Love Recruitment

I was recently recruiting for a fairly senior HR person and during the course of the interviews I asked one of the questions I regularly ask candidates; tell me why he or she has chosen this particular career path. Several of the candidates replied that they had chosen HR as a career path because "I just love people!"

I am certain that because I was an HR practitioner before I came over to the recruiting dark side, I always cringe when I get this response. First, I cringe because I believe that there is far more to the HR profession than just the love of people. Secondly, I think that this particular answer is one that some candidates believe the interviewer wants to hear and that is an even more frightening thought.

As recruiters, we weigh answers from candidates. I sincerely believe that most of us try to make certain that we are weighing candidate responses with our best "client focus" possible. That is; we want to do the best job we can of matching client needs/expectations and candidate needs/qualifications.

Unfortunately, stereotypes do exist and we recruiters do react to them. Again, speaking from personal experience, I find I must set aside that initial reaction and press on. I need to dig deeper with a follow up question if the candidate has met all of the "Must Have" criterion of the client. I cannot allow my visceral reaction to blind me to the possibility that I could be over reacting to a personal pet peeve.

So I can only offer this: Keep the recruiting requirements clear and firmly in place in front of me. Remember that the candidate will be working for the client and not for me. Remember to ask a detailed follow up question before I make a 'go - no go' decision.

Keep your pet peeve chained up and your mind open.