Don't Be an Intimidated Recruiter

You are overwhelmed at the facet of the recruiting business and you absolutely fear rejection. Most of all you fear the possibility of failure. Could you be in the wrong profession? Now, that’s a question only YOU can provide the answer to.

Although some doubts are natural, it takes a daring individual to delve into this kind of career, in my personal opinion. So what do you do to overcome your intimidation?

Well, here are a few of your options; You can either get over your melancholy, face some of the cold calling rejection head on, overcome some of the angry candidates who blame you for not finding them a job, and do whatever YOU MUST do to become successful.

Or you can complain, whine, even invite some co-workers to the water cooler for your pity party and just become a passive or compliant recruiter (I’m sure you’re boss would love that!).

Now, if you choose the latter option, I can guarantee that you will never solve your issues of inhibitions and therefore, you will never succeed as recruiter. It may even cause you to drop out of the race all together because you’ve simply convinced yourself that you can’t do it.

You see this whole “intimidation” factor can be remedied very easily if you change your mindset. Stop allowing intimidation or fear to get the best of you and choose to press through all the “stuff.”

If you need more training ask for it. Most companies have a training budget. If not, you can self teach. Research or even find a mentor. Be proactive. After all, you are responsible for your own success. Right?

You’ll be surprised at how many successful recruiters out there will admit (those that are truly honest) to feelings of inadequacy. So It’s time to stop the whining and cancel that pity party. The only way to overcome your insecurities is to really JUST DO IT. You’d be surprised how things change once your mindset does.

Comment by Noel Cocca on January 2, 2014 at 9:59am: Jeanna the line "just do it" is a great one. When I started in recruiting a senior recruiter wrote that on a note card and pinned it to my pc. She said every time you start to think about a call too long or hesitate to speak to someone, "just do it", and you will be amazed at what happens. It was great advice and I gave it to people I trained over the years. There is still a lot of call reluctance in the business, and email/text/social has made it easier to avoid the "real" conversations.

Comment by Jeanna Zivalich on January 2, 2014 at 10:18am: Noel, thanks for sharing. That's powerful advice. There is something about the words, "just do it." as far as social media, I agree, social media has really made it easier to avoid conversation. However, I find there will always be the need for human interaction through cold calling. When I first started as a recruiter, I didn't necessarily enjoy the cold calling aspect of recruiting (although I was able to get appointments made). Even now, it's still not one of my favorite parts of recruiting, but I know it's absolutely essential and that's why I "just do it.". ;)

Comment by Keith D. Halperin on January 2, 2014 at 3:22pm: Thanks, Jeanna. Well said. Along this line of discussion:

Risks

If you never try anything new, you'll miss out on many of life's great disappointments

Happy New Year, Folks!

:)