If you’ve been in recruiting for very long, you may have heard the term “purple squirrel.” I remember the first time I heard it. It was probably my first week in marketing training for agency recruiting. I came to my mentor smiling ear to ear with my new job order.  He looked at it and said, “Do you hunt squirrel?” Confused I said, “Uh no, but my grandfather used to hunt squirrel.” (Yeah, I really did.) Needless to say, he laughed out loud. In fact it was such a genuine hearty laugh that the whole bull pen stood up, head-sets in tact, to signal their displeasure at the disruption. “I bet he never bagged a purple one, " he said. Ouch. By this point, I was aware the joke was on me, but I still had to have the term explained to me.

For a recruiter, a “purple squirrel” is a candidate that matches the seemingly impossible criteria the hiring manager has asked for on a bad job order. Finding this candidate is likened to finding a purple squirrel. The lesson being that purple squirrels should be avoided at all costs because even if they could be found, which is unlikely, the time you’ll invest is not profitable. That being said, many will still take one of these job orders at least once. Whether it is the spirit of the hunt that makes us think we can find one of these folks, or the commission we’re going to get if we do, the lesson is really hard to learn unless you actually find one of these purple squirrels.

“My candidate was seemingly perfect to the very end. I COULD find a so-called purple squirrel. Ha!”

I knew the job order was bad, but it was my best client.  It took a while, but I found this prize winning rodent with a magnificent violet hue! His cover letter, was smart and articulate. His skills matched the job description and then some. He had more experience than required, but just  enough to make him look really good to the client, not overqualified. The compensation was a hard sell, but the perks and benefits were enough for me to close him on accepting an offer at their high end. The icing on the cake was that he actually lived in the location that the client was completely prepared to re-locate someone to. That alone would save them 10K right off the bat. He showed up impeccably dressed and interviewed well. We were going to get the offer, pending reference checks, drug screen etc.

That is when I realized that I had moved too quickly with my process after spending so long on sourcing a fit. After all, this was a match I assumed would be practically impossible to find. What did I leave out? The reference checks! That part of my typical process got lost somewhere in the excitement of falling witness to a live purple squirrel.

No big deal, right? We’ve come this far. I’ll just call and let him know, call them quickly and we’ll be on our way. I was already thinking about how I was going to spend that fee on a little travel over the summer. I left a quick voice mail, “Hi Joe! I talked to the hiring manager and we expect to see your offer letter today. Of course, it will be contingent on background check and drug screen. Give me a call so I can get your references and give you more details.”

” Then it happened. My perfect candidate showed his furry purple squirrel tail! “

First, he returned my call with immediate questions about what the issue was and why they needed to do a background screen. “Um, well, that is a very typical process for most clients I work with. Is there a problem I should know about?” I asked with hesitation because I really did not want to hear his answer. It snow-balled from there. By the end of the call I had way more information than I ever wanted to know, including the fact that he had no idea how to reach two of his past three employers and he would be refusing a drug screen. I won’t even go in to the criminal history, but based on the role, I’ll just say it could have been a factor. Frankly, whether or not the information I receive would have disqualified him is irrelevant because he simply refused to do any of it. His behavior on the call was borderline scary and left me sure I did not want him to have another conversation with my client. I knew for a fact that the screening was required of all employees in this organization, so it was over. Essentially he pulled out. It was done whether I let them find out from him directly or I pulled the candidate with limited disclosure as to why. Either way, I was going to take a black eye with the client on this one.

Lessons learned:

1. If a candidate seems too good to be true, they probably are. This has nothing to do with their color or species. Be very, very cautious when you find a perfect candidate for a bad job order.

2. Don’t waste time on bad job orders in the first place. Even if you are lucky enough to find a purple, polka-dotted, FLYING squirrel, you should probably avoid working with them. In this case, the client eventually determined that they needed to adjust their job requirements to align with the salary they were willing to pay and we filled the position.

3. Always, ALWAYS check references on your candidates before you submit to clients. You won’t call their current employer obviously, but you need to have some kind of assurance they are who they say they are, even if the references are personal. I managed to keep my client despite the significant time we all wasted on this disaster, but I could have lost a great account.

4. Prep all of your candidates on what they can expect with your client’s hiring process. I assumed this candidate would know that a background check and drug screen would be required for the position he was interested in. Instead, he reacted with shock and frustration that it would even be necessary. Never, assume. Never.

Have you ever found a purple squirrel and had a better outcome? If so, I’d love to hear about it. Sign off below!

Amy McDonald works in an executive role with several employment websites including REKRUTR.com. She has been working in the human resources and recruiting industry for over 20 years. Amy has worked with hundreds of recruitment professionals throughout her career, training best practices in sourcing candidates and refining the recruitment process. In her spare time, Amy also participates as a thought leader and contributor for recruitment information with BIZCATALYST360.

- See more at: http://rekrutr.com/blog/the-time-i-found-a-purple-squirrel/#sthash....

Views: 914

Comment by PAUL FOREL on May 5, 2014 at 10:12am

Beginner Stuff.

Comment by PAUL FOREL on May 5, 2014 at 10:16am

Amy,

Bad Job Order ≠ Best Client.

This usually gets covered in Chapter 1 of that three ring training binder.

Comment by Amy McDonald on May 5, 2014 at 11:19am

I know. You're right, Paul. It was beginner stuff. I sure did learn a lesson when it happened though! Hopefully the post will prevent a reader who thinks they can find a purple squirrel from making the same mistake!

Comment by PAUL FOREL on May 5, 2014 at 11:55am

Amy,

There is more here than a story about a beginner not recognizing a job order that was not 'viable'. You can't be entirely held responsible for this since it is a beginner phenomenon.

But:

In your story was a description of a 'mentor' who deliberately let you waste your time/company time on a job order that was not worth anyone's time. In other words, this 'mentor' let you rack up hours running down a rabbit hole of no merit.

He cost you money and watched you waste company time.

He should be spanked.

There are times when a manager will let a newbie run a lead to ground so that person learns a relevant lesson but I wonder, in this case, just how much time you wasted working a job order not worth working. (Not to mention you skipped doing your homework about the candidate, another ding but excusable as long as you learned the first time.)

Have you/did you ever get to calculating how much time it takes you/how many calls it takes you to fill an order?

At some point -for a given type of search- it is possible to see that one 'earns', for example, $83/per hour of calls, maybe more, maybe less.

How many $83 hours did he let you waste on that job order?

So you see, for me, your adventure is just another newbie adventure but the real breakdown here is that management let you down, cost you money.

That manager/mentor had more control and knowledge than you did and I'd like to let that person know just what I think of his management style.

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