RECRUITMENT – I COULD CRY, I COULD JUST CRY!

Here we go again. Personnel consultant just died of old age. Headhunter sounded a bit too nasty and clandestine. After all how can you introduce someone as “This is our corporate headhunter”. Real headhunters kind of liked it but it didn’t play well in the board room. Recruiter wasn’t really classy enough for those who wanted to “differentiate” themselves so we moved up a notch to “Executive Recruiter”. (maybe that happened as we got older and started recruiting people who make over minimum wage.)

“Executive Search” has a snob appeal all it’s own but their folks had a problem calling themselves “Executive Searchers” ( how dumb does that sound?)
“ Talent Acquisition Specialist” was and is just goofy enough for everybody under 30.. Human Capital Manager was so damn pompous that most folks objected to being designated as human capital so that one evolved to VP of People, ain’t that earthy. (your loyal subjects salute you , you royal horses rear).

Manager of Talent Branding (oh just puke, that doesn’t even make any sense to anyone). Maybe those are all those kids in the HR department who tell us it’s not our candidate because they touched them first. In line with that maybe we should all “Brand” our candidates. Then I could ask the internal recruiter if the candidate had an M7 on their left hip. If they do then there is no question as to it being my referral. It’s wearin my brand ain’t it ?

In the past few months I have noticed that those who are always looking for some new word or phrase to describe what we do or have some sort of damage to the ego (if not the Id ) have started to say, are you ready for it,

“I am a recruitment specialist.” “I do recruitment” I am in the Recruitment Business”. “We are a recruitment firm”.

Here’s some little know facts about the word recruitment.

Recruitment in the scientific community means the development of a new generation of organisms. So watch your silly butt if you are recruiting in the scientific community and you are dense enough to tell some scientist that you are a recruitment specialist. They may just say, “oh sorry we don’t do that kind of research.”

Recruitment in the healthcare community refers to a hearing loss resulting in certain sound pitches being painful to a person. So if you are recruiting in the healthcare industry and tell someone that you are in the Recruitment Business or you do Recruitment. They might just tell you that they don’t need any hearing aid salesmen or ask you if there has been any new research to correct the problem of recruitment..

“Recruitment” may be an acceptable term for the Brits and the Aussies but folks, in the good ole US and of A. We are recruiters and we do recruiting. If you want to really think about how preposterous it sounds to say you do recruitment try this.

Suppose that Engineers didn’t do engineering, they did engineerment.

Suppose that Accountants didn’t do accounting, they did accountment.

Suppose that doctors weren’t involved with healing, they did healment.

Suppose that scientists didn’t do research they did researchment.

Suppose that consultants didn't do consulting they did consultment.

One could go on forever until it got to the point that kids didn’t get involved in Cub Scouts or Girl Scouts. They would get involved in scoutment.

The conversation might go something like this: “Hey this is John in Recruitment, I would like to speak with Larry in engineerment or Judy in accountment if neither of them are available please buzz Phil in researchment.” Oh and is Dr. Dooby doing healment today or is this the day he goes on the scoutment trip with his kids?" "If Dr. D is out i need to speak with that guy who is here doing consulment on the new building plans." "Say .how do you like being in receptionment?"

All I can tell you for sure is that the next time somebody tells me that they work for a recruitment firm doing recruitment, I am going to start laughing and tell them they have the wrong number. I am a recruiter. I do recruiting. I do not sell hearing aids and I am not developing the next generation of any organism, albeit sometimes I think that might be the case.

What say you, are you a recruiter who does recruiting or are you into hard of hearing , next gen organisms?

(thank god my spell check caught the misspell of that last word).

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Sandra McCartt on March 22, 2011 at 11:24am

CB, you are such an old grouch, go get back on the Phoooooooooooooooooooooooooone.

@Dan & @ Al, It probably says it all that not only can we come up with more titles than Ms. Smith's fourth grade drama class but then everybody does get wrapped around the axle when we start laughing at them.

@Sean Sometimes i wonder if the recruiting Gods forgot to include work/life balance in our job description. What i love about being a recruiter is setting my own hours. I don't have a pulse until 10:00 AM but i am hell on wheels between the hours of 9:00 PM and midnight or 2:00 AM. Maybe "Recruitment" goes in early and knocks off at 5:00 while "recruiting" does the rock and roll stuff after bidness hours.

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Permalink Reply by Sean O'Donoghue on March 22, 2011 at 11:48am

Hahaha Sandra - you got that one right!

