This is a repost from a blog I follow called Recruiting Animal. While I subscribe to his blog, I don’t know the guy. We work in different areas, and our potential for doing split placement work I suspect is probably nil. Most of the time, I don’t even get a chance to read his posts, but this morning I happened to notice one that hit home.
Since most of my posts are either directed to my area of specialty (process control applications and programming specialists), or toward helping people do a better job of finding work, it’s rare for me to comment on the hiring authority side of recruiting and search work. I wish I’d written this. Not because I work in sales, or even in direct hire placement, but because this case is so symptomatic of searches that lead nowhere, that waste the time of everyone concerned (candidate, recruiter, client), and that hollow the craft of recruiting.
This is what many recruiters face in trying to locate and place a bonafide candidate. Ironically, just as I’d finished reading his post, I noticed an email from someone who needs to add someone to the staff, and “could I please just send some resumes”.
Last week I told you how pathetic executives can be when they step into the role of hiring manager. And today I want to give you an example.
About 6 weeks ago I had a phone conversation with a VP of Sales. He was looking for a senior sales person, someone who handled big accounts worth millions of dollars.
He gave me a minimal idea of what he wanted but when I asked him about the compensation package he said he didn’t know. He’s the VP and he didn’t know.
I said: “Look, HR has already given me a base. I just need to know how much commission the person is going to earn at quota.” “I’ll get it for you later,” he said.
Within a week, I had two candidates. Both of them were great. Within two weeks they had been interviewed by the hiring manager, another VP and a sales engineer.
There was no doubt they could do the job but then the VP said, “Find me more people.”
I said: “Okay, but first you tell me what these guys are missing because I think they’re pretty good.” No reply.
Then I said, “Well, do you have any idea what the money is now?”
He said: “I have some tentative figures from the president.”
I said, “Send them to me.” So he did. The base was lower than what HR gave me and the base and commission package was way lower than what the two candidates were earning.
“Do you want someone more junior?” I said.
“No,” he said. “I need people just like them.”
Then he said he’d pass the number one candidate on to the president for an interview and I didn’t look for anybody else.
The candidate spoke to the president on the phone and he thought the meeting went very well but then I got an email from HR:
The president thought your candidate was ok but did not stand out and for this reason, we want to continue the search for additional candidates.
In addition, the VP and president both feel that your candidate has good experience, he has bounced around too many times from job to job and although he has explained his moves we still feel that this is still a problem.
Regarding compensation, the president wants to wait until the candidate has been chosen before we start discussing that.
The guy has 4 interviews before they tell me he moved around too much.
So, I called the candidate and told him he was out and then I said to the company: “It seems like the president is a key part of the selection team so before I go back into the field I’d like to speak to him to find out he’s looking for.
“And you know what else? I’d like to get an idea of the money because I don’t want to bring someone in and then at the end of the process find out that the money isn’t right?”
So HR sends me an email:
Dear Animal,
I didn’t say that your candidate was out of the running. I just indicated our concerns. Let’s put everything on hold right now. Don’t you look for more people.
So, listeners, you make up your mind. Was I too tough with this company? And Company: The guy who’s on hold? The guy who didn’t stand out? He earned over $300,000 last year. And the number 2 candidate, he earned $250. You think they don’t know what they’re doing? I think they do.
And before you tell me to find someone else I want to know exactly what you’re looking for. And if you’re the president and you want me to find someone you like, you’d better take the time to speak with me.