What's the best way to find tech support talent these days? According to our latest flash survey, ASP members give the highest marks to employee referrals and feel that newspaper classifieds produce the most "mediocre" results. Here are the survey scores:

Employee referrals Recruiters/agencies College recruiting Job boards Job fairs Newspaper classifieds

A- C+ C+ C+ C+ C

(3.79) (2.71) (2.67) (2.61) (2.58) (2.0)

A few comments by respondents:

"I've always hired via employee referral or a newspaper ad. These have always offered me the best bang for the buck. The times I have used [recruiters], although successful by their standards (the employee remainded for over a year), I found it to be too expensive. I found that I went through just as many interviews with the agency as I do when I place an ad."

"[Try] retraining centers for displaced workers funded by the state."

"[Try] cold calls into your competition."

"I haven't had any luck with recruiters, though I have tried at least two. Both turned up unqualified recruits."

"We tried the recruiters approach and found they didn't give us anything that we couldn't get through a newspaper ad. And given the expense (about ten times the cost of a newspaper ad, it didn't seem worth it."

"[It's tough to find talent] because the industry has changed so much. Support technicians have become much more confident as a group than ever before. They're marketing their skills with a great deal of finesse."