One of my Lawcruiter colleagues recently penned an article where, at some length, he describes his view of the three different styles of Lawcruiting. To summarize, the author, Harrison Barnes, describes the typical Lawcruiter as being either a “Cougar” (a client focused recruiter who only recruits what she knows will be an “ideal” candidate for a job), a ”Market Penetrator” (a candidate focused recruiter who pushes candidates into unpublicized opportunities that he finds by way of his superior research skills and market knowledge), or a “Database Lover” (an agnostic recruiter who uses research and database skills to focuses on the easiest match she can make that day). The author does not promote one type over another – admitting that each type is successful in her own way – but does suggest, somewhat confusingly, that an otherwise successful Lawcruiter not self-aware enough to know his or her “type” may well be doing something “wrong”.
This is all neat stuff. My own sense of this, however, is that rather than being indicative of "type", these labels actually refer to separate skills that a Lawcruiter needs to know in order to excel in this business. I would go further, however, with Harrison's comment about self-awareness and make the observation that a truly self-aware recruiter understands that he or she is most likely recruting only those personality types that are most closely compatible to the personality of the Lawcruiter. The more thoughtful recruitment coordinators seem to understand this intuitively, which I believe is part of the reason they rely on a broad stable of Lawcruiters - with different personality types and recruiting styles - so as to ensure that the broadest range of candidate "types" is brought to the firm's attention. I think that it is beyond dispute that different people respond to different approaches.
What this suggests is that the greatest skill a Lawcruiter can develop – to the extent that successful Lawcruiting requires an understanding of human nature – is self awareness and an ability, that can only come through experience, to transcend his own personality so as to be able to successfully engage the widest range of personality types. Which is why in Lawcruiting - like in everything else - experience and maturity matter!
