On this episode of Recruiting Trailblazers, host Marcus Edwardes speaks with angel investor and serial entrepreneur, Adriaan Kolff, on job seeker strategies, advanced sourcing as a service – along with some amazing tools and tips that are worth their weight in gold!

Before discussing Sourcing as a Service, Adriaan shares his top tips for looking and applying for jobs, focusing on customizing one’s approach to reflect the criteria most important to the prospect employer – and connecting with prospect hiring managers and recruiters using LinkedIn a short video. Interview preparation and research is key. The biggest takeaway is turning your job search into a full time initiative! Rejection needs to be embraced as part of the journey to a new role.  Michael Jordan was rejected from his High School team – and used it as fuel to train harder to succeed!

Marcus posits that, as a Recruiter – you are already equipped to find your next job by using your existing skillset!

What has happened in Adriaan’s world since the pandemic lay-offs? The pair discusses the impacts of Covid-19 on MatcHR,  and the importance of trust and transparency inside the business – and how Adriaan has implemented these values to create an extremely positive culture inside his company, despite having to lay off a lot of people at the beginning of Covid. This “Trust and Transparency” worked so well – Adriaan’s employees were comforting him when he had to lay them off!

Adriaan shares the rollercoaster ride of MatcHR over the last few months – by doubling down on his Business Development efforts – focusing on current clients and by starting to offer free Sourcing Workshops to showcase their value to existing clients.

Adriaan also talks about his forthcoming Advanced Webinar, to include scraping data, automating the sourcing process, using video for cold outreach to candidates, the best outreach strategies and how can you collect data to optimize messaging.

Adriaan talks about the importance of the sourcing role inside companies, and the importance of owning the process and setting expectations for both in-house and agency recruiters.

Adriaan shares questions for hiring managers and touches and they touch on the concept of benchmarking.

Adriaan also reveals that business has taken off again – they’ve signed five new clients – and managed to rehire most of the people they had to lay off!

Adriaan generously discloses his favorite tools and why he uses them.

“There’s one thing you can’t automate in the recruitment process… and that’s the human connection.”  – Marcus Edwardes

Listen to this episode – there’s so much value inside!

Connect with Marcus on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/marcusedwardes/

Connect with Adriaan on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/adriaankolff/

Adriaan Kolff is an angel investor and a serial entrepreneur in the recruitment industry. After having co-founded two recruitment companies in Amsterdam, at the end of 2018, Adriaan co-founded MatcHR and moved to Kyiv, Ukraine. Without any prior experience working or living in Ukraine, Adriaan grew MatcHR, a recruitment outsourcing company, to 20 employees in its first year. MatcHR works for companies like TikTok, Booking.com, Stripe, Revolut and Picnic.
To stay updated on the latest sourcing and recruitment hacks Adriaan constantly tries new tools, techniques and ways of working to successfully work for some of the fastest growing (tech) companies in Europe. Adriaan actively shares his experiences of his entrepreneurial (recruitment) journey through his personal blog that have been distributed through several channels like Recruiting Brainfood, Amazing Hiring, SourceCon and other platforms. In his free time, Adriaan reads at least 2 books per month, trains for triathlon’s and you will run into him at Burning Man 🔥 every year.

Adriaan’s Must-Read Articles on Medium:
– https://medium.com/@adriaankolff/the-ultimate-guide-to-finding-a-new-job-fast-efficiently-23ac5a50d2c8
– https://medium.com/@adriaankolff/the-best-and-worst-sourcing-and-recruitment-tools-of-2019-1b6e6f575015

Sourcing Tools Recommended by Adriaan:
– https://amazinghiring.com
– https://phantombuster.com
– Phantombuster Tutorial: https://www.loom.com/share/6c08dfa87fa74db986dc72850ba13176
– https://www.lemlist.com
– https://trinsly.com
– Dux Soup Chrome Extension: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dux-soup-for-linkedin-aut/ppdakpfeaodfophjplfdedpcodkdkbal

00:33 – Introduction and background of Adriaan

01:19 – About Medium article: The Ultimate Guide to Finding a New Job Fast and Efficiently

04:53 – What’s the first thing you should and shouldn’t do when you’ve decided to apply for a job online?

05:50 – Video messages as part of outreach

08:41 – Big takeaways from the article + top tips for securing the job

10:18 – Embracing rejection

11:33 – Finding a job is a full-time job

12:57 – Trust, transparency, and lay-offs during coronavirus

16:29 – Sharing financials with employees

18:13 – What has happened since the pandemic lay-offs?

23:07 – What is your best advice for recruiters and people who are struggling with sourcing people?

29:40 – Important questions for hiring managers + benchmarking

31:14 – Are you going to rerecruit some of your lay-offs or will you rebuild?

32:13 – What did you do to gain your new clients?

34:55 – What’s the talent pool like in Ukraine?

36:25 – Sourcing vs Recruiting as a service

40:42 – How do you differentiate from internal recruiters?

43:13 – Sourcing tools Adriaan uses and why

47:28 – Adriaan’s vision for the future