Twenty years in the recruitment game is a long time. The industry has transformed incredibly, and over the last 2 decades I’ve also been on the receiving end of some pretty strange assumptions (sometimes perhaps more like ‘accusations’) about exactly what I did.
I’ve got thick skin so when a prospective client once told me to my face that I was (in his eyes) “a lesser form of life than a used car salesman”, I got up, thanked him for his time and walked out of his office.
Maybe I shut the door a bit more forcefully than I normally would have!
A candidate once sent me a thank you card after I had placed her that simply read “You are an absolute superstar”.
I spent many years working with a recruitment agency with its global HQ based in Boston. My mother latched on to the ‘Boston’ piece perhaps a little too literally and would tell her friends (or anyone she met actually) that I was responsible for running all the recruitment for Harvard!
Yes … proud Jewish Mothers sometimes have a tendency to slightly exaggerate.
Of course the classic comment which came from many of my HR client contacts was, “please stop trying to do my job for me!”.
Every player in the recruitment game has a different perception of what another player really does.
One person might think you fly around in a private jet; someone else might see you as a wizard; of course there will always be someone who thinks you just sit back spending your days schmoozing to people.
Here’s our idea of how recruiters, sourcers, and hiring managers see each other.
What do you think?
Author
Paul Slezak
With over two decades of experience in the recruitment and human capital industry, Paul Slezak has established himself as a transformative force in the realm of leadership and career coaching, group facilitation, and talent acquisition. His unique perspective, drawn from his early career as a leader in global recruitment firms and his entrepreneurial success with his own start-up, has enabled him to make a significant impact on leaders, teams, and organizations across the world. Paul's passion for helping others achieve success and high performance is evident in his commitment to transforming leaders and their teams at local, national, and international levels. He specializes in promoting the importance of human-centered intelligence, focusing on soft skills such as authenticity, transparency, and trust to complement business-centered acumen and drive better workplace outcomes. As an impartial facilitator, Paul brings his expertise to team offsites and strategy days, ensuring alignment on goals, values, and culture while keeping participants on task. His engaging and energetic presence, coupled with his unique "entertraining" and "edutaining" delivery style, enables him to connect with audiences both large and intimate, sharing personal and professional anecdotes that inspire and energize.
