Customer Reviews

Breakthrough Technical Recruiting

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I am usually discerning about authors and books I purchase. This one really took me for a ride. Written by a Ph.D. who has served as the 'president' of a 'national training corporation' (not mentioned which corporation), this book contains utterly useless information such as 'Prepare for your interview with the candidate, Get a good general feel, and other generic statements which can be obtained without shelling out (price). The reviews for this book stated that it contained a lot of valuable information about managing client expectations - it contained one page - and it was far from valuable. Much of the book was full of 'building your pyramid', 'telemarketing stunts' and other strategies that had little to do with the topic of the book or the reviews it obtained. I am starting to believe the reviews are fake - as is the book...Am going to return it in a hurry and never look at anything by this PhD ever again.

UPDATE: If you look at some of the 5 star reviews for this book - e.g. from 'KGF', click on 'All Reviews' by this user. You will find that this user has ONLY reviewed every book by Wayne Ford Ph.D. - and has given 5 stars to every book - with almost near identical reviews.

Bookstall 99 is proud to add "Breakthrough Technical Recruiting" to our list of recommended business and professional books. We look at many books, recommend very few, and our reviewers must be in total agreement before we issue our approvals. This book we felt was exceptional in it's use of resources, in-depth research, timliness, and ease of reading. It is the only book on recruiting we are recommending. Dr. Wayne Ford has done an excellent job in producing a complete text for the technical recruiter, regardless of the level of experience. He logically lays out a sequential approach to learning the business, setting up an effective strategy, and following proven methods in achieving success. Especially helpful to technical recruiters, we felt, was the section on how to specifically interact with the technical professionals who are the target applicant population. This single text will get a new recruter started of make an experienced recruter a more effective professional. The bottom line is profitability and this work most certainly facilitates greater amounts. A particularly well thought out book with the reader in mind.

Technical recruiting is tougher than it ever has been, and this is the book that will ease your pain and soften the bumps in your road. The author only uses technical jargon when he explains it to you, which is a big help. (If I already knew the jargon, I wouldn't need a book like this.) There is plenty of help here for every level of expertise. Other books tend to either treat you as an idiot or assume you know it all already. Neither of those approaches is helpful. This is easy to read and gives real meat to every area of explanation. I sincerely feel this is worth every cent of it's price and much more.

This rating is coming from someone who has been working in the contingency and retained technical recruiting industry for the past 10 years. I forced myself through the book (cover to cover) in a little more than one hour. I understand why experienced recruiters who were expecting an innovative exposition, were annoyed and dissatisfied. They are justified. Certain raters of this book have misrepresented its quality and the intellect of the material within. Moreover, I am surprised that no one has called the numerous spelling and grammatical errors into question. If you want a superficial, one-dimensional outline of the technical recruiting industry, then this book may satisfy you. If you are already a competent recruiter, don't expect a breakthrough here. This book was not written through the mind and heart of a real-world, front-line, technical recruiter.

This book is a true treasure. I bought all the books I could find on the subject and this is the one I use. It is both a toolbox and a personal coach. It takes you through the steps of technical recruiting without trying to impress you with jargon or confuse you with "insider" expressions. I saw other "poison pen" reports on this book and ignored them. I'm glad I did. I don't know what motivates these people. Anyway, I've ordered 2 more copies for my colleagues, and I'll tell you right here that it's the best book out on recruiting computer staff.

Everything I wanted when I sent for this book was there in black and white. It is a well-written, extremely helpful, and easy to understand book. I'd recommend it to any recruiter, and of course especially those in the technical recruiting area. It amuses me to see others try to push other books by tearing down good ones, as some have done with this book, but believe me, this is well worth your money. The sources of information are many and the insights plentiful. You could build a good technical recruiting course around this book.

This low-quality three-ring binder is filled with off-the-shelf, trite advice which has very little to do with technical recruiting. All of this information has been presented better by other authors at a much more reasonable price. Certainly not "breakthrough" quality. I'm shipping my copy back for a refund. Your money would be better spent buying "Technical Recruiting" by M. Susan Hodges and "Take This Job and Sell It!" by Richard Mackie.

This book is a fine example of a true expert sharing his wisdom, knowledge, and techniques with the rest of us. There are many examples of inside knowledge that I felt were of tremendous help. Some of these were: The hundreds of very well researched websites that assist technical recruiters in doing their jobs, the explanation of the technical applicant's personality, behavior, incentives, and goals, the organizational techniques that a recruiter needs to be successful, how a recruiter fulfills a basic obligation to the client by spending appropriate efforts with applicants, numerous tips on increasing business and profitability for the technical recruiter and many more areas of help. This book is easy to read, to relate to, and to use as an everyday guide. It is a pleasure to experience such a broad coverage of the topic. It was so broad I did not use some of the topics, because I think I already know these areas well enough, but Dr. Ford was generous in his inclusion of areas I have not encountered before. The author's wide range of experience in different industries is evident and appreciated. Too many recruiters have such a narrow viewpoint. This is an overall good book. What else can I say?

This book is an excellent guide to the unique area of recruiting of high technology employees and contractors. Other books either stress the high technology and neglect the real recruiting techniques or the go into recruiting but obviously don't know the technical mindset. The book is comprehensive and full of help to serious technical recruiters. I found it easy to read and full of guidance and tools, like the website listing. That was worth the price of the book by itself!

Save your money. This is filled with such basic recruiting info that it almost insults the readers intelligence. I was hoping to get a comprehensive guide to help me in my new career. Fifty dollars later, all I had in my hands was something that I might have justified paying $10 for, if that.

The only worth while thing in the book is the resource page of niche oriented resume/job boards. If it wasn't for that I'd give it one star.