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Mar 15, 2019
This article is part of a series called Editor's Pick.

During my trainings and at conferences I hear people ask this question all the time, “What’s the best recruiting tool out there right now?” I figured I’d write this article to answer that question definitively once and for all.

There are two tools out there that are, without question, the best and most essential tools for a recruiter, that when used correctly, will guarantee success, the telephone, and the internet.

That’s it; you’re welcome!

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Is that snarky? Yes, but it’s also true. Asking that question is the equivalent of asking a carpenter what the best tool is – I imagine they’re going to ask you something like, “What are you looking to build?”

That tends to be the analogy I give people when they ask me this question. What is the problem you’re trying to solve? How big is your team? What’s your budget? What type of roles do you fill? How senior is your team? What’s your recruiting methodology and workflow? What other tools are you using? And so on, and so on.

I am writing this article for a couple of reasons.

1 – To let people know, there is no magic bullet. There isn’t a platform, program, chatbot, AI feature, etc. out there that is going to solve all of your problems, or make this job easy, or get you all your placements automatically. There are only tools, and users of tools. Some tools are a better fit for some people/organizations based on a variety of reasons and factors.

2 – I have been, and will continue to be, testing some of the best recruiting and sourcing tools on the market, with the intent of being able to share with everyone their unique use-cases, comparisons, best practices, and process workflows (as it relates to their platform/tool, your ATS, and LinkedIn Recruiter). Throughout the next year or so I will be putting out articles and talks to help people figure out which tool(s) are right for them.

So, before you go running out there asking what the best tool is, or trying to figure out which AI sourcing platform or chatbot to use, first ask yourself, “What problem am I trying to solve?” If you start with your problem, you’ll be able to figure out which tool is the best, for you, at that time.

Here are some of the tools I’ve had the pleasure of working with for the past few months and am continuing to study, test and compare.

Here’s what I’ve learned so far.

  1. Each of them has a unique use-case that is identifiably different from the others.
  2. None of them is the “best tool” – they are all handy tools given the right circumstances.
  3. They all take some level of adjustment to figure out how they best fit into your current workflow so you can keep data updated across your platforms/channels.

I will give some talks, breakout sessions, and a few articles, getting into more detail around this – but if you absolutely can’t wait – I’ll be at SourceCon next week in Seattle – come hang out, and we can chat!

In the meantime, use tools to solve problems, not to do your job.

This article is part of a series called Editor's Pick.