Recruiting Vegas Style – A Cautionary Tale

Recently I received an assignment for an Industrial Sales person. I had a job description, I had a profile of the company, I had spoken to the hiring manager and felt I had a good idea of the kind of person they were looking for.

Armed with all this I began my search and after several weeks I was pleased that I had found 4 candidates that I believed were suitable candidates for the role. Feeling very upbeat I forwarded the candidate resumes and profiles to the hiring manager. Imagine my surprised when after hearing nothing back for over a week I was told that none of the candidates were suitable.

When I spoke to the hiring manager in person I asked him what had I missed?  Was there something absent in their backgrounds? Had I missed a requirement? Did they not have the right experience? I was told; “no, they all have the right kind of background but nothing jumped out at me” At this point in time I realized with a feeling of dread that I was now “Recruiting Vegas Style”

What is “Recruiting Vegas Style” you ask? Well gentle reader this is when a hiring manager is looking for something but doesn’t know what it is. This usually doesn’t have anything to do with the job description or even the job requirements it is always something that is unique to the hiring managers background and it is always something they don’t tell you. Why you ask wouldn’t the hiring manager tell the recruiter? Great question. In my experience, I have found that often the hiring manager can’t tell you because they really don’t know. Or it something that is based on age, gender, race etc. that the hiring manager doesn’t dare articulate.

Whatever the reason the recruiter is now in a situation where they must provide resume after resume much like someone playing a slot machine in Las Vegas and hope that eventually they hit the Jackpot. And just like playing the Slots your chance of success is almost zero. You continually feed the “machine” your resumes with no idea of when you are going to strike it rich.

There is only one solution to this situation and that is to walk away.