for which you can not substantiate. Keep in mind too the layout and the format of your resume design. You will receive Recruiters' appreciation, attention and respect if you are prepared to take the time and effort to do up your resume which is neat and detailed. And for those mature/specialized skills job seekers focus not on your needs but the needs of your prospective hirers - this definitely will catch your recruiter's attention.
2. Job Market Research: Once you have your resume prepared and/or you are prepared to initiate your job search actively the next thing for you to do is explore your immediate available options - networking through your friends, contacts, colleagues, ex-colleagues, and maybe talk to your favorite recruiter. You have much to gain and little to loose by befriending a recruiter. Remember this that a recruiter talks and meets many job seekers everyday and receive many mails every single day. How do you make the recruiter remember you and/or remember your profile? The most obvious is that you have a very impressive resume which stands out amongst the crowd - for many of us this might not be an option and lets be prepared to face and accept it. The other option is that you cultivate and nurture a friendship or contact with your recruiter - this is known as networking and let the favors be mutual. Favor I mean will be when you contact him for available openings or market information and when he contacts you for leads and references.
If unfortunately you've exhausted your immediate options, you then need to widen your horizon and start scanning through the different job sites and even newspapers - recruit/opportunity sections. Most of today's job sites, that's if you are a registered member will mail you new jobs that are specific to your search. This means you have the luxury of new jobs being presented to you without you having to scan through the job sites one after the other. The other option is go directly to your prospective company website and search for their current job listings. Lately, I've found that mailing groups like yahoogroups are a good place to find out the current jobs in the market as posted by various recruiters. Some of these jobs might not even be advertised/available anywhere else.
3. Send out your resume: Now that you have your resume ready and you've done your market research and you have a good idea of where to send out your resume/application go ahead and start applying. Do keep in mind the following e-mail tips:
a) Hide your distribution list: To avoid looking awkward never put multiple email id's in the "To:" field in your e-mail message. A good and self respective recruiter may not be very enthusiastic to contact you if it looks like you are working with every other firm in the market. As far as possible avoid sending your resume to more than one company in the same mail. A recruiter loves nothing more than if you take the pain of mailing to him alone and addressing him by his name in the mail. However for whatever reason, against your better judgment presumably, if you have to write to multiple company please do so by using the "undisclosed-recipients" feature in your e-mail program, or the "bcc:" field.
b) E-mail content/Cover letter: How you approach to land yourself the job that you desire or successfully gain your recruiter's attention will be determine by how well you address and express yourself in your email or cover letter. A good introduction will include a brief highlights of your experience, skills and your reasoning on your fitment for the role, do make it short and to the point. Again, remember that a recruiter loves nothing more than to hear his own name when approached by a job seeker. Go ahead make his day, write to him, call him by his name, you have nothing to lose!
c) E-mail subject: If you are applying for job through advertised jobs with a reference code given, do make it a point to use the reference code in both your subject line and in your cover letter. This goes to show that you understand the requirement and that you do understand and one does assume that you have what it takes. This way chances are higher that your application will be validated and not get lost in the muddle or worst in the junk/spam mail folder.
3. Follow up: Often, a recruiter can get overwhelmed with too many mails to check and too many calls to attend to and return et al. It does not hurt one bit if you can follow up your application with a gentle reminder mail or even a short call. To a good recruiter, he will be convince that you are indeed serious about your job search and therefore he will take the extra effort to look into your profile and take the necessary action. In other words be pro-active in your job search and be ready to reap your harvest.
3. If nothing else works, try blogging: For those job seekers who for whatever reasons have only one desire or specific goal to find a job with a particular company, and after exhausting all options but still unsuccessful in landing himself a job with the company, it might be worthwhile to blog your way into their hearts and finally inside the organization. But if you are not the blogging type that's ok because you might still be able to find yourself a job by reading others blog, such as this blog by yours truly advertising jobs with Charterhouse.

Finally, it does not hurt to thank others. Prepare short thank you mails for your recruiter, like the ones that you sent to your prospective employers, after attending the interview. Not many job seekers takes the trouble to thank his recruiter. You might say that its their job why should I thank him. You are right but as I mentioned earlier it does not hurt you much to thank him but it could go a long way in building a good relationship with him. Do not forget, you might still need him the next time you start to look for new job.
In conclusion, let me quote the 3 Ps. According to Katie, job seekers should "keep in mind the rule of the 3 Ps." They need to have:
Purpose: Have a purpose for what you're doing; don't just use a scattershot approach - have a plan and follow it.
Persistence: Don't give up! The process can be hard on the ego, but stick with it.
Patience: All things do come in time.

