Putting the Zing back in your Thing

Life as a recruiterhas its ups and downs from the joyous highs of making that big placement in that unfillable role to the demoralising lows when a candidate takes a counter offer, or worse still the client pulls a job when you are so close to making a placement you can almost taste the Champaign. It really can be an emotional roller coaster and I have certainly seen my share of good recruiters’ burn out throughout my career. Knowing this how can you avoid the rollercoaster or more importantly how can you use this knowledge to make you even more successful?

It is important to remember that stuff happens; sometimes things are completely beyond our control and no matter what you do or don’t do it’s still going to happen. Its part of being a recruiter, and life for that matter, and accepting that it does happen helps reduce the size of the emotional effect when things do go wrong.

One thing you can do to lessen the impact is to make sure you are always prepared. Always have a plan B and in some cases a C and D. Make sure you stay close to your candidates and clients, and trial close them throughout the process.

I personally believe the more you communicate with your client and candidates throughout the placement process the more likely you are going to be able eliminate the unknowns like internal candidates, hiring freezes, change of manager, promotion, other job interviews etc.

It is really important to always keep the end goal in mind, which is the successful placement of a candidate. Everybody loves a happy candidate and a happy client. I hear a lot of recruiters complain about doing reference checks or writing candidate reports and other administrative tasks. This attitude is counterproductive and can affect your overall job satisfaction and happiness. By focusing on why you are doing these tasks and relating it to the bigger picture your motivation and focus will improve. You will look forward to doing these tasks as you will feel like you are getting closer to your end goal.

It’s important to know what your motivation is; why do you recruit? Are you purely doing it to make money, do you just love working with people or is it something more intrinsic like the feeling you get from making real positive change in someone’s life? Whatever it is you need to focus on this daily and align it to everything you do.

Personally there is nothing better than knowing you have done everything possible to find the best possible person for your client and the perfect opportunity for your candidate. The most enjoyable part of the job is visiting a candidate a year into their new role and hearing about all the success they have had and knowing that you were the one that made this happen.

One of my favourite quotes is ‘Where your Focus goes, Energy flows’. Focus on your end goal and not only will your energy flow but you will put the zing back in your thing.