I spend my all day, every day coaching Recruitment Professionals who exist at all levels of this crazy game.  I am often surprised at how much we all have in common.  Here are just a few of those silly things:

1.  Someone once told us that Recruiting is EASY.

Every time I meet a Recruiter the first thing they say to me is, “I don’t know how I became a Recruiter.” 

They of course remember the person who got them into Recruiting and what they said, “Have you ever considered Recruiting?  I think you would be a natural at it, plus it would be easy money.”  Every single one of us has a form of that story.

It takes 10,000 hours to make you a Recruiting expert.  Since no one has figured out a way to speed up time, you are stuck putting your hand on the burner, stubbing your toes and even scraping your knees.

On the bright side, every mistake you make means you have learned something new and you will never do it that same way again. 

2.    Favorite sport for Recruiters is chasing squirrels.

In grade 2 my teacher would send me home with happy faces if I stayed in my chair and didn’t get distracted by my classmates.  Some days I would get a half a happy face, other days I would get a whole happy face.  It all depended on how quickly I came back and got refocused.  Recruiters have this same attention span – that is what makes us GREAT Recruiters. 

Let’s face it, as Recruiters we are never going to be able to limit the distractions. I know personally, that I could make watching paint dry a marathon event if no one was there to distract me.  The goal is getting back and focused quickly.  Your calendar with its annoying little pop up is the ideal took for achieving just that. Schedule everything!  You and I know that sometimes it takes several attempts to get back on task.  Again, those stupid little pop ups are just the thing to help.

3.     Someone need to tell the Sales Department – The Candidate is GOD.

I am sorry but anyone can get an order. Clients give bad job orders away like candy on Halloween.  Give me that one ideal, marketable candidate (MPC) and I’ll show you 3 new clients that will climb over each other to pay for that candidate.

4.      The old adage, “6 client interviews = 1 hire” is not a lie.

“It’s simple.  You just get 6 client interviews and I’ll give you 15k.” Sound familiar?  Of course it does. That’s the kind of smack in the face that made you take your recruiting job in the first place. What no one told you was there are 25 steps in the “Recruiting to Hiring Process” and the “client interview” is only the eleventh step. So, when you do get 6 people to the client interview stage the law of averages kicks in and you are sure to make one placement. 

As a Recruiter your only job is to keep your eye on the client interviews and everything else will fall into place.

5.       Recruiters have a love hate relationship with their phone.

If they gave LinkedIn away for free; developed an iPhone app that would source, screen, and present potential candidates; or had some kind of way of cloning the perfect candidate you would still need to TALK TO THEM before you put them into your process!

As Recruitment Professionals we are in the relationship business. Last time I checked, you still need to have a one-on-one conversation to have a relationship with someone. This means if you aren’t talking to people via the phone every day, all day you aren’t even in the game.  Emails, blogging, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pintrest, Tumblr (dare I need to go on?) are all great tools for you to BOOK PHONE TIME. 

The next time you think you’re the only Recruiter trying to run up this hill backwards, just remember we have all been there.  Talk a five minute break and reach out to another Recruiter and share some of those stories.  It’s the only way you are going to stay in this game for the long haul.

P.S. Just in case you were wondering…Other Recruiters DO want to hear from you and NO they are not going to steal your tools, clients, or candidates. That is your headache to deal with ;-)