First, the article was specifically about corporate recruiting departments. Perhaps your point was “Corporate recruiting departments are starting to look more like executive search firms” in which case I would have gladly agreed with you. I am not quite sure how this change represents “the exact same thing” but I have only been working in and around corporate recruiting departments for 22 years, so my experience may be eclipsed by your senescence.

In addition, your logic that describing a division of labor is somehow pedestrian strikes me as odd. Are you saying that a house husband is the equivalent of a chauffeur, butler, launderer, cook and nurse? And that by the very fact that a house husband does all these activities that he is equally as skilled in each as the professional practitioner? That would be a strange argument indeed.

I, as you, know many “full desk” recruiters. I, like you, know many who are exceptional at their job. But I have yet to meet a full-desk recruiter who was equally exceptional in all pieces of the recruiting arts, tools and processes: who could dive as deep as the best researcher, engage passive candidates as well as the best sourcer, manage client relationships as well as the best recruiter and manage systems and processes as well as the best HRIT department.

And your final post script, that a “guy” who goes out to trade shows and is practiced in the art of reading facial signals, striking up in person conversations and figuring out how to attract attention to a booth is “not unlike” a person who understands SEM, SEO, design and click-throughs strikes me as equally odd as your other argument. I guess you could say that the profession of a car salesman is “not unlike” the profession of a car mechanic, in that they both work around cars, but I believe that most people would find such logic baffling.

Always good to hear from you Animal!

What's more, the division of labour existed in the past. The retained search firms always seemed to have guys who sold the search and acted as a relationship manager. Then they had the underlings who actually went out and found the people and did the initial screen.

The only new element are the internet sourcers. Instead of going to directories or trade journals in the library they do their research online and that requires a mastery of boolean terms which were not part of the lexicon before.

PS: If a company hires someone to be a social media specialist, that's new too but not totally unlike the guy who used to go out trade shows and networking events.

Regards from me