Matching talent with market demand. Seems like a simple thing to map. If only humans and offices didn’t come with these inefficient personalities and idiosyncrasies! Fitting these together harmoniously is what makes you a good recruiter.

So maybe you think you’ve got what it takes to align the cosmic forces and recruit successfully. Here are a few things to remember about talent: having the skills and the pedigree is only part of the equation for the candidates you work with, and often the easy part. Kind of like needing to wear some form of pants to work, yes it’s important but it’s not the complicated part. If you want to be a recruiter people really value, who keeps everyone happy and employed there are details you have to pay attention to. We’ve talked about the importance of fit. Finding fit means understanding the details, of knowing everything you can about the talented people (how they like to work, what makes them feel rewarded, how much mentoring they need).

You have to do the same for the companies that need talent. All companies, and divisions within companies, are unique in culture and process and they all value highly their uniqueness. That means you have to as well or you won’t be working with them for very long.

It starts with Curiosity.

How well do you want to know the inner working of different companies? Are you willing to thread through HR process docs so that you understand how to not get in the way and mesh in seamlessly when you’re trying to help this company staff up? Every company has its own way of doing things. Will you get to know the company’s culture? Not just repeat what their HR people tell you, but really find out what sort of person excels in that environment? The same goes for talent. A resume doesn’t tell the full story, you need to dig deeper.

Starts with Curiosity and ends with Patience.

Seeing something through often requires patience and tenacity. You simply have to keep at it and keep things moving through the thicket of bureaucracies both corporate and personal. Barriers will pop up. There’s no set-it-and-forget-it. Things can unravel at the last second, and often do if you’re not careful. If you have the patience and the vigilance to see things through and not just the initial burst of energy to get things started, then maybe recruiting is for you.

The hiring process isn’t an easy one, and it isn’t supposed to be. Hiring the wrong person leads to an awful, awful experience for everyone. But when you get the fit just right it’s a great feeling. It’s no easy feat, but being able to look back at it and think I did that. I made that happen; that’s a sweet feeling.

About NextGen

NextGen is the brainchild of longtime telecom professionals with nearly 50 years of experience and millions of dollars in Telecom Recruiting Services. We focus on establishing long term relationships with our clients and candidates so we can recruit the best and the brightest in the telecom industry. This ‘quality over quantity’ approach is at the heart of everything we do and has resulted in successful job placements at Fortune 1000 firms worldwide.