Eavesdropping on Recruiting

Listening to my recruiters call potential candidates, do phone screens and set up interviews has really become a ritual. I sit in a cube near them and while I’m posting to social media, researching vendors, wrangling vendors (LOL), investigating hard-to-fill areas and looking for ways to help them in general, I hear “Good afternoon, may I speak with..” “Hey, I’m just giving you a call back to check on your status of paperwork..” “Ok, I can walk you through this process, it will take about 10 minutes…” ”Do you have time between 2-4pm for an interview…” “ While on the interview be sure to be professionally dressed and really talk about your experience and excitement for the position..” and the list goes on and on.

What occurred to me the other day is that these people, MY recruiters are truly helping others. While it might seem like an automated machine of filling requisitions and jobs, they WANT these people to get jobs. I hear them talk about their candidates and how they get frustrated when the hiring manager doesn’t give them the time of day when they are a good candidate. Or when the candidates act like they are telemarketers – they really are trying to get this person a job and squared away to be hired! I also hear them coach them after the hiring manager decides not to hire them. They ask about the interview, ask what was said and provide feedback based upon the hiring manager. I would have LOVED to get that early on in my career or even now! Interviews often feel weird when you are denied a position – how can I improve? I’m hearing them do this for their candidates, whether they are part time or salaried.

Sometimes recruiting gets a bad rap. Recruiters are like salespeople in a lot of ways – they are selling the job and organization to a candidate. They are looking to assess fit on the front line and are looking for people that WANT to work; who would be a good addition to the team. I hear candidates and hiring managers tell these people that they do not have the best interests of others at heart – that they just want to reach numbers. That isn’t what I’m seeing. I’m seeing people trying to do right by others. I hear it every day. And I’m proud to hear it! 

What Sorority Recruitment has Taught Me About Life.

I recently attended my chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta’s fall recruitment process as an alumnus. While I have been an alumni for 4 years now, this year was a little different as my little sister (biological, ha) was an integral part of the executive recruitment board who is in charge of planning and executing this large task. My sister asked that I help in a few steps of the process to get the chapter up to speed on what to expect and how to deal with any unforeseen difficulties. I got to attend a mock recruitment day where the active girls got to actually practice talking to strangers (the alumni) in the recruitment setting. In addition, I got to attend one of the recruitment days and got to see the girls work together to make the experience special for the potential new members. I also heard ALL about any issues from my sister so I had a good feel as to what was going on during the entire planning and implementing process. I had been saying to the girls all along that a lot of these skills have helped me later in life, but it’s hard to see how when you are still an active member.  So here is my wrap up of what exactly helped me:

• Stress tolerance: When planning a huge event, there are many loose ends, many coordinating efforts and an overall inundation of multiple things. This normally occurred while school was in session and girls had to learn to manage classes, jobs, finances and this big event. While it seems impossible as an active, this really helped later for me in graduate school and even onto the workplace. When things seem crazy, I know that they are not impossible and I learned how to cope with stress effectively through recruitment directly.

• “Playing with others:” While I have not mastered this completely, being forced to work with a large group of girls, and some that, frankly, you just really couldn’t stand helped me to work better in groups. It could be a personality issue, performance issue (not doing the work) or some other issue. What it came down to is that even if you LOATHED a girl or another group, you were forced to “make it work.”

• Staying positive: I am definitely not an optimist, and I consider myself a realist. In any large, complex event, things will and do go wrong. How you react to it is everything. I’m sure many Greek girls will sympathize when I say that the PowerPoint or video will magically REFUSE to work when it needs to. Lights go off, decorations fall down and speeches are muddled. Girls don’t join a group based upon the event planning; they join it based upon the personality of the chapter. Being negative and not solving the issue does not accomplish anything other than making you or those around you feel bad.

• Delegation: I am the type of person who likes to do things themselves if I know what I want done and how. If you have ever been in a leadership position for a large task, you know that you HAVE GOT TO delegate to individuals on the team. This can range from simply handing off the task or mentoring and training an individual in how to do it. Learning how to effectively delegate and set people up for success is necessary to succeed in any leadership position. In addition, recognizing that people will shirk responsibilities and how to deal with that is also important.

•  Networking: This is probably obvious, but I wanted to cover it anyway. Learning how to find common ground with ANY individual is necessary to be successful in any job, position, role or organization. Meeting new girls and making them feel comfortable is a skill that can be used over and over in a variety of situations.

• Becoming self-aware: When working with such a large group on such a large task, your weaknesses REALLY come to light. Maybe you aren’t the best at time management, delegation or communication. In addition your strengths really begin to shine under this type of pressure. Using these types of situations to figure out what you are good at, struggle with and developing ways to leverage your strengths while still developing your weaknesses is necessary to succeed in any function.

• Gaining a voice: Learning to not be afraid of confrontation and learning how to confront negative behavior in the right way is integral to being a successful leader and peer. While difficult to develop, this really helped me to interact better with those that I felt were slacking on a task or just being difficult.

While I could go on and on about things that I learned and have used in graduate school and the workplace, I wanted to end it here. These were the things I found MOST important and I hope that some others can comment on things that they learned. This is only one experience, so I’m sure many others have many different experiences on what is important to take away from learning experiences such as this. Comments are definitely welcome!