Have you ever given advice only to wonder why you even bothered? Of course you have, and of course that’s a very grumpy opener given I’m currently drinking breakfast cocktails in Fiji. Bear with me however as we might salvage some positivity from this one. The reason I’m in Fiji is that my wife kindly brought me here for my birthday. I say “for my birthday”, but in her words it’s for “10 years of delivering absolute, unadulterated, sexual ecstasy”. Women huh?!
I love it here and often recommend it. I recommend it to the point of annoyance of course, because, well, that’s what opinionated people do. It therefore really grinds my gears when someone says “Sean, we took your advice to go to Fiji. Except we ignored the 3 location recommendations you made, and like an absolute f*cking moron stayed at the Radisson Blu in f*cking Denerau. It was OK”. Somehow, their decidedly average holiday becomes your responsibility, when all you want to scream is “You didn’t f*cking listen”.
This issue plagues recruiters on the daily (if you’re good enough), and it’s actually even worse. So often, we have secured a fantastic offer with a great firm only for the candidate to say “I’ve had a think on it, and I’m going to accept the other offer that I secured directly. Yes, they make chemical weapons for Israel, and yes my new boss is a convicted sex offender, but I’m going with my gut”. The problem of course is money. Not the money the candidate is paid. It’s what we’re paid. The second an organisation pays us money to recruit for them, our perceived credibility plummets. This idea of “you would say that” makes the job of moral recruiters incredibly difficult. We can tell candidates until we’re blue in the face that they’re making a mistake, but our vested interest removes any idea of impartiality.
Here at Rice, many clients have tried to sweeten the deal over the years. They’ve offered us higher fees to give them exclusivity on candidates for a week. They’ve offered retainers. I’ve always said no. As much as I’d like the extra bunce for my Fiji holidays, we have to remain as impartial as possible in the advice we give our candidates. Go there or go there. Our fee is the same.
And of course it’s now time for politics. A rabbit hole I’ve been enjoying as my wife tans her bumchops has been political donations. There’s an excellent article/tool created by RNZ here. As we approach election day, some of you may still be undecided, and on some level it might make sense to follow the lead of smart, successful, intelligent people. Maybe seeing who they donate to represents solid “advice”. But again, money clouds the situation. Does a $200k donation mean that a successful business person believes the recipient is going to deliver what is best for New Zealand? Or do they believe the recipient will deliver best for those who have $200k to donate to a political party? I leave it to you to decide your view and guess mine.
Money corrupts, and yet we need to make it. The karmic idealist in me says that being straight with candidates pays off in the long run. If they found themselves a better job elsewhere, then tell them. In fact, prep them for the interview. They’ll not only remember you, but they’ll probably be your client some day. And if you’re a candidate, avoid any recruiter who does nothing but bag any firm they don’t represent.
Anyway, it’s breakfast time here and I want another Bloody Mary. Check out the RNZ article, have a look at who is funding who, take a guess as to why, and be sure to vote.
^SW
