“Recruiter” is the best job in HR! #SHRM16

I grew up and lived most of my life in Michigan.  There are so many things I love about living in Michigan and most of those things have to deal with water and the 3 months that temperatures allow you to enjoy said water (Jun – Aug).  There is one major thing that completely drives me insane about Michigan.  Michigan is at its core an automotive manufacturing state which conjures up visions of massive assembly plants and union workers.  To say that the majority of Michigan workers feel entitled would be the largest understatement ever made.

We have grown up with our parents and grandparents telling us stories of how their overtime and bonus checks bought the family cottage, up north, and how they spent more time on their ‘pension’ than they actually spent in the plant (think about that! if you started in a union job at 18, put in your 30 years, retired at 48, on your 79 birthday you actually have had a company pay for you longer than you worked for them – at the core of the Michigan economy this is happening right now – and it’s disastrous!  Pensions weren’t created to sustain that many years, and quite frankly they aren’t sustainable under those circumstances).  Seniority, entitlement, I’ve been here longer than you, so wait your turn – are all the things I hate about my great state!

There is a saying in professional sports – “If you can play, you can play”.  Simply, this means that it doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from, how much your contract is worth – if you’re the best player, you will be playing.  We see examples of this in every sport, every year.  The kid was bagging groceries last month, now a starting quarterback in the NFL!  You came from a rich family, poor family, no family – doesn’t matter – if you can play, you can play.  Short, tall, skinny, fat, pretty, ugly, not-so-smart – if you can play, you can play.  Performance on your specific field of play – is all that matters.  BTW – NHL released this video a while back supporting the LGBTQIA (BTW – will someone get the LGBTQIA a marketing consultant and stop just adding letters!) community (if you can play…) –

This is why I love being a recruiter!  I can play.

Doesn’t matter how long I’ve been doing it.  Doesn’t matter what education/school I came from.  Doesn’t matter what company I work for.  If you can recruit – you can recruit.  You can recruit in any industry, at any level, anywhere in the world.  Recruiting at its core is a perfect storm of showing us how accountability and performance in our profession works.  You have an opening – and either you find the person you need (success), or you don’t find the person (failure).  It’s the only position within the HR industry that is that clear cut.

I have a team of recruiters who work with me. Some have 20 years of experience, some have a few months – the thing that they all know is – if you can recruit, you can recruit.  No one can take it away from you, no one can stop you from being a great recruiter.  There’s no entitlement or seniority – ‘Well, I’ve been here longer, I should be the best recruiter!’ If you want to be the best, if you have to go out and prove you’re the best.  The scorecard is your placements.  Your finds.  Can you find talent and deliver, or can’t you?  Black and white.

I love recruiting because all of us (recruiters) have the exact same opportunity.  Sure some will have more tools than others – but the reality is – if you’re a good recruiter – you need a phone and an ability to connect with people.  Tools will make you faster – not better.  A great recruiter can play.  Every day, every industry.  This is why I love recruiting.

2 thoughts on ““Recruiter” is the best job in HR! #SHRM16

  1. I like Michigan. I like cottages up north. I agree that recruiting is a skill that can be somewhat acquired but is mostly innate, and certainly portable.

    OTH, I think your opinion of unions and your understanding of pensions is completely backwards.

    If you fully fund a pension, the interest lasts….wait for it….forever. Of course that means living off the interest, less inflation, of some much larger sum of money. To “fully” fund pensions, people would take home maybe 10% of their after tax earnings and invest the balance.

    Does that work for most people? No, but it could if values changed, and it must when people live to 150 but can’t realistically work past 70.

    Next, I bet your candy ass would not last 1 year in an auto-plant, much less 30 years. Hell you may not make it a week. It’s a grind that makes your worst ever recruiting day a Sunday picnic in comparison.

    Unions are a substantial part of what created the wealth of the United States. A wealthy working class means a VERY comfortable professional class. The absurdity of our current distribution is a sick sad joke and has nothing whatsoever to do with job creation or incentives, and has everything to do with broken down institutions and zero discipline in a rotted moral culture. That seems to be coming around too as the grotesque boomers start to die off.

    In many industrialized nations, company owners would not dream of a non-unionized workforce; not because of politics, but because the unions are a very handy thing to have when they are not allowed to become corrupt (a feature, not a bug in American practice) and instead enforce shop floor norms and offload the staffing burden.

    So props on understanding that value of recruiting and demerits for obsolete right wing talking points….

  2. Love the comment about the LGBTQIA needing a marketing consultant! I have a gay child and can never remember the letters or their order. I just end up calling it the “too many letters” club.

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