I would add Passions to the above. Be passionate about what you do and what you intend to do and what you would like to achieve. Be positive, and show good amount of enthusiasm especially while interacting with your recruiter or your prospective employers. A good motto to keep in mind- "Passions is virtue" and "Good things come to those who work".

For all our current jobs/openings please click on this image


*Happy hunting folks!*

My first month at Charterhouse!

"August – what a blessed and exciting month it has turned out to be for me. Firstly with the arrival of the most wonderful and adorable baby I have ever laid my eye on – my son Immanuel and secondly joining Charterhouse Partnership. With the new work place, a new environment and the sleepless nights(to attend to baby Nuel's needs), what would I have done if not for the energy boosting Brand's - Essence of chicken which keeps me active at work and also the regular afternoon cup of Kopi 'O' which keeps me ticking. What an exciting time and yet so much to look forward to.
As far as Charterhouse is – its been great and in the past few weeks or so I've been keeping myself busy trying to build up the database and also streamlining the process of uploading resumes to the application database. My KRA's are still evolving but I do what I always do best and that is search and resource for resumes. I do have access to jobsites such as Monster and JobsDb, however, I felt that sometime these two sites are just not effective enough and therefore I had to resort to ‘googling’ and mining the net and looking for sites that offers FREE job postings and FREE resume search. Believe it or not, there are quite a few sites on the net which does offer such FREE stuff and I've been busy doing job postings and mining the respective databases. Since we are basically a start up as far as Singapore market is, and in line with my management's plan, I do my bit of branding exercise by starting this blog, secondly by posting about Charterhouse brief to the discussion groups and job boards and thirdly by sending out mailers to all my contacts and prospective candidates. So far the progress is slow but definitely encouraging and I am confident that my effort will pay off in the long run.

Like most organization here in Singapore ours is also a five-day week and even though we do not have a dress-down Friday or a casual Friday, we have a 'Friday Wrap'. Friday Wrap is what most of us looks forward to because thats when we all loosen our ties and relaxed. A typical Friday Wrap starts at 4:30PM with a choice of bottled beer, wine or fizz drink. Soon with our drinks we move into the conference room where one of our directors will conduct and wrap up the meeting with the happenings in the company for the week, introduction of any new joinee, et al. This is a good way to build a culture that will bond everyone in the company. Last week we also had a fun time of bonding at Victors Superbowl with most of the staff participating in the bowling game and enjoying the evening with Beer/wine/Fizz drink and a light dinner.

At Charterhouse, we offer specialist services within the Accounting, Banking & Finance, Sales and Marketing, Technology, Industrial, Manufacturing and Engineering fields. Each unit or business domain is headed by an Associate Director with 2 or more Principal Consultants working with him. I work in the Technology unit and have 4 Consultants that I support with research/resource activities. Each Consultant works within his area of specialization, for example, we have a Consultant who takes care of all Midrange/AS400 related assignments and another who takes care of SAP assignments. We also have consultants specialized in Quantitative area and some in front and middle office within the Banking & Financial sector. This concept of having a specialized consultant in a particular technology or domain is rather new to me. However, I've realized that this is not something new in other parts of the world/organization. This approach as I’ve realized could be very effective in terms of quality delivery that’s because the recruiter will be in a better position to talk-the-talk of the line managers and candidates alike.
Could this however, have some element of limitation/drawbacks, especially in a small market like Singapore? Well, it’s really too early to comment but it sure is different, bold, innovative and exciting and if nothing else, this sets us apart from all and sundries.

As mention earlier we are a very young organization and processes will take time to shape and be in place and as with any start up we will improve, learn, grow and evolve and eventually taste our fair share of success. In the last one month that I have been here, I've experience positive vibes around me and within me and I do believe that sooner rather than later success will come to us in heaps and bounds. Needless to say, I am certainly excited about the whole prospect of being involved in and being part of a team in a start up that is on the verge of creating a successful organization.

For all our current jobs/openings please click on this image

*Happy hunting folks!*

My first day at Charterhouse

"We take what we do very seriously, but not ourselves" - Charterhouse Pte Ltd.

