"Recruitment is open.."

No Fixed Abode is still a small corporation. We have a dozen active members, a few alts and a few inactives, all in all less than 20 pilots on the member list. We are a group of old friends, and most of us will probably be playing eve in the foreseeable future, but still: some growth would be beneficial, and perhaps necessary if we want to remain a viable corporation in the long run. You will lose people, one way or another, so you need new corp members every now and then. 

Forums, Corp recruitment
So recently, I have been looking at recruitment. Whom to contact, whom to offer a position? Whom can I ask without endangering the relation with their current CEO or corp? It hasn’t been easy, as many corps we once had friends in have gone dormant in 2011. 

 

Yesterday I posted an advert via the Corporation menu in the Eve client. The text space is limited, so I had to be brief in my description of No Fixed Abode ("we shoot reds, rats and ‘roids"), assigned corp colleagues Alexander Weitgereist, CEO Dadellus myself as recruitment officers and listed our open No Fixed Channel as recruitment channel. I wonder how many prospective pilots get to see it, if at all.. there’s no way to see how many hits or reads this kind of advert gets. It will be interesting to see if it draws any responses.

For the past few weeks I have also been reading the Eve Online recruitment forum. What’s notable there: many nullsec and WH corps asking for new pilots, but only a few individuals looking for a corp! If I take a look at the pilots ‘LF’ a new corp and filter out some basic requirements such as a suitable timezone and play style, there remain only a handful of matching applicants for us. Apparently, fresh blood is hard to come by.

"I think we have what you’re looking for!"

Pilots who offer themselves on the recruitment forums, often get a lot of replies. If you’ve read through a handful of them, you’ll notice the same recruitment officers replying again and again to each and every ‘LF corp’ post.  Usually, they paste the same happy “I think we have what you’re looking for!” in every reply, even when their offer clearly doesn’t match what’s being requested. These guys seem to target just about everyone, apparently not very concerned whether the prospective member will be a good fit for their corp. Doesn’t inspire much confidence, does it?

On the other hand, pilots - knowing full well they have a choice, here - aren't shy to post their demands either. Of course they should list their requirements, but some pilots are not above showing a little attitude or arrogance when they do. Of course they'll still be hired because someone really does need them, but I steer clear of these guys. I want to have fun in Eve Online and don't feel like dealing with prima donnas.  

Hard to get

Amusing are the corps who announce they are open for recruitment. Between all the corps vying for new blood on the forums, would the mere, bland announcement ‘..now open for recruitment’ result in a lot of applications? They make it look like they are providing you with a rare opportunity to get in, playing all ‘hard to get’. Perhaps there really are lots of people waiting for just this advert from this specific corp, I don’t know, but I have a feeling many of these posts won’t have much effect.

Where are the new pilots, anyway?

But why is it so difficult to find new pilots in the first place? Corps looking for players in the recruitment forum, tend to be nullsec or WH corps, looking for new PVP pilots. As for WH corps, I understand it can be difficult to attract new pilots. Almost by definition they lead a somewhat secluded life, sneaking in and out of their wormhole, preferably spending their time in lockdown if possible. And how are you going to find new friends if you never meet anyone?

But nullsec corps.. shouldn’t they be overflowing with applicants? It is supposed to be ‘the endgame’ for Eve Online, the goal, the thing to aspire to. Many new pilots get drawn in the game after reading about epic battles involving thousands of pilots, after all. Why, then, are so many nullsec corps struggling to find new members? There must be thousands of pilots languishing in highsec who could really use a stay in nullsec to spice up their Eve life.  

 We all know about the famous learning cliff in Eve Online - many pilots don’t make it past trial or a few months of subscribing. For those who do, moving from PVE dominant highsec to the PVP territory that is nullsec, may be the second barrier to overcome.. And it does seem that many never make it past, given that most Eve players live in highsec. Now there’s a task for CCP! And perhaps the nullsec dominant CSM too: think about ways to get these highsec players to try out nullsec. Could be a nice topic for a blog banter too.

In the mean time.. Yes, No Fixed Abode is ‘open for recruitment’ ;-) Here’s our advert on the forum: https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=69235&find=unread. You’re welcome to contact us if you'd like to fly with us!