By the way, did you see my comment back to you in regards to your iPad incident? Being a new poster, I can see my discussions getting lost on here - especially when everyone automatically flocks to the regular contributors. For anyone interested, I started a discussion on the headaches of social media, and it has a funny part about the iPad too... you can view it here

Right - it's 3.45pm here and I'm off out to enjoy the lovely weather with my kids over at the park. We've already had a picnic in our back garden for lunch - spring has finally arrived and I'm making the most of it! Work can wait - anyone who's stuck in an office right now will most certainly be jealous! :-)

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Permalink Reply by Karen Siwak on March 22, 2011 at 12:34pm

It wouldn't bother me if engineers were doing engineerment, provided that they were creating great products. Or if my Accountant did accountment, provided that she's keeping me out a tax hole, or if my doctor did healment, provided he keeps me healthy. A rose by any other name will still make big bucks if the product and service is right, no matter what titles get used to describe it.

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Permalink Reply by Sandra McCartt on March 22, 2011 at 1:18pm

@ Sean spring is here in the Texas panhandle too. We can tell when the wind is blowing when the big rock that is chained to the side of a hill stands straight out. My horses look like kangaroos this morning jumping around chasing their hay as the wind tosses it around. Have a great picnic. I am jealous. We are walking around in a controlled fall trying not to blow away.

@Karen Product and Service is the name of the game but as a resume strategist would your really suggest that an engineer do his/her resume summary by saying they have 15 years experience in engineerment or a doc who states on his CV that after 20 years of effective healment he is exploring new horizons? It might look a bit strange to the person in his field who is reviewing the resume for a hire in engineering. :)

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Permalink Reply by Karen Siwak on March 22, 2011 at 1:29pm

Never! Even when the company has "fancied up" their titles with Guru This, and Evangelist That, I use industry-standard language for titles, contributions, outcomes, benefits. But living in a country where we straddle UK and US English with acrobatic finesse, I recognize that one person's recruiting is another person's recruitment, and make sure that we're covering both bases.

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Permalink Reply by Sandra McCartt on March 22, 2011 at 1:58pm

Karen,

You have hit the core of all this fun. The real underlying question here is why? Why have companies and recruiters felt the need to "fancy up" their titles. As i originally mentioned there have long been formality differences between UK and US English.

From your vantage point as an experienced resume strategist what would you suggest to a person who was applying for a position that was listed as Director of Recruiting when their previous title had been Director of Talent Acquisition? As you research the company you notice that they do not use fancy, fluffed up titles. All through the job description they use recruiting to describe the duties and responsibilities. No "talent acquisition" or "recruitment" anywhere. Would you suggest to this person that it looks like the company does not use the trendy title so would you change a title they had or have to make them appear a better fit?

I think this is where we get into some deep water due to the differences in titles of people who do the same thing but are called such diverse and sometimes outlandish titles. Your thoughts from someone who deals with titles and egos that are sometimes attached to them or not.

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Permalink Reply by Tom Dimmick on March 22, 2011 at 3:18pm

Ahhh Sandra . . . . . Who wound you up? Shall we delve into the etymology of "Manhole Cover"?

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Permalink Reply by Karen Siwak on March 22, 2011 at 3:50pm

In that situation, I would suggest using "Candidate: DIRECTOR OF RECRUITING" as the heading on the resume, and keep Director of Talent Acquisition as the title under the job. I also coach my clients to tailor their keywords to the ones used in the job ad. Like any good marketing document, a resume needs to "speak" to the issues, challenges and pain points of the target audience (the recruiter/hiring manager), and this is easier to do if you are speaking the same language.

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Permalink Reply by Sandra McCartt on March 22, 2011 at 4:05pm

@Tom, You litterally made me laugh out loud. To be honest the first thing that hit my mind was. "Ok Tom, is it a manhole covering ,a manhole cover or a manhole coverment. Knowing you , you would come back and tell me it's one of those NSSWWC's (acronym for no shit, so what, who cares). What wound me up were several peeps who have been happy to be recruiters in the recruiting industry for years who all of sudden with the advent of social media have become talent acquisition gurus working in the recruitment field.

@Karen , excellent point and should not go unnoticed by anyone who has the benefit of reading your very good advice. When i have a candidate interviewing for a position i tell them to ditch all the fancy buzzwords and jargon because you never know when somebody has a trigger point about one or all of them so keep in the real world venacular. It's a when in Rome philosophy.

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Permalink Reply by Arnie on March 22, 2011 at 7:09pm

I plead insanity, I just love this stuff. Getting to know new people everyday and what makes them tick and what they want, it's too much fun for one person to enjoy daily....... : - )

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Permalink Reply by Sandra McCartt on March 22, 2011 at 7:34pm

@Arnie, no reason to plead. Sanity is boring. Or that is what peeps tell me. Not a condition with which i have ever been afflicted. All recruiters are nuts. Even if they didn't start out that way they will be. Life on a roller coaster is fun but it will make one crazy as a peach orchard bore. who cares, it's inside and we get to sit down.

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Permalink Reply by Christopher Perez on March 23, 2011 at 11:50am

@Jerry, I too, have a beer fridge. I noted approvingly that you arranged for the hinges to be on the left side to aid in ergonomics as you pop down the stairs to fetch some blessed relief.

It's the simple things in life you treasure. <thumbs up>