Recruiters play a vital role in identifying and attracting top talent to organizations, and staying up-to-date with industry trends and developments is essential to succeed in this field. Reading books on the recruiting and talent sourcing industry can be an effective way for recruiters to gain knowledge and insights that can help them excel in their jobs. I have authored more than 17 recruiting books to help aid recruiters into enhancing their job performance. These books cover a wide range of topics such as talent sourcing tools, Boolean strings, diversity sourcing, and many others.
About Jonathan Kidder
Jonathan Kidder, also known as the “Wizard Sourcer,” is a highly regarded technical talent sourcing recruiter, staffing expert, and corporate trainer who specializes in identifying and attracting top talent for organizations of all sizes. He is skilled in utilizing advanced technology tools such as social networking, Boolean strings, search aggregators, deep web searching, and scrapers. In 2015, he established the recruiting blog WizardSourcer, which has since become a premier knowledge hub for recruiters online. His mission is straightforward: to keep recruiters and talent sourcers abreast of the latest sourcing trends within the industry.
Here are some reasons why it is important for recruiters to read books on their industry:
Stay updated with industry trends: The job market and the skills required for different roles are constantly evolving. By reading industry-specific books, recruiters can stay up-to-date with the latest trends and developments in their industry, and keep pace with the changing demands of the job market.
Learn about best practices: Recruitment is a complex process, and there are many different strategies and best practices that recruiters can use to attract and retain top talent. Reading books on their industry can help recruiters learn about the most effective techniques and tools that are currently being used, and adopt these practices to enhance their recruitment efforts.
Gain a competitive advantage: In a highly competitive job market, recruiters who have a deeper understanding of their industry and its trends are better equipped to identify and attract top talent. By reading books on their industry, recruiters can gain valuable insights that can give them a competitive advantage over other recruiters who are not as well-informed.
Develop new skills: Reading books on their industry can help recruiters develop new skills that are essential for success in their field. For example, they may learn about new interview techniques, candidate assessment tools, or employer branding strategies that can help them become more effective at their job.
List of books that Recruiters and Sourcers should be reading in this market:
Whether you’re a novice or a seasoned recruiter, I’ve authored several books that cater to different levels of expertise in the industry. Here’s my top 5 recommendations if you are looking to make improvements within the recruiting space in 2023.
1. Top Talent Sourcing Tools
This book is a comprehensive guide that caters to both new recruiters and talent sourcers who aim to learn about the latest recruitment tools in the market and experienced professionals who wish to enhance their recruitment strategies. It covers both free and licensed products and provides an in-depth exploration of important areas such as lead generation, contact information retrieval, outreach automation, lead tracking, and talent pipeline creation.
As the recruitment tools landscape is constantly changing, staying updated with the latest, effective, and efficient tools is crucial. It can be challenging to keep up with the latest trends, and recruiters may sometimes fall into the trap of chasing after shiny tools. However, no single tool can accomplish everything. Hence, the book provides a range of options to cater to different tasks within a sourcing role.
Each section of the book presents the best tools across categories, tips for effective use, insider tricks for success, and an overall difficulty rating level. Screenshot examples are included to highlight each tool’s functionality. The book also features a difficulty rating system that indicates the level of complexity for each tool.
2. Guide to Diversity Talent Sourcing
This book serves as a guide to help you discover diverse talent available online. It features examples of Boolean strings and suggests different talent sourcing tools to use when devising a diversity talent sourcing strategy. The book aims to equip you with the resources and tools necessary to establish a strategy for achieving your D&I recruiting goals within your organization.
Talent sourcing involves creating various Boolean strings to uncover online profiles or resumes. Finding diverse resumes or profiles of candidates can prove challenging due to the limitations of natural language and the way people represent themselves online. Gender, sex, or race are some aspects that most individuals do not mention or recognize within their online profiles or resumes. This makes it difficult to source diverse leads. The book emphasizes the use of keyword phrases, image searching, talent mapping data, conference and association participation, and community-based Boolean string searching techniques.
3. How to Become a Technical Recruiter
For recruiters starting out in the Information Technology field, this book serves as a useful guide to clearly define the top technical roles within the industry. By the end of this book, you will have a better understanding of each technical skill requirement for every role, gain insights into additional search terms, improve job descriptions, and feel more confident when assessing a candidate’s skills during a technical phone screening.
With clear and concise language, each job title is defined with searchable keywords and phone screening questions that will help transform generalist recruiters into confident technical recruiters. This book will demystify technology acronyms, enabling you to analyze a candidate’s tech skills with confidence.
Tech Talent refers to the highly sought-after workforce with the skills to drive growth and innovation in technology companies. This encompasses a wide range of roles, including IT professionals, computer science professionals, software developers, engineers, data scientists, and other emerging positions.
4. The Art of the Recruiter Message
This book is a comprehensive guide for recruiters, from beginners to seasoned professionals, who want to master the art of crafting effective outreach messages through InMail, email, and text message. In today’s highly competitive recruiting market, it is crucial to differentiate yourself from other recruiters by creating tailored and personalized messages that will grab the attention of passive candidates.
Recruiters often struggle with getting a high response rate despite spending hours sourcing and approaching qualified candidates. This book will provide you with the necessary tools and techniques to create compelling messages that generate a response from even the most passive candidates.
Crafting effective outreach messages is an art that requires careful attention to detail and a deep understanding of the candidate’s perspective. This book will help you develop a solid approach to outreach that will increase your response rates and ultimately lead to more successful hires.
5. Talent Mapping
If you’re a recruiting or sourcing professional seeking to leverage data and competitive intelligence to develop a talent sourcing search strategy, this book is for you.
Using data, you’ll be able to identify key locations, demographics, top competitors, industry insights, universities or colleges with potential prospects, average company salaries, and other valuable information to guide your sourcing efforts. With this knowledge, you can optimize your sourcing strategy and improve your chances of attracting top talent to your organization.
Final Thoughts…
Overall, reading books on their industry is an effective way for recruiters to stay informed, learn new skills, and gain a competitive edge in a rapidly changing job market.
You can review my full recruiting book series on amazon here←
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