On My visit to the Silicon Valley I got to know some really cool recruiters that volunteer their time on the California Professional Staffing Association. They head up the Silicon Valley chapter and welcomed me to the area with open arms. As we ate, drank fabulous wine and shared many funny stories, I began to make some new friends and feel like I was in my second home (maybe it was the wine?).

Our conversation spun from vacation adventures, politics, sex to career, recruiting and industry innovations. Yes we are all talkers and the conversation was energetic, fast paced and loud. When people started sharing about how and why they began their journey into recruiting; it seemed like a perfect thing to share on recruiting blogs, so here it is.

Whether I am speaking to friends from Boston, Chicago, San Jose, or where ever my travels take me, people’s reasons about why they chose recruiting as a career are highly similar. I hear things like; “I went to an agency for a job and they wanted me, I thought it looked fun and heard I could make a bundle so I tried it out and fell in love”. Or I hear “I worked with a firm and I did not like the way they treated me, I thought I could do it better, so I did.” Other popular reasons of why people gravitate to the recruiting industry can be summed up and simply stated. It’s the people contact, the creativity, the on-going challenge, the opportunity to make a difference or it’s the freedom to make my own choices and decisions about what gets done and how it gets done.

Regardless of the reason that got them attracted, most tenured professionals in the recruiting industry never forget to tell me that it is the money that keeps them going and keeps them driving; as recruiting is a very lucrative career if you are great at it.