7 Questions You Should Ask All New PVP Recruits

Ever have an awkward silence in a recruitment chat where you (in vain) try to remember all the questions you should ask? Ever finish a conversation and feel like you got nowhere, and know nothing about a new recruit, but don’t know what else to ask? Ever start flying with a new recruit and realize they are nothing like you thought they would be?

Many recruiters make the mistake of digging for facts, without asking the probing questions that can get to a heart of a pvper. They find out all the details, and necessary ‘information’ but fail to deduce whether the personality of the recruitee will be welcomed in the corp. It is important to ask a variety of questions that will help you not only find out the ins and outs about the capabilities of a toon, but to also learn about the personality behind the avatar.

Spy Games: Eve Online Recruitment Security Flaws

I love recruitment security because most measures are predictable, cliché, and usually do nothing to actually prevent spies from entering a corporation. Some corporations jump through massive hoops to provide what they think is ‘security.’ In actuality, it’s just more work for them, as anyone with half a brain could figure out ways around.

So, without further ado, lets dive into some security flaws, as well as investigate ways you can increase security in your own recruitment process without causing unnecessary, pointless work.

Eve Corporation: Battling Inactivity

Every corporation goes through phases. Some last longer than others, and all eventually pass. However, a long phase of inactivity can cause a corporation to spiral downward, and to even close its doors. It’s the ‘unseen enemy’—the silent foe of CEOs everywhere.

It usually turns into a vicious circle, where the active pilots you seek will not join due to your inactivity, and your inactivity can not be resolved until you recruit more active pilots. Though getting some new voices into the mix could be a perfect way to mash things up enough and perk some interest, it should not be the only thing that you do to increase the activity of your corporation.

How to Write a Smashing Recruitment Post

You walk a fine line. On the one hand, you want to sound intelligent and put-together, but you don’t want to sound like a philosophical nitwit. You want to make your corporation sounds like a group of skilled, efficient pvpers without sounding like you are all elitist jerks. You want to come across professional, without giving the impression that the corp is no fun. You want to sound fun, but not childish; easy going, but not unorganized; laid back, but not inactive…

We are not all writers, so when it comes time to writing a solid recruitment post, it can become a daunting task. You will need to give a positive, accurate account of the corporation you are recruiting for, while also projecting the type of people you are looking for.

Get Your Eve Corporation Active Again: 7 Recruitment Tips and Techniques

Inactivity is a common ailment of corporations in Eve. Many times, it is just a phase. Other times, it may be a serious side effect to a more deeper issue within the corporation. However, for those times when it’s just a matter of there not being enough people to get things going, recruitment is usually the first step!

Recruiting can be arduous and boring. There are many responsibilities that a recruiter must think about, depending on the wishes of his corporation. The skills, security, personality, qualifications, and time zone of a new recruit could be crucial to whether they are an asset or liability to the corp. Finding just the right people can be a long, time consuming process.

I’ve recruited for several corporations over the years. At one point, I was even recruiting corporations for a small alliance. Below are some tips about things that did or did not work, as well as some techniques for making the recruiting process go much more smoothly for everyone involved.

Get your name, and the name of your corporation ‘out there.’

EVE Recruitment: Good and Bad Types of Questionnaires

After chatting on Twitter with a few people about questionnaires, filling a few out in game the last few weeks, and having had to deal with them back when I was a recruiter, I thought I'd dive a little more deeply into this subject.

If you've ever been on the hunt for a new corp, you've probably filled out a few of these questionnaires. Some of them can be grueling, tedious, or ask questions you have no clue how to answer (or dont feel comfortable answering.)

In general, I'm against corps using questionnaires for recruitment, though I do understand the need for some larger corps. I find them to be somewhat impersonal, and they take what is ultimately supposed to be a game and give it a 'job' like quality.

I do believe however, that if you HAVE to do it, there's a right and wrong way to do it. Being on both ends of recruitment, these items could be taken from either perspective. They would be good to consider if you are trying to develop a questionnaire system for your corp, or if you are looking for a corp and are subjected to it.

7 Tips For Finding the 'Right' Corp

Ever gotten cozy in a corp only to have most of them stop playing (or have some sort of random drama cause them to disband.)?

Finding a corp that fits with your play style can be one of the biggest challenges in EVE. You can be vigilant about posting on the forums, chatting in local/recruitment chat...even tossing out a few inquiries to friends, and still not come up with something that truly 'fits.'

Having been a recruiter for a medium sized alliance (and corporation), I also know all the tricks in the book...all the things that recruiters say to make their corp look fun and exciting, etc. I also know how corporations and alliance go through phases...phases of lesser inactivity and boredom, phases of power-pvp and round-the-clock ops.

From my experience as both a recruiter and recruit, as well as observation in general, I've compiled the following seven things to be aware of when looking for a new corp:

1. If the corp is actively recruiting, there's about a 90% chance that something is wrong with them. Face it. The active corps are the ones too busy to spend time recruiting. It's the healthy, active corps that dont NEED to recruit to find new members...they get friends of members, people that hear about their activity and how awesome it is to be in the corp...etc.

Corps that are actively recruiting are usually having difficulty with a) inactive membership b) drama that made a large portion of the leadership/members to leave c)overall lameness/noobness or d)newness.

2. Beware the copy pasters. Copy pasters are usually a)recruiters who are looking for quanitity over quality, b) recruiters who are getting paid to recruit people c)ceo's who are trying to boost numbers due to inactivity...etc

3. Dont ever join a corp that requires payment to join, or payment to stay. Because that's just stupid and 99% of the time it's a scam.

4. Pay attention to the recruiters who convo you in game...and obviously are giving you their full attention by having a meaningfull conversation. Those are the golden ones who are as interested in finding out if you are right for them as you are interested in finding out if they are right for you.

5. Put killboards into perspective. Once you've been in a few corps, you know what to look for. It usually doesn't matter if they die a lot...looking for overall activity in relation to their size is VERY IMPORTANT. 5-10 kills a day would be considered pretty decent for a small 10-20 man corp, but seeing that on the kb of a 500 man alliance should make you wonder how many alts those 500 members really are.

6. Research. Research. Research. See what other people say about the corp. Are they cool? Do they have a reputation for being whatever it is you are looking for?

7. Ask if you can fly with them (if possible) for a little while before actually joining their corporation. Corporations who have nothing to hide or be ashamed of are usually willing...and they are usually greatful for the chance to check you out first also!