EVE New Citizens Q&A

Recently I received requests to write a second recruitment guide, but this time from the viewpoint of the recruiter. This guide will contain tips for a person who is either new to the role of recruiter or would like to learn new tips on finding, evaluating and interviewing potential new members for their corporation ("corp"). Needless to say the two guides will have quite a bit in common.

How to find a recruit.

First and foremost, your potential new member needs to know that a corporation meeting their interest is recruiting. There are a number of ways to get your message to them.

1. The recruitment channel.

To join this channel, open the channel window (the "speech bubble" icon at the top of your chat window), go to Corporate (second from top) and join the appropriate channel for your corp's main language. At this moment you can choose between English, Russian, German and Japanese.

Please note that I can only speak about how things are in the English recruitment channel, so it might be different in the other ones.

Depending on the time of day, the Recruitment channel can be very active. You'll find a mix of new and old players looking for a corp, as well as recruiters advertising their corp. So were do you start? Think like a recruit!

Start by making your life easier by blocking the excessively "spammy" advertisements. Once the channel is moving at a more normal place, you have three choices.

a) Post your own advertisement. I suggest that you wait about 15 minutes between each time you post the advertisement itself.

b) Wait and see if someone advertises that they are looking to join a corp, and strike up a conversation with them.

c) Try to start a conversation in the channel and get (hopefully good) attention to yourself this way.

I would advise that you to keep any sensitive information about yourself and your corp out of this channel. Save the details for a private conversation with the potential recruit.

Things to keep in mind :

The advertisement you can post in a chat have to be pretty short due to the character limit (about 253 characters). I would advise you to make a short message that states something about your corp and then include a link to further information, such as your recruitment post on the forums or your recruitment page on your web site (if you have one). Making the advertisement stand out a bit is a good idea but don't attempt to be too clever. Different players use different screen widths and the more creative you are, the more likely something will come out messy, strange or simply annoying.

If you are concerned that your activities will earn you unwanted attention, you may want to consider other means of recruiting. There are people out there that will look for "rich" or "undefended" corps and attempt to install spies for nefarious deeds.

2. The recruitment section on the official Eve forums.

Once your corp has a good steady member base, I would advice you to use the recruitment section of the official Eve forums as your primary method of recruiting.

The recruitment forum has some rules you have to keep in mind. The biggest rule is that you are not allowed to bump your own post more then once every 24 hours. This also includes having other people bump it for you, or using alts to bump it. Please note that the 24 hour rule does not mean that you have to wait exactly 24 hours before you bump it. Say that you bump your post at 23.00 EVE time on Saturday, you can bump it again at 07.00 EVE time on Sunday. Essentially, as long as the date has changed you will be fine.

I would recommend that you bump your post during the timezone you are recruiting for - if you are looking for EU players bump it around the morning time for EU, if you want US bump it during that time, and if you want AU bump it during their prime time. If you have members from all over and want to change the time just don't bump the post for a day and bump it at the new timezone you want the next day.

So, what do you post? What will your advertisement show potential new members? This is a fun question and the answers change from person to person and from corp to corp. Here you have a lot more room to play with and you can either make it a wall of text (I'm a fan of the walls of text myself ) or a shorter, very clean, straight to the case advert. Think about the mentality of the members you want to recruit and what you are looking for in a member.

Again I would advise that you try to make your advert stand out a bit. Don't make it too shallow or cold, but don't try to be too clever. Strike a balance between giving enough information to let a recruit know that your corp might be the one he or she is looking for, without giving away sensitive or unnecessary information about yourself or your corp.

So what should be included? Again, think like a recruit!

Suggestions (not all will be necessary or relevant) :
Corporation activities.
Type of area the corp operates in.
Skill point requirement.
Voice chat requirement.
Language requirement.
Timezone requirement.
Any ISK requirement.
Public channel (Note: if you don't have one by now you should!)
Preferred ways of contacting the recruiter.
Any other requirement that a recruit might not meet.

The goal is to not waste the recruit's time or your own time.

3. The in-game recruitment tool.

This is a very passive way to recruit. There is a small cost (in ISK) to maintain the advertisement and I would advice you to keep it up at all times when recruitment is open.

You can create an advertisement by going to the Corporation tab, Recruitment, Corporation Ads, Create Advert. From here you will be able to specify what you do as a corp, what timezone your recruiting for, were you operate and similar.

1/5

If your potential recruit is a "brand new player" with some really nice and shiny implants and a wallet that is way above what you expect from a new player, ask more questions. It is possible its just someone who bought a load of PLEX, they had a friend that already plays help them out (who?) or your recruit is someone pretending to be a new player and they sent ISK from their main.

