A mental health professional once diagnosed me as being a “Charismatic Narcissist”. Apparently that’s a thing. Personally (which I don’t take it), I put the emphasis on the first word. Others close to me, including my wife, place it on the latter. I am aware that this differing interpretation would suggest that their emphasis is correct. Oh the irony. I’m not one for labels however. Doctors throw terms like “ADHD” and “HSV-2” around all the time right? Ignore ’em I say.
What I would say in defence of narcissism, is that it sure makes recruitment easier. Not only does it give you the unshakable belief that you’re always correct, but it also allows you to head home or to the pub each evening without any moral quandaries swimming around your head. If you’re not prepared to eventually alienate everyone close to you, you don’t have to be a full narcissist to get by in this game. However, you do need confidence and belief in your own conviction. Our job is one of persuasion, and…dare I say…manipulation. To do this to any standard, you need to back your own judgement. Because if you don’t, no one else will. And eventually, if you spend long enough backing yourself, you will, as sure as night follows day, start to play God.
Here’s how the journey goes.
When you start off in recruitment, it’s f*cking awful. You have zero credibility with clients, zero candidate control, and you spend the first three months thinking about quitting. That’s all part of the forging process. Then, for some, things start to click. You realise that no one really knows what they’re talking about, and the difference between you and old mate sitting next to you who bills loads, is self-belief. And most of this is either faked or medically induced anyway. This realisation is the first step to Godliness.
Next, this newfound confidence allows you to pick up jobs. You might even be surprised by how easy this is. And candidates, impressed by your ability to make the giddy world of freight-forwarding payroll sound sexy, start wanting to be placed in these jobs. Eventually, you have 8 live vacancies, with 8 perfect candidates for these roles.
This is where it starts to go wrong.
That evening, you make notes on your nearly new company iPhone. The person who had it first was there less than three months. You write down all your vacancies, and next to them, you write the candidate who’s getting the job, and then the fee. You add this up. It comes to $110,000! That’s $40k more than your salary! And you’ll be billing that in a 2 month period! Your boss is going to be over the moon. You talk to your partner about a holiday this year. No, not camping again. Maybe snorting cocaine out of each other’s bumholes in Los Cabos? Chickens are not just counted. They’re killed and fried with a secret blend of 11 herbs and spices. The next day, you go into work and start executing the plan. 8 perfect candidates for 8 roles. Some, you even have backups for (but these will be totally ignored of course). You look forward to your one on one with your boss to tell them the good news. It is during this meeting that a recruiter has a big lesson to learn. A lesson that all of us should learn, but most never do. A lesson much easier to teach than to execute on our own desks. Going through these 8 roles and 8 candidates, your boss will say something like “Why haven’t you put that candidate forward for that other job? And that one? And couldn’t that candidate also be right for old mate’s job they picked up this morning? You could do a split”.
All of a sudden, the perfect symmetry, the $110,000 with every role filled and every candidate placed is being challenged. Does your boss not realise that one client is already set on one candidate? Introducing another candidate will only slow up the process and give the hiring manager a tough decision. And if they hire the other guy, you’ll have a vacancy with no candidates and a candidate with no vacancy!!! Does your boss not realise how strategic you’re being?!
You’re now playing God. Welcome to the club.
Not putting a candidate forward in order to protect your chances of making a placement with someone already in process is always a mistake. Always. Read my lips. A-L-W-A-Y-S. Not putting a candidate forward because you have them at final stage elsewhere is always a mistake. Say it again sister. ALWAYS. And yet, after 20+ years, I’m sure I’ll do it again. That’s how strange this industry is.
When you don’t put a candidate forward, another agency does. When you try and put 8 into 8, one drop-out makes the whole thing topple like a house of cards. When you “just wait until this one is placed and we can talk about this other person”, you don’t make 2 placements. You make zero. Recruitment works by putting every suitable candidate forward to every suitable role. We are not Gods (but you are free to pray to them). When we try and be all-knowing we are soon reminded of those hopeless first three months.
That’s it today. No current affairs, no petrol chat, no war. That’ll be next week. Unfortunately.
^SW
