In a recent blog post I described why persistence is an essential trait for recruiters (and others).  In that post I wrote how my persistence led to a very interesting dinner with Tim Cook from Apple.  In thinking back on that time, another story comes to mind as to how persistence led to one of the best career moves I ever made.  I can again credit my time at Korn/Ferry that led to it, and persistence was the key.

I was working on that same CEO position that led to my dinner with Tim.  The client expressed his interest in candidates that were either extremely strong in operations and/or exceptionally experienced in sales.  Since I tried unsuccessfully in my recruiting efforts for the stellar op’s candidate (gee, thanks Tim), I set my sights on a high profile sales leader from another top technology company, Microsoft.

Kevin Johnson was Microsoft’s US sales leader back in those days - SVP Sales Marketing and Services for the US.  He had only been with Microsoft about 5 years or so at that time (circa 2001); not quite the Microsoft lifer.  He started his career at IBM back in 1992 and joined Microsoft in ’96.  Once again I took to the phone and made my call.

Just like the experience trying to get to Tim Cook, I called Kevin’s office and reached his tenacious yet pleasant assistant, Sandi.  I explained to Sandi that I wanted to chat with Kevin about a public company CEO position.  She politely told me that Kevin does not take calls from recruiters and then said, “ggoodbye”.  Just as before, I didn’t take Sandi’s “no” for an answer and I would turn again to being persistent.  For the following few weeks I called again and again.  Sandi finally gave in and scheduled a 10-minute call with Kevin.

The following week I gave Kevin a call and this time, Sandi put me through to him.  The call with Kevin was terrific.  It went on for nearly 40-minutes. He listened to my pitch, engaged in a insightful conversation but ultimately said he was not interested in leaving Microsoft at that time.  Then the call got very interesting.

Prior to making my calls to Kevin I looked in Korn/Ferry‘s database to see what Microsoft positions the firm had worked on.  I just assumed the world’s largest software company had used the world’s largest recruiting firm’s services.  I was surprised to see that KFI had never been engaged by Microsoft to work on any positions, despite lots of attempts by the firm’s partners.  Since Kevin was clearly not going to become a candidate for the CEO search, I asked him if he could help me figure out how to land Microsoft as a client.  He suggested I contact to Microsoft’s head of HR, Deborah Willingham.  

A lot happened shortly after that referral to Deborah Willingham.  The tech bubble finally burst and Korn/Ferry made several rounds of layoffs.  Unfortunately (or fortunately) I was part of the great downsizing of the firm back in those days. Shortly after leaving the firm I heard through the grapevine that Microsoft was looking to build an internal executive recruiting team. Not knowing whether the rumor was true or not I decided to send an email to Deborah indicating I would be very interested in speaking with her if, indeed, the rumors were true.  I shot off the email, not really thinking anything would happen, so much so, I never asked my wife how she felt about moving to Seattle.

A few days later I received an email from a Microsoft recruiter, asking if I would like to come up to Redmond to interview for the position of executive recruiting.  The rest, as they say, is history.  Within the next few weeks I joined Microsoft and moved my family from San Francisco to Seattle.  

Here’s where it again gets interesting.

I had been with Microsoft for about a month or so when I found myself waiting outside of Steve Ballmer‘s office for a meeting.  While sitting in the outter reception area a tall, athletic guy came walking past.  I heard Steve’s assistants greet this mystery executive by name, “Kevin”.  

“Are you Kevin Johnson?”, I asked him as I walked over to introduce myself.  Indeed it was.  I then told him that he was responsible for me joining Microsoft.  I recapped this story to everyone’s amusement.  Steve Ballmer came out of his office to find out why it was so noisy.  Kevin told Steve that it was through his direct efforts that led to my recruitment to Microsoft and then immediately asked to have a recruiting “star” be placed on the door to his office (Microsoft had this program in which employees who made referrals received recognition by having a star placed on their door).  Everyone, including Steve, got a good laugh from the whole incident!

This story is just another example as to the benefits of being persistent, whether you are a recruiter trying to land a candidate, a sales person trying to get a new account or simply a professional looking for a bit of an edge. My experience working at Microsoft was one of the best experiences in not only my professional life but my personal as well.  It was duirng those times and at that place where I had the opportunity of working with some of the most talented and engaging people I’ve ever come across.