It has always been a desire for me to work in an environment which is different and unconventional. This desire was fulfilled when I met the folks at Charterhouse - I was introduced to them by the great people at Contact Recruitment (Guys, please get in touch with Contact Recruitment if you are a recruiter and looking for a better job here in Singapore!).
Now, back to Charterhouse, this is an organization which promotes creativity and freedom all the while keeping optimum productivity in mind. Everyone is treated with respect and treated as adult. We have the directors who do not believe in cabins and enclosed room. We all have our work spaces seperated just by shoulder height cubicles, yes you heard me right, even the directors sits in cubicles!. No policing and no intimidation and the leadership style here is basically very friendly and not oppressive.
On my first day at Charterhouse I was made to feel right at home. The induction took over an hour and I thought the induction process was pretty detailed and handled very neatly. It's always comforting when your director takes the time to explain to you about the organization Vision and Mission and business plans. I believed that every member of an organization should be educated well on the company's Vision and Mission statement, afterall, how can one begin to value add if you have a different wave length and aspiration from your employer? The Japanese employees are a different breed - every employee is expected to know the management/founder's Vision & Mission statement and have it on the tip of their tongues. Organization are managed like one big family, employers treat their employees with respect and take care of them like their own family members. In turn, the employees are loyal and dedicated. I guess this is one reason why the term attrition in Japanese work culture is not commonly found.
Expectations are very high on me, but then thats a feeling which is not new to me. I only hope that I can give my best at all times and contribute to the growth of the organization. My first responsibility as a Research Associate would be to build and organize the database and of course to support my front end guys with great resumes to present it to the clients. Even before I joined Charterhouse I kept track of their job postings both from Charterhouse's job search, JobsDB and Monster and the idea behind this was purely to understand the kind of requirements and domains that they are into. Well, I do have a pretty good idea now and all I need to do is build and nourish my network, farm and harvest the internet/job sites and constantly scratch my brain and think out of the box to generate resumes and contacts in order to build a mega size databank. I will need all the help that I can get mate, you listening? :-)
*Happy hunting folks!*

A day in the life of a recruiter

A recruiter day is never mundane. Life for some, begins even in the wee hour of the morning when we receive calls from either our candidates, our clients or our boss. A candidate will typically call us for feedbacks on their profile, to discuss about their profile, or use us as a sounding board, or whatever reason that they can come up with. Client can only call us at this hour for some pressing requirements or to fixed an interview for one of our candidates but never to enquire about our well-being :-). A boss who calls his troop at this hour can only be a boss who demands every moment of your time, to drive you, to stress you, or to motivate you(am not sure if I will buy that though). Life can be stressful if you consider your job as just a job. One must learn to have bigger and better opinion about the role that we play. I always consider myself as a consultant, a solution provider, damage controller, fire fighter and even a counsellor and an advisor. To be able to play such roles wearing such diverse hats, one has to have the qualities that are intrinsic, fundamental, central, essential and basic in any recruiter. Such as an enquisitive mind, good planner, a great thirst for information, basic common sense, well informed, knowledgable, subject matter expert and the list goes on. Consider this, how can you possibly talk to a client or a candidate convincingly about ERP when you are not in a position to differentiate between SAP and ASAP? A good recruiter is someone who can talk on any subject or atleast has an opinion or something to say on the subject. A good recruiter must have a gift of the gab, suave and good communicator. But the best recruiter are those whom I call as agressive listener. Listening ability is a very critical quality a recruiter must posses. Until you develop or acquire the habit of listening you cannot expect to hone or improve upon your knowledge or understand what is required or what is being said. Listening alone is not the end but the mean to achieving higher success. Listening must be accompanied by the ability to analyse what is being communicated - verbal or non verbal, intended or unintended, and the steps following that are - analysing and understading, and storing and recollecting the information as and when required or desired, and using the right or optimal amount to the right audience at the right time and right place.
The recruiter now is on his way to the office and even while commuting he constantly receive calls on his handphone and those that he could not talk to, he will try his best to return their calls when he reaches the office.
Once in the office, in my case, I will normally start of by checking my inbox, scan for any mails that requires my immediate attention and take necessary action, else keep the mails in the inbox and tackle them in awhile. Firstly, I need to gather my thoughts, plan for the day and prioritise my acitivities. I plan either by jotting down the activities using my writting pad or in cases which are time specifics, I would normally use my 'Tasks' option in MS Outlook. Because of the adhoc activities and the busy schedule the whole day, using 'Tasks' becomes life saving. This is the best way by which I generally do not missed any pre scheduled appointments. A good recruiter must be a good disciplinarian and what I meant by this is that, one must divide the day into activities, acitivities must be time bound and one must stick as close to the alloted time for each activity as much as possible and one must discipline oneself to try and adhere to the plan, afterall we only have 8-10 hours in a day in the office. Activities can broadly be classified into:
- Reading mails
- Replying mails
- Check sent mails (for any critical mail sent and for which reply is expected or required)
- Go through the pending requirements
- POA
- Sourcing - Check databank, Job sites, etc
- Allot time for new requirements
Besides the above activities one must keep in mind the calls - receive calls and make calls and which can sometime make up for more than half of your day.

We will talk in length about the activities some other day and also discuss and share the tools that every recruiter must possess or have acces to. For today, I guess this should do.

BTW, before logging out from my work station, I normally jot down the activities that I need to accomplish or attend to tommorrow and leave it on my desk and the next morning the cycle continues.