Eve Skunk (Thank you goes to "anonymous" for this addition)
Eve Skunk is can come in handy for recruits and recruiters alike.
Trough this site you will be able to read alliance mails and see a alliance's standings. If a recruit has done something to cause issues within the alliance/corp there is a big chance they would have sent a mail about it to inform its membership, and set standings towards that person.
Please note that not every alliance can be found on there, but its worth checking just in case.

*snip* link removed, site non-functional. *snip* ISD Max Trix
Just like Eve Skunk this is one of those places were you might find something, so its good to check on the off chance.
(Due to space restrictions more info on his will be in the next post)

One last note about background checking. Keep in mind that anyone can make a claim about another person. Even if you see one person saying that the recruit is bad or did something wrong, it does not mean its true. Talk to the recruit and make your own judgment. I would also like to add in that even if a recruit has a "shady" history, it is possible that they have changed their ways and just need someone to give them a chance to prove themself.

B) The actual interview

Now that you've looked over the character's background (and perhaps made a note or two on particular questions you would like to ask), let's move on to the "face to face" interview.

I'm writing this with the assumption that your corp does not have a webpage form or similar that needs to get filled out answering the basic questions. Personally, I prefer to not jump straight into "recruitment mode" but instead start off with some small talk, just checking how the recruit responds and to get an idea of how he/she talks. I want to know what kind of person I'm dealing with and if they would fit in well with the corp. But others might find it easier to skip the whole introduction and small talk and get straight to it. This is up to you as a recruiter to decide.

Here are some basic questions you should ask. This is definitely not a complete list.

1) How did you find the corp?
2) Why are you interested in joining?
3) What in particular stood out with this corp compared to others?
4) What do you want to achieve as an Eve player? As a member of the corp?
5) What do you expect from the corp?
6) If the recruit was referred to you by someone else, ask them why they were sent to you.

Try to stay polite. I am fully aware that this is not always possible, and in some cases you have the right to be directly rude if someone is being difficult or unreasonable, but do your best. Keep in mind that nothing is stopping this person from making a very angry forum thread about you and your corp if they feel that their recruitment experience was not what they wanted.

If possible, try to have the recruit interact with other members in your corp. This could be as simple as an invitation to "hang out" in a public channel with other members of your corp or as complex as a trial run in a corporation activity. If they simply can't get along after having spent an hour in the same channel/activity, they won't be a good fit for your particular corporation.

Never lie to a recruit. If you are not in 0.0, don't tell the recruit you are. If you don't have operations in a certain timezone, don't tell them you do. Of course you can make the truth sound more attractive, but straight out lying won't do either one of you any good in the long run and it will earn you a reputation of dishonesty.

Turning down a recruit.

This part is rarely fun (for the recruiter or the recruit) but it will happen to you at some point. If you never turn down a recruit you should question if you're really lucky... or maybe you are missing something and you should become a bit more paranoid!

There are many reasons to turn down a recruit. Perhaps they don't seem to fit well with the corp, they don't have the appropriate SP/knowledge base, they have a bad attitude, they canott meet some of your corporation's requirements, or simply because that nagging voice in the back of your head is saying that something just seems wrong. No matter what reason you have, if a recruit does not seem right you will be doing both of you a favor by turning them down.

Here are some pointers to try and make this conversation as easy as possible for the both of you.

1) Stay polite as long as possible.
2) Be honest with the recruit. Tell them why you are turning them down.
3) If appropriate, offer advice on how to improve whatever made you turn them down.
4) Refer them to a more suitable corp, if you know any.
5) If the recruit simply refuses to accept "no" as an answer block them from future contact with you. If you have a public channel you can block them from that as well.
6) Respond to their threats/posturing/silliness with a smile. Don't let the recruit get a reaction from you that can be posted and used to make you and your corp look bad.
7) If the recruit demands to speak with someone higher up, well, this is up to you. If your CEO/diplomat is okay with this then go ahead and invite them to a conversation. Otherwise, politely let the recruit know that the CEO/diplomat does not have time to talk to every recruit that gets rejected.
8) Don't bother to try and fool the recruit by saying "It's Not You, It's Me" - it doesn't work when you break up with someone, and it doesn't work when your rejecting a recruit

3/5

Those random things I don't have a proper section (or room) for;

Enjin (Thanks goes to "Anonymous")
Disclaimer - I will admit I had never heard about this until now, so I have very limited information about them, and can not guarantee that this will help you, or how much attention you can get using this site.
From what I have understood they don't have the EVE Online section fully up and running "yet" (last known update about this June 14), but for other games this site allows the recruiter to set up forms for recruits to fill out that will answer their basic questions.
You also have the ability to talk to the recruits, and all the recruiters will have access to the form.
Additionally your corp can set up both a forum and website which both can be handy when it comes to advertisement and communication.

