My strangest recruiting moment recently was when I had to pre-screen a prospective candidate for one of my major clients and prep them for an interview.

Per her resume, she had everything our client was looking for, an impressive education from an Ivey league University with an advanced degree along with a pretty fast track career pathway working for many of the top tier companies in her industry.  So here is the set up, we had already scheduled a prescreen in advance and confirmed via phone and email and she was already aware we had 30-45 minutes tops to complete this phone screen.

Well the phone rings and she answers as if she is sleepy, when I ask her if this is still a good time, she takes a couple of seconds or did it turn into minutes to reply? With every question I asked her and believe me I explained myself very thoroughly she would have another question for me.  If I asked for ONE example she would provide FIVE.  She would sway away from the topic at hand and start talking about traffic and events in the news.  She would shock me at times because she would give great answers but then offset it with some crazy response.  Half way into the screening process I realized we were already on the phone for over 30 minutes,  mind you it was already 6:30 pm my time and I told her we needed to get this done or I could not move her along for the next step with the client.  She apologized and said “ok I will just answer the questions”.  “Thank the lord” I said to myself, but sure enough the next question she continued with her shenanigans and even started giving me health advice and talking about her health problems. 

Boy oh boy I thought this phone call would never end.  The entire time I was thinking she must really be good at her job because how has she lasted in all these top tier companies?  Does she talk people to death?  Is this how she makes her quota?  Before our call ended I think I reminded her at least 2 more times that we needed to get this done and I had to leave to pick up my child but it did not seem to faze her much.  I hope I never get anyone on the phone like this again, but I’m sure there are people who just don’t know when to stop and talk themselves right out of a job.  GEEZ!!!

I enjoyed a really nice bottle of Cabernet last night, and it suddenly occurred to me that the similarities with great candidates were striking. Both take a great deal of effort to produce on the front end, not to mention the right timing and conditions. But if the end consumer doesn’t time their intake properly, both wine and candidates spoil and turn into wasted effort and money. Of course shelf life varies widely, and this is where the two really depart.

With candidates, we can continue to have input and develop the relationship, but that only goes just so far. At some point, especially with great candidates, there has to be some interaction with a hiring authority which results in a line of sight to an opportunity. If not, they’ll spoil and find opportunity elsewhere.

Are you filing great candidates in the “I’ll have to get to it later” folder? Is that really in your best interest? Does it produce the best return on your investment in generating those candidates?

Just my 2 cents…well, $45 actually…and a little food for thought.

BTW, it was a 2005 Joseph Phelps Napa Valley Cab. Great now and should develop nicely over the next several years!

Make it a great day!

Everyone wants results – parents, teachers, siblings, workers, employers, friends, family, and yes that “other family” – your clients. So what do you do? Just mumble fumble your way through it, lie about what you can’t do? Heck no – when handling client expectations, be upfront on your capabilities; when taking on new projects, be realistic – don’t promise the moon but get pretty darn close to earth. When giving a project time estimate or completion date – pack in some buffer, just in case. When you deal with clients and stretch the talk, you’ll be found out sooner than later.

So, plan on a little under promising and a lot of over delivering. After all it’s what you deliver that counts, not what you say you can deliver!