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Headhunters are a curious lot. Their stock in trade is spinning information in various positive directions, making companies look good to candidates and vice versa, even when those efforts compete against one another.

What you might expect on a website called Asktheheadhunter.com is insider advice from someone who has been on both sides of the recruiting game and presents a lot of information with a safe middle-of-the-road approach. With Asktheheadhunter.com, you do get both sides of a situation, but with one huge exception: there is no spin of the rose-colored glasses variety.

The online headhunter is Nick Corcodilos, a veteran of nearly 30 years in the recruiting business. Corcodilos began his career in the late 1970s in California’s booming Silicon Valley, when headhunting was just beginning to take off. The past three decades have seen Corcodilos expand his expertise and client list. He now boasts relationships with a who’s who of the Fortune 500.

What does all this mean to you as a web surfer seeking legitimate job-seeking advice? It means bookmark this site and refer to it often.

I say this from the perspective of an employment counselor and job coach who has advised clients from a wide range of fields and at all corporate levels as well as a job seeker who has found Corcodilos's unflinching look at the job market to be dead-on. He has strong opinions about what's wrong with the hiring practices of American business, and he has a genuine interest in, and technique or two for, helping job seekers succeed. Best of all, his website is full of solid, usable information and ideas—all for free.

Free top-quality web content in this day and age? Seems like a stretch, but it isn’t. True, Corcodilos is an author and his site has links to purchase his books and other materials. But you don't have to buy anything to benefit from his philosophy and experience.

Asktheheadhunter.com features the usual array of well-categorized articles and e-newsletters, all free, all sharply on point. I will give you a warning right up front. A lot of what you read and hear from Nick Corcodilos and Asktheheadhunter.com will not go down easily—not because it is poorly written or off topic but because he pulls no punches in his very nontraditional way of promoting yourself in a job search.

I’ve had many a client or Internet Job Search class student sent reeling by being introduced to Asktheheadhunter.com. Consider this excerpt from one of Nick’s columns, "Is Career Builder for Dopes?"

Let's start with proof positive that CareerBuilder is not in the business of helping anyone find a job, or helping companies hire the right people. Please read the company's mission statement:

We are changing the way companies around the world recruit their most important asset: their people. Our mission is to be the global leader in online recruitment advertising by being an employee-driven, customer-focused organization that provides the best rate of return to our shareholders.

Read that again, more carefully. It could not be more clear. There is no commitment about matching people with jobs. The company's mission is to sell advertising and take care of its shareholders. There's nothing wrong with that. But if you're a job hunter or employer who needs to land a job or fill one, consider this mission statement a disclaimer…

That is one of Corcodilos’s tamer takes on hiring and job search in corporate America. Not the standard approach, not the typical tips for finding the best job, but it’s an approach that works for many people.

The site is laid out well, with minimal link jumping. It rarely takes me more than a single mouse click to get to the information I’m looking for. Even a lot of the good paid content sites can’t say that.

For people using the site for the first time, I suggest following the links in the top left corner of the homepage.

The introduction, the basics, and the Corcodilos biography will give you a good idea of where he is coming from philosophically and why and where your success can come from utilizing his approach.

My professional experience with clients and students is that those who get the foundation information first are less likely to be blown away by Corcodilos’s unconventional views. For example, clicking "The Basics" will bring you to a rather eye-opening list of topics, including the bracing essays "Everything You Know about Job Hunting Is Wrong."

Recommendation
I find Asktheheadhunter.com to be one of the most effective easy-to-use sites on the web for job seekers at every level. Just one caveat. If you are truly serious about taking a different, more effective, more radical approach than the traditional job search, this is the website for you, but remember this twenty-first century version of an old adage, “Don’t go asking the headhunter if you aren’t ready to handle the answers.”

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