If someone had told me many years ago that the first love is not necessarily the only one (in my case, it was the Law and it happened very early, giving me my first thrills when 4 or 5 years old, ever since my first “working” visits to the courthouse, the office of one of my parents) and that I would use my knowledge in Law only as an alternative, without becoming the fundament of my professional career, I would have taken it as a challenge, because it would have seemed that he didn’t know what I am capable of, nor how much I can achieve when I put my mind to it.
Of course, I wouldn’t have stopped there and would have continued with a dissertation on the objectives that one should define, follow and achieve, accompanied by another summary of personal and statistic arguments, that I am sure you do not only guess, but you have also used at some point in your motivational discourses, arguments that meanwhile have refined to the point of becoming a distinct genre in literature, called, prophylactically, I would say, motivational or self-development literature.
Just as the same motivational literature teaches us that: “Life is what happens to you, while you are busy making other plans” that is what happened to me too. It happened or, better put, I have actively engaged myself in making it happen, building a new love, generally called, by all the parties involved, recruitment.
I will not focus on the etymology of the word, even though it would make a good theme for a debate taking into consideration the temporal inadequacy of the term recruitment, meanwhile, the process becoming much more sophisticated and, I would dare to say, much more generous than its predecessors, regimentation and enrollment. Nor will I pause on its segmentation, according to volumes or managerial levels, although the last 10 years “happened to me” exclusively in the “Head Hunting” area, an expression that, although having a similar martial connotation, is saved by the title “Executive Search”.
I will not focus on “the process of falling in love” either, a process that happened gradually, through exploratory meetings of acquaintanceship, in the beginning, passing through stormy contrapositions, evolving together through tough questions and, most of the time, through properly reached answers, till one day when we looked in each other’s eyes and I knew that the first big love is not necessarily the only one.
I will stop, however, at the “Why?” of this story, which is one of my favourite questions, although the daily interviews practice allows me to address it, as a challenge, mostly to others. This time, the challenge is mine and as I do not intend to build a competencies-based interview, nor to inventory its strong points or its areas to be enhanced, I will stick to the answer for a single question: “Why do I love recruiting?”
The answer is straightforward, although, as in any declaration of love, it cannot be just one. Here’s why:
Because recruiting allowed me to meet smart and beautiful people, professionals who inspire you with the passion and the joy you can read in their eyes when they share with you their story of building themselves or of building others day after day.
Because recruiting means offering opportunities and searching for the most appropriate talents for them and I have the chance to be a part of this “encounter”.
Because I had the opportunity to “direct” such encounters between opportunities and talents and to be another step in their success stories.
Because I have learnt there is no such thing as a perfect match and that sometimes even the downside, seen from another perspective and with different eyes, can become an advantage.
Because I have received, once more, the confirmation that there are no shortcuts for the places or the jobs that are worth getting to, and if I came across any exceptions, they are not enough to invalidate the rule.
Because recruitment is a stage where you are invited to be the best version of yourself, and I am one of the lucky people who have front seats, having the chance to take part in several such “performances” that were praiseworthy for those who gave them.
Because I like stories and recruitment processes could also be considered stories with and for grown-ups.
Because I like happy endings and we have to admit that recruitment is almost always a story with at least one happy ending.
Because it doesn’t always matter how good you are, but how good you want to be, and recruitment can be the antechamber for a better “You”.
Last, but not least, although I did not set for a ranking, though the procedure might have asked for it [sic], I love recruiting for the final candidate’s joy and success, which, in reality, embody the simplest appreciation I wish every recruitment project to conclude with.
I could list more reasons and, accepting also the antithesis, there are also reasons and days when I don’t love recruiting, but my proposal to you is to answer the “Why not?” question in a future editorial.
And now, I challenge you! What about you? When you love recruiting, why do you love it?
Article first published on www.linkedin.com on May, 10th, 2015.
Photo Credit: Unsplash
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