The Circumstance Hunter
By: Gary Miller
People call us headhunters…I take no offense. True, we do look for people that have the skills to do a job, but even if we find the perfect person, if the circumstances aren’t right, then no deal. If there aren’t at least three conditions present, none of which can be gleaned from a resume, then all the interviewing and courting in the world won’t help.
Here are the circumstances we look for:
Motivation:
What would motivate a person to pursue this particular position and company with rigor? Frequently, the story about the companies products, mission, vision, culture is not that always evident from a website and almost never from a job description. Granted, good marketers and web designers will use every cliché under the sun to describe a culture and resumes are chock full of superlatives. So who sorts that out and makes the connection?
Reason for change:
Is the person bored, burnt out, a bad apple or someone who truly is underemployed and could add great value elsewhere? Are they blaming their environment or responsible for their results? Would references who know them well recommend them? Will their employer be sorry to see them go? Don’t take it at face value, it takes some diving.
Logistics:
Where the job is, how much travel, career path and destiny are most often limited by geography. The person should be able to live, commute, work remotely, travel extensively or someday move to advance with the company. Who spends the time investigating these parameters early in the process?
Financial parameters:
Countless hours have been spent pursuing opportunities where the compensation offered and expected don’t align. Would it be nice to have that all sorted out in advance? (indeed it would)
Chemistry:
The chances of any two people meeting and both liking each other is 1 in 4. Add another person into the hiring process and it’s 1 in 4 again or now 1 in 8. That’s low odds of success. Remember the blind date scenario: One person knows both parties well, and thinks they’d hit it off. I’ve never studied those odds but I’ll bet they’re higher than 1 in 4 that they’d get along. If a Recruiting Professional does his job and really gets to know his clients and candidates, then the chances they’ll click are much higher.
If you want to find someone who has the skills and motivation to do a job, wants to change for valid reasons, is in the right place, that you can afford and who you’ll enjoy working with every day, then hire a Circumstance Hunter to help you.
Gary Miller is President of Miller Resource Group, a Franchise of MRINetwork and recognized by Forbes as a Top Ten Executive Search Firm in the USA. gmiller@millerresource.com