Potential programs to check a recruits API key.
EVEMon
API checker (thanks goes to Dyvim Slorm)
API Jackknife (thanks goes to Vera Algaert)

Eve Spies
I came across this site more or less by accident, so im adding it here for now since i dont know how often it gets updated or maintained. When you report a player proof of their misconduct is required so if you find your recruit on there you can be pretty sure that yes, they did indeed do something "naughty"

Other ways to recruit; *Extended list due to space restrictions*
- Ask your current members to extend invitations to friends they have in the game that they feel will be a good fit for the corporation. (thanks god to Vera Algert)

Special notes;

1. Forum post made by Captain Meric. This post contains way to much information to actually include in the guide it self, but i would advice any recruiters to read over it.

5/5

Reserved for comment.

And of course to subscribe to this thread as CCP broke the forum subscribing button again.

Writing a good summary about how to recruit can be a good way to meet potential recruits.

I approve of this summary.

Going to reply to a couple of posts at the same time here

First off, what Minmatar Citizen160812 said is 100% correct. The information provided will give you an idea on what a recruiter will be looking for, and you can think ahead and avoid doing the classic mistakes (such as using your main to rob your corp blind as an example ).
This can also make your..adventure more interesting and challenging and i feel fairly confident when i say that it will create a higher level of excitement and satisfaction if you manage to get into a corp with a higher level of security then just some random corp that accepts anyone who applies.

For the recruiters.
This will happen to you if you do this long enough. At some point you will get a "bad" recruit and your corp will get robbed, your corp members blown up, harassment in corp chat or similar and you will feel like everyone is blaming you for it.
Accept the fact that you got "tricked", and move on feeling a bit wiser (and hopefully a bit more paranoid), but don't let it discourage you, or fall in the trap that you turn down every recruit just because their avatar looks "mean"

Now for dealing with the sense of guilt you might feel. Most of it will be in your head.
Most EVE players know that this happens, and wont blame the recruiter for letting the person join. Of course they might growl a bit depending on how much stuff they lost, but you will find that in most cases the members will rally behind you as the recruiter.

And if you find your self in a situation were neither the corp members, or the corp leadership is capable of understanding that you are human, you do mistakes, you should question both why you are doing the recruitment for them, and why you are in that corp in the first place.

Balkor Wolf

First off thank you for the shout out! When you have your corp up and running you should look us up

You are correct that people will be a lot less willing to join a corp with few members, not to mention a brand new corp.
Sadly there is no real way around this, expect a lot of patience from you.
However you are in a better position then many that decides to start their own corp. You have previous experience from other corporations (such as PP, awesome corp, strong leadership), and you can use this to your advantage.

By the sounds of it you have already done the basics, and you have an idea on what you want to do, but make sure you have both long term and short term goals. Please note that when i say long term, i mean long term, 6-12 months down the line, not 2 weeks

Present these plans to your recruits, make sure they understand that you are realistic about the goal being long term. In most cases people will turn around and find somewhere else, but some enjoy the idea of helping creating something and if you show potential.. Well they want to be there from the start!
However, do not promise people director roles and similar, make the members prove them self to you and the other corp members, then approach them about taking on more responsibility.

Last tip.
Abuse your friends and acquaintances. If you can go to a recruit and say that you have friends and support from corp X this can help convince a recruit that you are serious and have put a lot of consideration into what you are doing. Its also a nice way to get referrals.
As an example, say that corp X lived in WH space they would not be able to offer anything to a recruit that is looking for 0.0, but if your corp is in 0.0 chances are high you would have a recruit coming your way.

Recruiters between different corporations tend to look out for each other, so when its obvious that there is no way that the recruit will fit in with them, but they have a good attitude, the recruiter can help out both the recruit, and tighten the bond with friendly corporations.

Ok one last one
I quickly skimmed over this guide a while back, and its possible that you will find some useful information either in the guide i self or the replies.


Good luck and thank you for the responses everyone! Im really happy the guide is well received

Thanks for the response, I certainly intend on taking advantage of those I have gotton to know through my EVE Life, maybe try to get a few allies to roam with so even if there aren't corp specific ops to go on there will at least be some blues to fly with so corpies have plenty to do.

I'm mostly banking on my own experience to hopefully help bring people into the corporation, I've lived in all areas of space for at least a couple of months, learned a lot of tricks of survival in nullsec and WH space that I feel confident enough to roam in there without being completely annihilated or falling for every trap in sight (Although lets face it, that can be fun too!). But yeah, I have IRL stuff to sort out, finals regarding college and all that and after that I can commit time to finally setting this up, will certainly be in contact once things are rolling.

Very happy i reserved that extra post now
Thread updated again with information about Enjin, posted in post 5/5 as a separate category.

i would be very careful on some of the common recruitment channels and forums.

A lot of War Grievers troll them looking for new corps to WarDec and ransom money to end the war. This will pretty much make your corp activities null until the war is ended.

Be careful.

Thank you for the comments guys and added a section for what programs that are suggested to use for the API keys