What The Random Recruiter Wishes for Christmas

This week’s post will be a little short and sweet due to the holidays coming up. Special holidays are a good time to reflect on what we do for a living, why we do it, and what we accomplished.

There are three main reasons why I fell into recruiting 8 years ago. First - I had a useless bachelor’s degree so I didn’t have many options. Second, my brother used to be a full-desk recruiter for accounting & finance - I figured if he could do it, so could I. Third, my father was impacted by layoffs when I was in college and that experience still sits with me today.

My father had a very successful career. He was an IT Director - mostly infrastructure work - and eventually worked his way up to running global infrastructure for a major pharmaceutical company. He was loyal - in his 30+ years of working, he only had 4 different employers.

Then came the day where his employer sold to an even bigger company. Then boom, layoffs happened. He had worked his way up to a global IT Director - in a matter of days - he had no job prospects unless he wanted to take a major step down from the position he worked his tail off for the last 30 years.

After months and months of searching - he decided to take a different approach. Although he had a very successful career - he was very good with his money. He save & invested most of it, so thankfully he had a major cushion.

My dad decided to get out of the rat race. He said ‘screw it’, and became a teacher. Then after a few years of that, he just decided to retire early.

Looking back, his career had a huge influence on me as a kid, and now, as an adult. So - this brings me to my Christmas wishlist for us as recruiters & jobseekers:

1. Loyalty:

   1. I wish loyalty to a company was rewarded more, but unfortunately it’s not. By now, you’ve seen countless times that you’re more likely to make money in your career by switching jobs every few years. That’s great, and good for those people. But I wish there was a way that employees who wanted to stay at their companies 5-10+ years could see the same financial growth.

   2. As we’ve seen with my father above - and I’m sure you know many personal examples of this - loyalty means nothing when it comes to layoffs. It’s about the ‘family culture’ until your market cap starts to go down. “It’s business, not personal”.

   3. Until there is a better way - candidates & jobseekers need to put their needs first, over the companies they work for - and if that means switching jobs every few years, so be it.

2. Upskilling

   1. I put a huge emphasis on upskilling in my career and I wish others did, too. That’s actually one of the original reasons why I made this Twitter account so I can become a better writer and learn how to shorten my thoughts.

   2. There is no down side to upskilling. You make yourself more valuable in the marketplace. Whether that means a pay raise or promotion at your current company, or at another, you increase your skillset & expertise in order to contribute more in the marketplace.

   3. You make yourself more into a ‘linchpin’ meaning, you’ll be less expendable at work. Yes - you can still get laid off, but you’ll be more valuable to another employer & open up more opportunities than you would have been otherwise

3. Networking

   1. I wish people networked more. It can be intimidating at first, reaching out to strangers on the internet or at an in-person event. But once you do it a few times, it becomes muscle memory.

   2. You don’t have to be outgoing and the life of the party to network. I’m a classic introvert and my whole career is dedicated to networking. If I can do it, so can you.

   3. Networking doesn’t mean ‘actively looking for a job’. It means keeping in contact & making relationships and potential business opportunities. And yes - it can lead to a new job if you want it to. It can open new doors you otherwise wouldn’t have known.

4. Rat Race

   1. Our society pushes to be completely materialistic. If you follow this agenda, you only subject yourself to the rat race more and more. You need to have this big of a house, this nice of a car, these clothes, these restaurants, etc. Trust me - I do buy myself a nice and fancy gadget every so often, but I don’t let it define me.

   2. I’m all for being the best I am at work & I take pride in it. I’m all about the hustle culture. But I don’t just do it to do it. There is an end game in place and that is early retirement or early semi-retirement.

   3. Now if you love what you do and want to keep working forever - more power to you - everyone has their own preferences. But do it on your terms - because you want to - not because you have to.

5. Mentorship

   1. I wish more people took this role seriously. I like to think of it as that phrase ‘pay it forward’. I had a great mentor, and I was lucky enough to be shown the ropes on a few things. Even if I hadn’t, I love the feeling of helping others grow up professionally.

   2. You can make a huge impact on someone by taking the time every 1-2 weeks to sit down with them, go over what they did, what they did right, what they can do differently. Chances are, any mistakes they made, you probably when through yourself, and you can coach them on a better way to do things. Plus, every now and then since you’re talking to a pair of fresh eyes, you can learn a completely new perspective on how to approach a certain situation.

   3. The impact you can have on someone can change their life. It may not mean much to you, but it will to them. One of the guys I mentored recently got a new gig as a Recruiting Director at a competing firm. Another one left to become an independent full desk recruiter, running his own show with 1-2 other people. How awesome is that? Plus if I ever needed another job, he’d be one of the first people I’d call.

I wanted to connect the dots with my Father’s experience as a professional with what I wished happened more in the workplace.

As always, would appreciate a like, follow, share, and subscription. See you soon, and happy holidays.

- Random Recruiter