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"What goes around, comes around." A simple enough phrase, yet something that Michael Crooks keeps always in the front of his thoughts. Michael lives in England and maintains dual-citizenship. He vacated Western New York a couple of years ago for the even-keeled temps of London - 50° all the time. From the moment you share words with Michael, you are captured, not only by his knowledge, but also his wisdom. He has a passion for ethics in recruiting and is an advocate of paying it forward.

Michael worked for years as a Director of IT before crossing the chasm into recruitment in 2007. He joined bluemondayRecruitment where he and his team specialize in IT and Executive Search. When asked about his transition to search, Michael shared, "I was inspired primarily by a recruiter that tried to recruit me. Her diligence and professionalism really blew me away." Vanessa Boone is that recruiter and what an impact she made on Michael.

Vanessa contacted Michael about a Director of IT position she thought he should review. He decided to follow her lead and pursued the opportunity. In the end, the hiring company had such a difficult time deciding between Michael and another candidate that if they had been justified in hiring both, they would have. However, that was not in the cards, or the coins, as it were. It literally came down to a coin toss. The employer actually tossed the coin to decide which candidate to hire. Michael, painfully, tells of how he was not the winning candidate. "That experience, the heartache..., well, you just have to keep going."

Michael is adamant in his pursuit of clients, "I have to spread my net further because of the way the industry is right now. While my specialty is IT, I have opened up to recruit for positions in opthalmology. I have this one opthalmic position where the candidate needs to speak English, Italian, German Spanish, and French and be willing to spend a significant amount of time in Europe." Darn, if only I hadn't given up those Italian lessons!

Michael is driven by ethics but there is more. What makes him different? "A lot of the companies that post IT positions, the HR departments, they look strictly for word match because they do not know IT. For instance, if the candidate needs to know a particular programming language, HR simply matches words. But I can look at a job description and resume and be able to tell almost instantly whether or not the person is a fit. I can see what an HR professional cannot. Not only do I see what is there, but I see what isn't there. If a particular skill or ability is missing from the resume and that seems out of place to me, I make a simple phone call, and ask the right questions to discern the candidate's ability because I know the job, I know the terminology and that sets me apart."

Michael is new to RecruitingBlogs and finds the global reach to be intriguing. And he agrees that Social Media helps promote and maintain transparency. Vanessa Boone made a huge impression, treating Michael with respect and kindness. Michael is simply paying it forward.