recruiting is a lonely game, not a team sport.

Does it take a village? Or is it more of a fellowship of sorts?

I tried to get a team together for the DARPA Balloon Challenge. I posted everywhere, there were a few patient onlookers who mostly were curious how we would collaborate on googlewave to accomplish this crazy task. Find 10 red balloons hidden on street corners throughout the US in 1 day.

2 people were able to do so much. I have never been more proud to have a sourcer like Lisa Offutt working with me & for me on this challenge. We had another 2 or 3 willing participants help us run down certain tasks as well. MIT won the contest. The Geocaching club had 1.5 million members and they came up with 8 of the balloons.

At first, I was disappointed that more recruiters did not participate in the challenge, not to mention sourcers. How could so many spend a week trying to solve a SourceCon challenge, but a day to win 40,000 dollars was not that enticing?!?

I gave it some thought, and I decided that our industry is really a merry band of individuals don't you think? We distrust others n our industry site unseen. Recruiters are like tigers, polar bears, or great white sharks. We are not animals that hunt in packs most of the time. It is a lonely game, with our "prey" being the ones we talk with most of the time.

The truth is we don't like working with other recruiters. This is a universal truth, one we don't like to admit. Oh, I think we like working close to other recruiters, the camaraderie of the bull pen, the ringing of the bell, the high five, the "drinks on me" since I just made the last placement, etc. But not the actual work, that we like doing all by ourselves. We tend to have a bent toward being control freaks if the truth be told. Most would rather give a req to someone else than share it.

Am I wrong?

Comment by Recruiting Animal on December 8, 2009 at 3:53pm: Yeah, you're wrong. I like working with other recruiters. Maybe because they're usually better than me

Comment by Barbara Ling on December 8, 2009 at 3:55pm: Interesting post.

I know for myself....I've learned that when push comes to shove and the chips are down, the only person on whom I can absolutely 100% entirely count upon...is ME.

It's human nature. We're all looking out for Number 1...and sometimes, alas, that makes other requests fall by the wayside into the Deep Dark Abyss known as Not My Problem.

Much empathy on what you experienced. I've had that same experience myself, it can be most depressing.

Comment by Jerry Albright on December 8, 2009 at 3:57pm: I retweeted your balloon thing. Twice as I recall. Are you counting me as one of the very helpful people? Or one of the lazy bums that didn't care.

#ididmypart

Comment by Recruiting Animal on December 8, 2009 at 4:01pm: Never saw the balloon thing. Didn't have a clue what you were referring to

Comment by Recruiting Animal on December 8, 2009 at 4:02pm: Jerry Jerry - Julia has been doing some work recently with you hasn't she?

Comment by Brian Meeks on December 8, 2009 at 4:15pm: Well written post. I hadn't ever thought about it before. I guess I am not really a recruiter per se, as I am focused on promoting a recruiting tool, but I found your insight to be incredibly intersting. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts.

Comment by Julia Stone on December 8, 2009 at 4:16pm: Jerry, you were one of the helpful retweeters and for that I thank you. I also enjoy working with you, which is what got me thinking about this post. Working with you has been the exception to the rule, and I wonder why that is.

Animal, the balloon thing got me thinking about this issue, a catalyst more than the actual story itself. Maybe I didn't make that clear. Just so you know, I tweeted multiple times, posted on facebook, created a facebook group and sent it out to everyone, created 7 different twubs, blogged about it here, and sent in a press release to AP & Reuters, perhaps you missed them all.

Comment by Craig Silverman on December 8, 2009 at 4:18pm: I couldn't care less about a balloon challenge, most people no time for that. We are late in the year, our time is our biggest asset. As for working as a team, I believe that most recruiters do like a team. Everyone has a role to play but they depend on each other. The sales oriented recruiters bring in the business, the sourcers scour the web to find the talent, the candidate focused recruiters interview,match and coordinate the activity to move to a successful close. Together Each Achieves More. All of nothing is always nothing and half of something is better...

Comment by Recruiting Animal on December 8, 2009 at 4:21pm: If you want an RT just include me in the message Pls RT.... cc @animal -- I'll bet most people are in my camp; didn't hear about it or didn't register - did you send it thru the RBlogs Friend channel? I don't always read those but getting one from you might make me notice. That's how I came here.