This post marks my 550th Bonus Track.  Yesterday, a friend accused me of getting soft, of not caring enough about Bonus Track anymore.  I have been writing every Monday through Friday, every holiday included since February 17, 2009.  That represents well over 300,000 words.  That is approximately five novels' worth of writing.  I think I still care plenty. Why?  Because I still do it every day.

Bonus Track is just that.  A bonus read - not another neat recruiting trick, though I have written about plenty of those and not another Top Ten List or Five Reasons Why or even the ABC's of Anything.  Bonus Track was conceived to address the business side of recruiting, the ethics of recruiting, the joys of social media, and the lessons of everyday living.  These posts aren't always flashy or heart-wrenching, but they are always true and always written from my heart.  So, I guess that means I haven't gone soft; I have always been soft.

This can be a nasty business, recruiting that is.  I hated being called a headhunter, though that was exactly what I was.  I hated having to sign off candidates that weren't "going to the show" but that is exactly what I did.  Every time.  If a candidate or applicant wasn't moving forward in the process, I called and told them - if I were the first to know, they were the second to know.  I refused to admit I was in sales until I could no longer deny the writing on the wall.  Of course I was in sales, I sold opportunity.  I didn't understand when former employers didn't have my same code of ethics or same standards of practice.  I struggled with not telling every truth; the parties involved had a right to know. 

It is a hard job.

But that is exactly why some are very good at it and others just really stink.  I am the first to talk about "recruiting and retention" - I am a firm believer they go hand-in-hand and you will never convince me otherwise.  I think that talk of the candidate experience should be unnecessary; it isn't  - but it should be.   I am thankful for the wall removal that social media has brought about and the relationships it has established and cemented.  I can think of at least forty people that I consider very dear friends that would never be so were it not for social media.  And all these individuals have helped me to do my job better.  Everyone of them.  Is that benefit enough to warrant its existence or place in recruiting?  I guess only the beholder can judge.

Nope, I have not gone soft.  I guess I just write about what I want to write about now, instead of what my friend thinks I should write about.  I still have a crap load of stories to tell, like the time I cried when I had to tell a candidate she didn't get the job or the time Jason Davis told me how he was glad that I called jobseekers -in-the-process candidates, instead of applicants or how everyone thinks I can help them find a job.  I want you to like what you read.  I want you to see yourself in what you read.  And it would be really cool if occasionally, a tidbit of inspiration or motivation found its way into an everyday practice.  And here's the thing, I don't think it is just wishful thinking.  So there.

by rayannethorn