Comment by Rob McIntosh on May 24, 2007 at 11:30am

Even though I have been in Corp recruiting for awhile the best lesson came from when I was a 3rd party recruiter.

The receptionist called back to the bull pen (yes we used to work in an open floor plan) that a young kid (late teens) called into the office looking to meet with with someone to discuss a few roles the agency had listed. All the recruiters rolled their eyes as in to say what a waste of time it would be to chat with this guy given all the positions we had open where for individuals with numerous years of exp.

I said I will have a chat with him as what is 15min out of my day to give some potential guidance and counsel given we are in businesses to help people not just make $$$$. After 30min with this guy discussing his interests, the career path he wanted to pursue, interviewing and resume tips and setting expectations, he thank me kindly for my time as I was the first person that had taken the time to actually sit down and talk out of the all the agencies he had dropped by in the few weeks.

An interesting thing happened a week later. I was sitting at my desk when I got a phone call from a Executive Vice President of one of the largest financial institutions in the country. He introduced himself and quickly moved onto saying that do I remember a young man that dropped by the other week. He then proceeded to tell me that was his son and he had sent him out to visit with agencies to try and get some advice on his resume and interviewing.

The next thing he said has stayed with me for my whole career.

"Rob, I can not thank you enough for taking the time to help my son as he came home that day and told me about his experience dealing with agencies and specifically yourself. I want you to come into meet with me and my leadership team next week about providing services at identifying talent at senior leadership level for the bank. If you provide the same level of service that you provided to my Son, then I feel that you can greatly help us grow the bank as we moved forward".

So the moral of this story is that in our industry we should never ever forget that we are primarily in a business to help people and are a customer service centric business. Sometimes the smallest gestures and having a paying it forward mentality with candidates, colleagues and hiring managers pays off in ways that we might not originally see.

Comment by Recruiting Animal on May 24, 2007 at 2:13pm

I hate you guys. These are all very good. And I hate Jaydee most of all for making me the judge.

Comment by Pat Grueiro on May 25, 2007 at 9:26am

The best Recruiting lesson I ever learned was to make your candidates laugh. This way even if your client does not hire your candidate it's easier for the recruiter and the candidate accept. Always, leave any converstion with a smile even if you are breaking bad news.

Comment by Epihet on May 25, 2007 at 9:36am

Recruiting at it's most fundamental level is very simple:

Find Person + Place Person = Everyone happy!

I see a lot of people take what is fundamentally a very simple process and have an innate way of over complicating and over engineering the problem or solution.

Don't over complicate the problem or solution with fanciful tools, process and strategies. Usually, simple is the most elegant solution.

Comment by Nancy Holland on May 25, 2007 at 10:36am

The best recruiting lesson I ever learned was to insist on being included in the client candidate interview. No matter how far I have to travel or how much money I have to spend. This is crucial to the success of the placement. Being present during the interview allows me to establish my credibility with both parties and I can view first hand the dynamics of the interview. Almost 90% of the time the client is appreciative of my experience and actually want me to run the interview. Having this type of first hand knowledge of the interview is great when preparing the candidates as well.

Comment by Penny Goodman on May 25, 2007 at 11:00am

The best recruiting lesson I have learned is that:
 
1. If a candidate calls you in a panic the morning of an interview because he forgot his orthotics (shoe inserts) he will probably not get the job;
2. If a candidate pulls out a banana while interviewing with senior management, he will probably not get the job.
3. If you cold call a candidate and he calls you back right away, he will probably not get the job.
4. If a candidate tells the director of marketing that he thinks giving potential customers T-Shirts will land the account, he will probably not get the job.

Comment by Scott Dunlop on May 27, 2007 at 9:48am

The best recruiting lesson I have learned is that:

The deals you thought were going to come together, often times do not, and those that you've never believe could make it, often do. The moral? Even if you think you've got this business 'figured out' there's always another curveball around the corner. Keep activity levels always high, and these curveballs are just part of the life of a recruiter.

Comment by Marvin Smith on June 26, 2007 at 6:43pm

As the French say, the more things change the more they remain the same. What was state of the art recruiting technology three decades ago, is now what everyone is trying to learn. Things have changed from the steel desks all in a row; a phone (rotary); a tattered copy of the yellow pages; and a “real” rolodex. Now we are virtual, wireless, day planners and dataminers. The more we use technology, the more we realize that our profession is about reaching out and connecting with another human being. It is still about a recruiter using their unique gifts & abilities to develop relationships. We call it community today—and the lesson is that to be successful, we have to be high touch, as well as high tech.

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