Recruiting is one of those rare fields that can challenge someone on a daily basis.  We are in a sales business that impacts people and their companies.  Sometimes we even impact communities! 

Generally it is not the money that makes the difference when deciding if you love what you do.   The important factors are the potential to make an impact; and to have fun.

When developing my love story with recruiting, I thought it would be appropriate to spell it out!

R – Recruiting has been my professional life since 1981.  This business is too easy to leave, particularly during recessions.  My longevity is a demonstration of my love for recruiting.

E – Energy is required in the recruiting industry.  Too often we are told we cannot do something because don’t have experience in that field.  It is fun to listen to that story; and then bring the client the best candidates they have seen in ages, not just the same recycled candidates.  Candidates and clients alike are attracted to people who have appropriate levels of energy.

C – Creative Juices – Every single time I begin a new recruitment contract, I am rewarded with my creative juices flowing.  How can we improve current recruitment processes?  What tweaks can be done to the recruitment strategy to use technology to attract candidates and not repel them?  What is the best way to source each position that I need to recruit?  The same process rarely works for all positions.  What is the Corporate Culture?  How do managers react to resumes; and how can we motivate them to be more responsive if needed?  What is the best story to describe my client and its culture to show them in the best light?  Each candidate has different needs.  Does the client meet their needs?  How do I sell reluctant (as in passive) candidates on the position?

R – Ring, Ring – How many times since 1981 have I heard that wonderful sound?  Countless – probably at least several hundred thousand times, both when I was receiving calls and when I was smiling and dialing!  There is that air of anticipation prior to the response of the person answering the phone.  What was the sweetest ring, ring?  Possibly the reluctant technology candidate who interviewed with a client on Christmas Eve morning.  She was invited to stay for a small office potluck lunch (during which the hiring manager polled the interviewers), and received an offer just before she left.  Ring, Ring on Christmas night – she called to accept.

U – Unique  - Every company feels it is unique, and they are.  However, recruiting is a sales process.  If we help our clients follow the recruiting sales process, talent acquisition becomes easier because they are not fighting candidates’ instincts and conditioning.  Using the sales model, it is easier to lead the candidates through the process.  “Now the next little step (No Big Steps for My Candidates!) is to…”

I – Intelligent – We accept that everyone is intelligent.  Well until they pull a stunt that makes you wonder what in the heck they were thinking – or smoking - or drinking.  Just about the time I begin to feel neither candidates nor hiring managers can surprise me, someone does.  For instance an IT Manager once asked my candidate if she was fine working 120 hour weeks!  When I asked him how those weeks were structured, he replied “Well sometimes we work 80 hour weeks.”  Jeese!  Or, another hiring manager in DC who replied when my candidate gave her level of compensation, “So you say!”  Then he pulled his lunch out of a drawer and began eating.  Since he had not completed his interview, he followed his lunch with a cigar – true story!  When I debriefed her, my jaw was slack.  She said he reminded her of Archie Bunker – I can see why.  Not saying candidates don’t pull stunts.  They do, and they can be pretty darn creative – like the candidate who posed as a female recruiter referring him after he had previously burned a bridge with me – and was upset that I would not forward his resume to my client - Still not going to happen, “D”!  You have to love a business that can keep you entertained with those kinds of surprises!

T – Talent sourcing is one of the most important aspects of our business.  This requires equal parts detective work, intuition, reading between lines, and energy!  For me, I love to direct source (back to Ring, Ring!) and find that passive candidate who didn’t know they were unhappy until they met me.  Isn’t it fun to enlighten people?  Obviously my client has to be the right place/position/manager for the candidate.  I help candidates think clearly (well, that’s what I call it!).

I – Intuitive – Aw, there’s the intuition again.  It is important to have such a good understanding of my client, the hiring manager (“You’re going to Love working with Jane/Joe!”), and the job that once I have interviewed them and understand their current employment, I can confidently say, “Don’t you feel this is the best opportunity for you right now?!?  Look at your growth potential!”

N – New Technology – Wasn’t it great when we were able to fax resumes!!!  Wow!  Instant resume, instead of waiting for the Postal Service to deliver it.  Yes, I remember anxiously awaiting the mail for THAT resume (Remember the song “Anticipation”?).  Then we stuffed all of that paper in file drawers with little or no chance of ever finding it again.  In our agency file cabinets were everywhere.  The downside of the faxes was the fax paper (Remember how it faded in sunlight??).  Then we had rolls of resumes.  There were times our fax machine had a pile of fax paper on the floor and we had to cut each page.  You “young” recruiters are So Spoiled!  We were the cutting edge of technology!  Then in 1992 I began a recruiting contract with MCI in Virginia and was introduced to MCIMail.  Cool!  Of course, no one could penetrate MCI’s firewall so my resumes were still paper or fax paper.  Email was received in hotel rooms at 2400 Baud.  What’s that?  Think of molasses in winter!  We had wires strung across the hotel rooms because there was one outlet 10 feet in one direction and inevitably the phone was by the bed so I carried 20 feet of telephone wire with me when I traveled – even took down the telecom system at the Cornhusker Hotel in Lincoln, NE 3 times one day by polling email, but that’s another story.  Remember OCC?  That was Bill Warren’s company.  He is the father of the Job Boards.  OCC was sold to Monster and Bill became President of Monster.  When I was the Recruiting Manager at McLeodUSA in 1995, I signed us up on OCC.  Now that was truly cutting edge Internet recruiting!  I think there were maybe 100 candidates’ resumes on there.  By that time Prodigy and AOL had the edge on consumer access to the new Internet wide world web!!!  Since then we have tremendous change, some is good and some is bad.  Probably most is good.  The problem is that some so called recruiters hide behind the Technology Also Led Exceptional Obstacles in candidate sourcing/tracking.  What’s not to love when companies create business opportunities with their use of technology?

G – Growth is unavoidable when business changes as often as recruitment does.  Many times I have counseled my clients that recruitment is dynamic and fluid.  You have to look at the recruiter barometer to determine what will happen next.  The change and growth is not for everyone.  It’s only for the successful recruiters who love the industry and its changes. 

When I began recruiting, there was a fledgling personal computer industry with ms/dos as the operating system.  Apple came shortly after but was primarily used in schools.  Our admin typed resumes with an IBM selectric typewriter – and after she left for the day, we typed the resumes for ourselves so we could get them to clients by the morning.  During this period I discovered my passion for recruiting.  It didn’t matter if I was paid well (my fees gave me a nice income).  I was having so much fun that time flew and oh by the way, They Are PAYING Me to have this much fun! 

While my recruitment model has changed to a flat monthly fee, I still calculate what my contingency fee would be.  Funny!  The adrenalin still flows.  I love the recruiting industry!