Small Children and Recruiting

Ahhhhh what a couple of weeks, I've been quiet on this I know.. for great reason, I have been sunning it up in Malaysia with the family for the last 10 days. But, hey, I'm back, and apart from seeing the sites, looking at some fantastic views, sunsets and meeting some wonderful people, I found some relevance to Recruitment. Yes I'm sad. Firstly, the part of Malaysia I was in, Borneo, is the home of the Headhunter, the real ones, you know the ones, who actually hunted heads and kept them as part of their dowry. I was assured by locals this doesn't happen anymore, I laughed at him, said he should log onto recruitingblogs.com you'll find some there. Needless to say I had to buy a "Headhunter" T-Shirt.

Secondly, and the main part of the post, is I saw some similarities between being a parent traveling with your young children and being a Recruiter.

Let me pull on this bow a little further.

My top 10 reasons why being a Recruiter is like being a parent traveling with young children (eat your heart out Letterman!)

1/ Those that aren't (parents or Recruiters) look at you and wonder why in the world you are doing it? (and prefer not to associate in public... think HR or any single traveler in the plane sitting next to a family of 4)

2/ You have a shared bond and a competitive streak with others of your type. My kids are behaving better (ha!).. my candidate is way better than your candidate

3/ Experienced people will look at you and think (and sometimes even say).. "that never happened in my day. I didn't had those advantages, and I performed better." Think DVDs, ipods, or applicant tracking systems.

4/ Your kids and your candidates will ask an endless amount of banal repetitive questions... "How old is god?" "Do they have comfortable chairs?"

5/ As a parent and a recruiter, you are very protective of your kids and candidates, always watching them to stop people from stealing them.

6/ You have to be a step ahead of them both. OK if my son/daughter/candidate sees that bright shiny object over there, this will happen (Do I want that to happen?)

7/ If your kids (and candidates) are good, others will look at you with envy. Wanting what you have.

8/ They are very hard to make them do anything they don't want to do. Negotiation skills are a must.

9/ They ask for unrealistic stuff. Knifes, monkeys, carparks, health insurance, that large 4 foot lollipop over there etc :)

10/ When everything is working out, there is not much in the world more rewarding.

(OK successful Recruiting makes you money.. traveling with kids costs a heap, but let's not kill a good story with facts OK?)