Once upon a time, employers placed ads in the paper to attract job applicants. Then the job applicants applied, hoping they would be the ones that the employers saw fit to choose. It was timely. It was organized. It was predictable.

My, how things have changed. The average applicant's expectations about job opportunities have changed dramatically over the past 10 years. The organized and predictable system for hiring has been replaced by the pace of the Internet, the impatience of the applicants, and the change in attitudes that younger generations have about jobs and employment. Some employers have changed with the times. Others have lagged behind, stubbornly using the same techniques that worked for them in the past.

To those in their twenties and early thirties, a job is more of a contract than a calling. Their willingness to work the long hours real estate demands, is tempered by their expectations about life balance. Their willingness to start from scratch and build a book of business is tempered by the lures of a "sure thing" somewhere else.

Recruiting for real estate sales and the positions that support them, has to be viewed through a different lens, a lens that enables you to market opportunities just as much as review candidates' credentials.

Compare a few of these observations with your present practices and see if your methods are in snyc with the times:

• "They" don't care that you're hiring.

  With the constant presence of "Now Hiring" signs in business windows, applicants have come to expect that any firm into which they walk will bend over backwards to hire them. (Sadly, in some cases this is true.) Because of this long-term trend, many applicants bring with them an expectation that they are in the driver's seat when deciding where to work. While it is the employer, obviously, who has the final say, managers who take more time to respond to applicants' values and expectations find themselves with better overall workers who remain on the job a long time.

  Consider your practices. Have you placed yourself in the shoes of those in younger generations who might express an interest in your firm, or real estate in general? Are you prepared to address the concerns of those who have reservations about the industry? Have you defined the values and expectations of those you are hoping to attract? How well do you integrate consideration of these values and expectations into the recruiting process?

• "They" have noticed that "all's fair" is part of the new business ethic.

  Right used to be right and wrong used to be wrong. But in a world filled with too much information and too many competing messages about values, many applicants, especially in younger generations, tend to take an average of what they hear. This can result in an "end justifying the means" approach to job search. Allow me an illustration:

  A career counselor friend of mine had a discussion with a group of college seniors. It seems they had signed up for on-campus interviews with employers in which they had little interest. When she asked why, they responded that these "no-risk" interviews would provide them with the practice they needed to perform well with employers in whom they had a great deal of interest.

  She observed that these students, by using this tactic, were preventing other students who had a sincere interest in the "practice employers" from getting a chance to interview. Their retort? "They should have signed up before we did."

  Then she commented that they were also wasting the recruiters' time. To this, they replied that if the recruiters were really on their toes, they might be able to change the minds of these students who possessed little interest in working for them.

  While some may find this reasoning offensive, others may find this a legitimate strategy in a new world. What will you do the next time an applicant walks in telling you that he or she is interested in a career in real estate? What can you do to verify this interest? Does this person have a job or career mentality?

• "They" may know more about your organization than you do.

  Turn on a computer these days and you can obtain more information about any organization in 10 minutes than we used to be able to gather in a month of Wall Street Journals. Managerial and professional applicants are adept at finding this material. How much do you know about your own organization? Stock price? Expansion plans? Competition? Leadership? Market share? Those who have a vested interest in building a career will ask these questions before investing in you.

• "They" conduct a reference check on your organization before applying.

  Just as employers are used to asking questions about applicants' backgrounds before hiring, these same applicants are conducting an investigation before they even apply. They talk to their friends. They ask your employees when you're not looking. They read the newspapers and watch the news. They listen to the word on the street. "Is this a good place to work?"

• "They" tell lots of their friends if they like, or don't like, what they hear and see.

  Now, more than ever, your ability to recruit quality people depends upon your firm's reputation in the community. Technology has enabled young and old alike to communicate instantaneously with their peers. The hasty or disorganized attitude you display in the hiring process with one applicant may end up in a local chat room of young adults. On the other hand, the care you take in selecting just the right people may also end up in these same forums.

Published: February 25, 2002

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Robert Wendover is the Managing Director of the Center for Generational Studies which conducts research, produces seminars and publishes resources on how the generations relate to one another in American society. For more information about generational trends, please visit Robert's Web site at www.gentrends.com. You can contact him at 1-800-227-5510 or wendover@gentrends.com.