Well, here I am. In the absence of Sean and soon to be Jon, I’m writing the blog. In the 8+ years I have worked for Rice Consulting, the purist tradition is that ones weekly musings are pounded out the same morning it is published, powwow hangover or not. Personally, I live in a dictatorship with a 4 year old and Auckland traffic, and I haven’t arrived to work on time work since 2019 so between me and you, I started writing this blog on Wednesday night. Jotting down blog topic ideas in the notes of my phone as I contorted my body around the said (finally asleep) 4 year old.
My first thought was to write a blog about writing the blog but given my (soon to be proven) limited success in the area, I felt underqualified. Then after a day of “manning” the phones and having endless wrong numbers call without a single apology, I wondered if there is some kind of psychology around apologising. According to google, there definitely is and I look forward to unpacking this with my therapist in our next session. Finally, championed by Geordie Dave, I actually started drafting a blog about what a mafia contracted killer could teach us about recruitment until I realised that perhaps this was something to add to the “to be discussed with therapist” list. So, I just got back to my real job of connecting with recruiters, and secretly hoped that no one would notice if the blog skipped a Friday for the first time in 13 years.
I don’t actually remember being a massive Spice Girls fan growing up. As a brown girl in a predominantly white community, I always landed the role of playing Scary Spice in the reenactment of their MTV video clips. A role my primary school-self deeply resented, as all I wanted was to dye my hair with food colouring, do seances and sunburn like all the other (blonde haired white) girls. But fan or no fan, over the last wee while I’ve found myself muttering the lyrics of Wannabe as I’ve hung up the phone; just ‘tell me what you want, what you really really want.’
I do understand, and even admire, the inquisitive nature of humans to want to find aliens and understand the current recruitment market but when questions around what you want to earn and where you want to work are meet with ‘open to anything’, I’m left feeling awkward and unsure of how I can help. So to help me, help you here are some suggestions;
Identify your goals
What is it that you ultimately want to do? Knowing where you want to end up and what you need to feel satisfied in your job will be the guiding light I need to navigate the path, or at very least, our conversation going forward.
Evaluate the pros and cons.
I’ve had a number of conversations this week with Recruiters actively applying to advertised roles but not actively looking. Confused? Me too. If this is you, it could be a good time to evaluate the things you love and don’t love so much about your current role. As the song goes “If you want my future, forget my past” so if the reason you want to leave is that you hate your current boss or you have an insatiable crush on a colleague, do share all the juicy details but please be assured I won’t be briefing clients about it on your behalf.
Don’t get FOMO
I’ve had to learn this one the hard way myself, but saying yes in fear of missing out, when it was really a no has meant that I missed out on opportunities that were for me and took ones that weren’t. No doubt I’m going to ask if you’d consider it “just in case” but being clear about your no’s are just as important as your yes’s, and will get us both where we want to go, faster.
Make it make sense
My direct debit for this month’s electricity bill just left my account so I too, understand the current cost of living in this country but if you are on $65k with less than 12 months experience, and are looking for $110k in your next role I’m going to need you to come in and negotiate my salary on my behalf at my next annual review, and then read my future blog about working for the mafia.
As I explained to my “strong-willed” son this morning, please use your words…
Or don’t, I’ll probably still call you anyway.
