I believe that recruiting was my calling long before I actually moved into this career. Even at a young age, I always found how to get a job more interesting than actually having the job. When I finally made the switch, the connection was clear between what I did as a communications professional and what I would need to do to succeed as a recruiter.
As our company grows, I am looking to add another contract recruiter to the team. For me, the ideal person would have a communications background. I firmly believe that having a deep understanding of this field makes us a better resource for our clients.
When you think about it, communicators are story tellers. We have natural curiosity. We gather information, synthesize it, and create a compelling story to tell our audiences. As a recruiter, I do the same thing both with our clients and our candidates. I am always digging for more than just the surface details, listening carefully, understanding and sharing information to make the match between our client and their ideal candidate.
I can teach someone how to recruit – we approach things in a way that sets us apart from many recruiting firms. We are all about the relationship (of course), and we have a proven process that helps our clients get to the heart of what success looks like so they can make a better hiring decision.
We also respect the candidates – all of them. Not everyone will get the job, but I believe it is as important to be kind and respectful to those candidates who don’t get selected as it is for the ones who do.
On the off chance someone has both a communications and recruiting background, I’d definitely be interested in learning more, but they would have to be open to learning to do things our way.
The role would initially be focusing on the candidate generation side of the business – finding top communications and marketing professionals for our client’s positions. Business development may come in the future, and a desire to bring in new business at some point will make you more financially successful. But for now, it’s all about working closely with clients to fill communications leadership positions.
If you’re curious about recruiting as a career, passionate about communications leadership, and have an entrepreneurial streak that you want to nurture, drop me a note. Here are a few things that I’m looking for:
- Absolutely must have a background in marketing and/or communications in a corporate or agency setting
- Professional maturity – a sophistication/ability to communicate with senior level marketing and communications professionals and HR executives
- Entrepreneurial in spirit, but prefers to work on a team and have someone else manage the business
- Really wants to become a recruiter, just hasn’t found the right way to get there
- Enjoys working remotely, and lives in or near a larger metropolitan market
- Curious – continues to learn
- Learns quickly, is smart and agile
- Financially performance driven – motivated to earn money
- Good writer, editor
- Optimistic, but relies on skills and fortitude, not just positive thinking
- Process driven
