By Jennifer Brownell, Managing Director, Q4B

In the current issue of Fast Company that features the 100 most creative people in business (and no I did not make the list for the fourth year in a row) the word hyphenate was used to describe Ceelo Green and defines it as a “trendy marker for success, a strung-together mash up of titles made mandatory when no single job description suffices to describe a certain someone’s magnificence.”

After reading this definition I started to think about my job and then about the job of recruiting. Recruiters have a problem when it comes to telling people what they do. If you tell someone that you are a recruiter you can expect to hear”Oh, you mean you’re a headhunter.” Or, you will be asked, “Can you find me a job?” And too often you end up explaining the type of work you do, the types of people you recruit and how you earn a living. All of this falling on deaf ears when you did not immediately tell the person that you indeed could find him a job.

Some recruiters have dealt with this issue by referring to themselves as consultants, executive recruiters, search consultants, talent acquisition specialists all to no avail. None of these titles adequately describes what recruiters do. None.

Think about everything that recruiters do. We sell opportunities to our candidates and solutions to our client companies. We solve problems, since the only reason that a company is hiring is that they have a problem. We contribute to the success of our client companies as well as the candidates we place. We coach both our clients and candidates. We mentor. We negotiate. We provide market intelligence, competitive analysis and up to date business and career advice. We facilitate offers and negotiate realistic compensation packages and help close deals. We develop long term relationships with clients and candidates. We hand hold. We hold both clients and candidates accountable. We source, screen and help select the best fit candidate for our client’s positions. We check references and use the referenced information as part of our presentation to the client if appropriate. And we do this for every position that we are working to fill.

Wow! I think that you can now see how inadequate the word recruiter is in describing the great job that we do.

I am going to work on my hyphenate so that the next time someone asks me what I do, I can respond and leave little doubt as to how much I do and how important it is that I continue to do it.

I do know one thing though, that in my hyphenate the word serendipitous will certainly appear.