I’m one of the lucky ones.
I fell completely backwards into the talent acquisition realm a number of years ago and I’ve never looked back.
Check this: I get paid to engage with people. That’s it.
I’ve recently made the transition from amateur loud mouth non HR, HR guy to professional loud mouth non HR, HR guy and I couldn’t be happier. Shhhh. Don’t spread the word. If my mom ever finds out that I am now paid to speak my mind, she’s going to want a cut. 🙂
When you engage with people for a living, you end up engaging with a pile of people. Some of them are absolutely incredible. Some of them make an impression that lasts for a few hours or days. Sadly, some of them leave you thinking… “Sweet, merciful crap… what is that person thinking?”.
I have been fortunate enough to recently “meet” (do people actually meet and shake hands still? Thanks a lot LinkedIn) an absolute breath of fresh air. A true modern day Wonder Woman. Inspiration on wheels. In fact, we’ve started to take turns sending daily musical recommendations to each other just to make sure the day starts off right. It was her turn today; The Joker by Steve Miller Band.
Steve Miller says “I’m a picker, I’m a grinner, I’m a lover and I’m a sinner”.
This song of course got me thinking about how the lyrics relate to hiring and how we as recruiters really need to take a long hard look in the mirror.
Traditional recruiters – agency and corporate – typically complain about the same things:
“No one is applying to my job posting”
“The wrong candidates are applying to my job posting”
“I don’t have time…”
My thoughts?
Nonsense.
What would Steve Miller say?
I’m a picker…
Guess what? We choose how we invest our time. We choose to be active or to rely on job postings that may or may not speak to our target audience. We choose to accept the status quo or to evolve. We choose to curse out “I don’t have time…” or to take a look at our process and make it better. I’m willing to bet my house that if any of us had the winning lottery ticket in our pocket, we would all magically “have time” to cash it in.
I’m a grinner…
I’m fortunate enough to work for an organization where it is literally impossible to not have fun. If you are not having fun at Pivot + Edge, to me, you are trying to not have fun. How about you? Are you recruiting for an organization whose boardrooms have never heard a random belly laugh, or do you represent a team that people genuinely enjoy playing for?
I’m a lover…
I absolutely love what I do and each and every person I interact with knows it. Why? One of the reasons is because I choose to differentiate myself from the sea of 463,000+ recruiters on LinkedIn. We all spend more waking hours at the office than we do with our families. If you don’t love what you do or you don’t love the organization that you represent, to me, you have no business recruiting for them.
I’m a sinner…
I make mistakes all the time… but I’m OK with that. You know why? Because it means that new strategies, new approaches and new angles. To me, the true recruiting sin is failure due to a lack of accountability. Growing pains make me taller; I own my mistakes and I grow from them. Do you?
As a profession, we need to grow up. I’m not suggesting that I’m the prototype that all talent acquisition professionals should try to replicate. I’ve never been called a space cowboy. My middle name is not Maurice. What I am suggesting is this:
We are all in control of our professional destiny. We would all have time to cash in the winning lottery ticket. It’s up to each and every one of us to choose our path, choose to smile, laugh and love or to let fear, excuses, or failure to take accountability to be our downfall.
Wonder Woman… you know who you are. Thank you.
J
