TRUE RECRUITER STORY #1

Sometimes I think I do the most fun, rewarding work in the world. Come on, how awesome is it that I can find people a new job!? Just think of it......I actually get to help people realize their dreams! Or maybe I am just keeping them off welfare. Either way, I promise you it is very personally and professionally rewarding. And its plain ole' fun! I get to meet new people all the time. I spend my day chatting with people. We talk about their jobs, their families and their goals...whatever is on their mind, actually. I bet the rest of you get in trouble at work if you sit around talking about personal stuff all day, right? 
Not me......IT IS ACTUALLY WHAT I AM PAID TO DO!!

What a life!  What a job!  Right?!

Mmmmmm..........maybe.

There are times I feel that I actually have one of the oddest jobs in the world. Recruiting is, at best, weird. My work is completely dependent on the whims and actions of other human beings. Worse! It is dependent on the whims and actions of other human beings during one of the most stressful times in their lives - when they are considering a career change. Unlike most professions, it seems at times that there is no skill involved at all......just 'damn luck'.

And sometimes, trust me, it doesn't seem rewarding at all.  Like this one time.................

TRUE RECRUITER STORY #1

I was a brand new recruiter....just a couple of months of experience. I was still pretty conservative by nature. I had been an accountant with a prestigious public accounting firm for quite a few years and had changed careers only because the extensive travel was keeping me from my family.  So, I had quickly developed a pretty good book of business helping other like-minded, conservative, serious accounting professionals find new jobs. My specialty, of course, was helping those who were growing weary of working so many hours and/or travelling so much.

So imagine my delight when I connected with a young, successful, conservative accountant working for the #1 firm in his industry who said to me:

"It isn't that I mind working the long hours or travelling for my current employer. The only reason I haven't considered making a change is because I don't really like or trust any of the other recruiters who have called me in the past. But you seem different. I think I can trust you because you are also a CPA and you seem serious and professional. I like your company too....it has a good reputation. I am very interested in interviewing."

Music to my ears!! The perfect candidate! Not only because he has the skill set, experience and educational background perfect for the job I was trying to fill, but obviously perfect because he was smart enough to realize how WONDERFUL, how TRULY, UNIQUELY WONDERFUL I was!!  He had to be brilliant, right?

It all went as smoothly as I suspected it would. He interviewed. The company loved him. He was given a strong, competitive offer. He loved it. He accepted the job and I was, of course, a hero!  What a great recruiter you are, everyone told me. What a great recruiter I am, I told myself.

So imagine my shock when I received a call on THE DAY that the perfect, young, conservative accountant was to start work telling me that he did not start work and that I would need to immediately begin looking for someone else. There were little snotty suggestions that this time I should try and "do better."  Hmmm, this is not the way people speak to a hero! What could have happened?  Evidently, the perfect, young, conservative accountant changed his mind, right? But why? I was told it was "confidential" what had happened and to just get back to work and hurry and find a replacment. Again, not the tone a hero expects to hear!

For those of you who know me, this will come as no surprise. I didn't just get back to work and hurry and find a replacement. I used every angle I could possibly think of to call around and try to find out what happened. The perfect candidate wouldn't call me back. HR wasn't talking. The person who called me originally and failed to treat me with the respect due a hero wasn't talking. Then finally came a break in the mystery!! A little clue!!  Here's what happened:

The third time I called for the perfect candidate (at his no doubt perfect home), someone actually answered the phone! A lady. An Older Lady. She said in a very sad voice "Stupid isn't here." (I have given this candidate the alias name 'Stupid' for reasons that will be apparent in just a moment from now.) "Stupid isn't here. No, actually I won't be able to give him a message any time soon, and I don't want to leave you hanging. Ummmm. Ummmm. Actually, Stupid is going to be moving. Ummmm. Ummmmm."  OK, STOP RIGHT THERE!....I am thinking. What the hell is going on?! Ok, I told myself, time to bring on the charm and the concern you SHOULD be feeling if this kid hadn't made you look like a total fool at your new job.  Ok, here goes:

"Ma'am, I am so sorry to have put you in this akward situation. I am not meaning to pry at all. I am the recruiter who got Stupid the job offer at Company Wonderful and just learned that he didn't start work. So I was, of course, very concerned. I was just calling to make sure everything is all right.  Is Stupid okay?" 

Evidently all it took to help Older Lady feel okay about divulge family secrets was a little compassion, because boy did I get an earful!

"We really thought Stupid was okay we thought he was better we were so excited to hear that he was getting a new job maybe it would be a fresh start who knew that he had cheated on his drug screen to get the job and if that isn't bad enough we never dreamed he wouldn't be able to go to his first day without taking a bunch of X and Lord who would think that based on the 'questionable temperature of the original sample' he would get drug screened on his very first day as soon as he walked in and imagine our surprise when his Daddy and I got the call that we should pick him up immediately or they would call the police because the level of drugs in his system is no doubt highly illegal oh my Lord what could we do but check him into one of those rehab places?"

Okay, maybe it wasn't just a little clue. Maybe Older Lady taught me right then and there that no matter how great of a recruiter I or anyone else thinks I am, that my success and reputation as a professional is now in the hands of a whole bunch of people I don't really even know.

But I still get to chat with those people all day.
And that's not bad.

Crap!  It's almost the end of the day.  I have so much to do before I can leave for the weekend.......I should be working right now!