I never thought I’d be writing a post like this. You’re telling me I have options when it comes to my career as recruiter? For most of us who graduated college and stumbled into recruiting, the ideal path was get into an agency, grind, make the transition internally and call it a day and that would have been a fantastic career. As I enter into this next stage of my recruiting career, I have started to wonder though— what else is out there? What choices do I have?

For most folks, the beginning of summer often means sunset bonfires, camping, and backyard BBQ. For us NBA junkies it also means the start of free agency. Billion dollar franchises and their lawyer-bred managers play a game of mathematical chess hoping to build a championship-worthy roster. Devout fans all around the world wait in anxious anticipation as their 6’ 7” 215lb idol makes a decision that will forever change the course of history. 27 year olds are granted 200m+ contracts worth more than the GDP of entire countries like the Marshall Islands.

You’re restless about finding novel ways to fine-tune your craft as a recruiter. You’re subscribed to well-known blogs, got your ticket to SourceCon and made it a goal to attend networking events once a quarter. You’re a Learner 4 Lyfe. But what if I told you there was a ridiculously simple strategy on how to take your empathy game to that next level? After all, we all know how closely tied showing genuine empathy is with gaining the trust of our candidates is right?

I never thought I’d be writing a post like this. You’re telling me I have options when it comes to my career as recruiter? For most of us who graduated college and stumbled into recruiting, the ideal path was get into an agency, grind, make the transition internally and call it a day and that would have been a fantastic career. As I enter into this next stage of my recruiting career, I have started to wonder though— what else is out there? What choices do I have?

This guide is meant to serve as just that. A guide. Feel free to jump around the different sections as it applies to your company’s stage and situation. The ultimate goal for this guide is to spark conversations and action change into pre-existing thoughts on one’s hiring philosophy, processes and best practices. This isn’t a 300 page book so yes, there are some finer details missing but overall, I think it does the trick. Plus it’s free so no complaining!

In this section, we’ll break down the core pieces that makes up an interview structure. This is the system that will need continual calibration as the company scales. If optimized correctly, it will save financial, engineering and recruiting resources and lead to hiring a great team. Buckle your seat belts, this is a pretty thorough section. What: 30min ‘interview’ between recruiter and manager to understand the role, help create the pitch and flesh out the process.

With the structure set up, we can now lay out the bricks. Execution essentially boils down to engaging with passive/active candidates, guiding them through the process and persuading them that this fits their decision framework and motivations.What: Identifying, Strategizing, Outreach, Engagement. This is the lifeblood that enables the rest of recruiting to happen. Easy to do but hard to do well, consistently.

When I decided to leave the Mother Nest of Facebook this year, I remember asking myself what my ‘Word For The Year’ would be. What’s the word that’ll be at the forefront of my mind as I began exploring this new venture? What’s the word that I can craft a story around that can inspire others? How harmless of an exercise can this be? Well, the word I chose was Uncomfortable. And man, let me tell you how true that has been…and we’re only 6 months into the year!

I remember the first time I heard about what management consultants do. My friend at BCG was sharing tales about the transformative system he was implementing that would end up saving the company millions of dollars. The late and long hours, the pressure to learn things quickly, and of course the rewarding feeling of a timely and successful project. Consultants in the recruiting world are perhaps a little intense than that but it borrows similar themes.

I had a friend who recently graduated ask me for advice on how to network and get his foot in the door to a few companies he was interested in. I responded pretty simply, “Why don’t you try connecting with them on Linkedin or sending a cold email?” “Oh… I don’t know,” they responded. “What if they don’t respond? What if they can’t help me? I wouldn’t want to waste their time!” What if…what if. It’s been interesting to see how common a response this has been every time I give this piece of advice.