So, you’ve done your job, your client gave you a role to recruit for, you’ve advertised on job boards, you’ve posted it over social media, and you’re pretty proud of the job spec you created from a two-line email. You’ve headhunted through LinkedIn, you’ve gone through your applications, and you’ve searched through all the CV Databases you have access to, to make sure you have a handful of suitable candidates before you leave the office.
Then you manage to get in touch with all those candidates, they’re still looking for a job, brilliant, they’re also interested in the role you’re recruiting for, excellent, and they meet the requirements set by your client, even better. Now, you just have to edit those CVs, like a gardener with a bonsai, carefully pruning this section, giving more focus to certain aspect. To make sure all parts of these curriculum vitae’s showcase your candidates to the best of their potential. Well done you they’re ready to send off, time to put the kettle on whilst you go through the same process for another candidate.
Whilst the kettle is boiling, you give the client a call, have they received your CV’s? What do they think? Okay they’ll get back to you, but they thank you for your swiftness. So, the candidates are screened, the client’s happy, just have to wait, with regular contact, to see if they want to see them.
Result, your client has phoned they want to see 3 and 7 on Tuesday. So you quickly get on the phone, they are still up for it, and want to interview, they agree to the times, you tell them about the company and confirm with the client. You’ve sent all the information you can give to help prep them for an interview. Now just to wait until interview day.
The morning of the Interview, a quick good luck call, to confirm that they’re still attending, and also to reassure them that you put a lot of effort into this client, you care about the roles and you only send the best across.
That’s it everything is now out of your hands. All that work you’ve put in, with no guarantee of the company making any money, all. You might say it’s all the fun of sales, and it is. You now have to hope that you’ve worked hard enough, and given good enough candidates to stand out from the crowd in the interview process.
It’s 11am, you call the candidate to find out how they got on, but they don’t answer, relax, they’re probably in the car, or have got back to work. You try the client, they pick up, but aren’t too happy, your candidate never showed. You do your best to smooth it over, inside you’re crushed. you put so much effort in, you pre-qualified that candidate, why would they not show. You manage to appease the client, you’ve done well for them in the past, and you had another candidate turn up, although unfortunately they weren’t quite the right fit. You call them to let them know the bad news, you offer them feedback and explain you will look for an alternative role for them. You’re trying to hold back your frustration.
Right now, you’re thinking of walking outside and really having a shouting match with whatever object or pigeon you come across. A seriously punishing session in the gym might get the wrath out of you, what did you do wrong? You did everything you could, short of taxiing the candidate to the interview in person.
Stop, breathe, you’re doing okay, no one in recruitment has avoided this situation, with the sheer number of people you deal with, you’re going to experience setbacks. People have problems beyond their control, and sometimes, people just don’t follow etiquette, so don’t let it get you down.
See, I was in this position at the beginning of the week, and it really brought me down. It was however at the very moment when I was about to choose the door option, when my email went “ping!” I opened it, and a company we had never worked with were asking for our help. So, I picked up the phone and called them, they needed someone quick and had asked a few agencies, I said we could do it. So, I gathered up my shattered ego, and went all out, no recruiter likes losing. I had CV’s across and confirmed they had received them, all I could do was wait.
The next morning, I had an email saying when can he start. Less than 20 hours after my first conversation with this client, we had a placement. It was a bandage for my ego. It reminded me that recruitment is a roller coaster, not to sound cliché, but it is. You go from cloud 9 to the pits in the same day. But, the thrill of the chase, that’s what I love. And being Inspired by People, day in, and day out. That’s why I chose recruitment, that’s why I learnt to stop worrying about losing control and to love recruitment.