The Good Ole Days- What I Learned

"Stand up when you talk! Talk loudly into the phone! Act excited when you are talking to a candidate! I could care less what you did last night! It is 7:00 a.m. and it is go time! We have reqs to fill!"

Can anybody relate? Can anyone remember? Voice mail- forget about it. "WILL- PICK UP ON 55, JASON- CALL ON 57, SCOTT- Jim Lewis is on 58."

E-mail- what the hell is that? I remember breaking Aerotek's record for 2,300 unread e-mails. Pens, Paper, G2's, Hot Books. That is what we had. ATS- c'mon. Social Media- no such thing. Cell phones- yea not so much. Pagers, my friend. We actually wore them with pride. Get a page and pull over to make a call on a pay phone. I thought I looked so cool with the pager on my hip. I was somebody!

Chop and block. Anybody know that term? You would cut off the top of the candidate's resume which had the phone number, name, and address of the candidate and replace it with your agency logo. This was a process . You had to cut it straight and make sure it looked good on the raised company logo paper so you could hand deliver the resume.

Resume database? Uh.. yea- well that was our file cabinet. Resumes filed in manilla folders. Yellow and white pages- yep. We did it. We actually had to call for referrals.

Most of America didn't have cell phones, so the only time you could get in touch with the candidates was before work or after five, so you were almost guaranteed to put in eighty hours a week. Working until 8-9 p.m. was not uncommon.

Casual clothes. Hell no! Your white shirt is ironed. Your tie looks sharp and you have just polished your black shoes. You act as if you are successful. Truth- I was making $23,400 a year. No bonus. No stock. Yet we wore this ridiculous outfit every day.

Cubes. No way! Think of high school lunch tables lined up. One person sat to your right, one to your left and one in front of you. They packed you in tightly.

"Carefrontations". You suck as a recruiter because you don't talk loudly enough! You don't stand up enough. You don't make 100 calls a day.

"Let me see your call sheet! Why have you only called 25 people today? You have been in the office all day! What have you been doing? Do you think you will ever get promoted?"

"Do you believe in micromanagement? We do! I need to know what you are doing every minute of every day. Why did you go for a two hour lunch? Why are you leaving at 4:00 p.m.?"

"We need you at the happy hour tonight. You have to show that you can hang with your coworkers. Can you pass the test?"

1995. That was the agency world. I can honestly say that was what I endured for three years. Some people did this for a decade or longer. No business is run quite like this anymore. I can say that if I can endure that experience, I can endure just about anything!

We all talk about social media, e-mailing candidates, Linkedin, work life balance today. I am telling you, we have it good. No, I changed my mind- we have it great! It feels incredible to be a recruiter in 2013.

Now, with all of the latest trends, let me say this. It still works. You can still pick up the phone and call people and having a bit of enthusiasm only helps you be a better recruiter.

Enjoy your week recruiters, and realize how great we have it!

If you enjoted this, please check out Bulls Eye Recruiting at www.wthomsonjr.com and subscribe to my weekly newsletter.

Comment by Seth Lidren on March 14, 2013 at 12:05pm: Even though I haven't been in the game nearly as long, Will...a lot of this rang true for my first agency days. That was before the lawsuits, unethical business practices and government investigations...oh, and by the way, FLSA class action in which the softy recruiters were upset that they worked 70-80 hours a week on a 40 hour salary.

Thank you for bringing this up, because I think the newcomers to this industry have no clue. Bravo, sir.

Comment by Will Thomson on March 14, 2013 at 12:12pm: Oh yes- there was a class action law suit against Aerotek for this. They had to mandate 4:00 days. You had to leave the office by 4:00 on your day. Like that was something special. Please!

Comment by Seth Lidren on March 14, 2013 at 12:17pm: Wow...we didn't even get that option. People just stopped yelling and making it "hostile" and stopped mandating the long hours. We were expected, but never told, that we had to work so much. When we didn't and try to do, you know, that work-life balance thing...we had a talking to much like Jennifer Aniston working at Chotchkies when she wasn't wearing enough flare.

Comment by Will Thomson on March 14, 2013 at 12:22pm: Good laugh. Work Life balance is so important now. You are right by saying there was that unsaid "expectation"

Comment by Amy Ala Miller on March 14, 2013 at 12:43pm: and every manager thought he was Alec Baldwin from Glenngarry Glen Ross :)

Comment by Will Thomson on March 14, 2013 at 12:48pm: Or.. Ben Affleck in the Boiler Room.

Comment by Amber on March 14, 2013 at 1:03pm: We ended up with a CORPORATE (almost 500k employees world wide) policy that no managers were allowed to play Glenngarry Glen Ross during meetings any more (this was my District Sales Manager brilliant idea of motivation - BTW, he was our Regional HR Manager several years later - ha!), or to have their email signature be "Coffee is for Closers". That movie almost made me leave sales.

Comment by Will Thomson on March 14, 2013 at 2:30pm: That's a trip Amber. Yea- that movie could scare just about anyone. 1st prize a set of steak knives. Last place- you are fired! I don't know how that could be motivational to anyone.

Comment by Sandra McCartt on April 25, 2013 at 4:51pm: I really hate it that you kids were not around before companies paid fees. Try making comish when you have to collect a fee from a candidate at $15.00 a week.

The nicest thing about the "good old days" is that those suckers are over.

Comment by Will Thomson on April 25, 2013 at 5:04pm: You are right, Sandra. They are long gone. It is good we can laugh about it now and it is funny how many people can relate to stories like mine or yours. I remember having these drawn out conversations about Mark up and Bill Rate. Good grief.

Comment