Rockin’ the Executive Recruiting World

Most of my professional life has been spent in the ever-challenging and dynamic world of Executive Recruiting ... Most of my personal life has been spent in the topsy-turvy, often crazy, and always rewarding, world being of a professional gigging musician….

Given that these endeavors have been two of the most defining aspects of my reality, I can’t help but notice parallels in the lessons I’ve learned from both worlds.

Back to Basics

First of all, with either music or business, it’s always a good thing to stay grounded in the basics: While the end game of music is to perform and create creative pieces for other people to enjoy, this can’t be done if you’re not firmly grounded in the rudiments of music theory and the mechanics involved in playing your instrument.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to essentially “re-teach” myself a basic chord or scale because I was focusing on what I perceived to be more challenging or rewarding activities.  Nearly every mistake I’ve made onstage has resulted from me not being able to draw from, or even remember sometimes, some basic action I had long taken for granted.  

And nearly every deal gone south in my career has been a result from me forgetting or neglecting the basics of recruiting. And I’m not talking about the obvious stuff like making enough calls or emails per day. The basic nature of recruiting is connecting people to other people.  And people are, well, complex.  I feel that the hallmark of a good recruiter is never forgetting that their job is essentially to ferret out the true motivations for a candidate to make a job move, and taking the time to find out what a hiring manager is truly looking for beyond the generalities of a job description.  Often, this means asking challenging and uncomfortable questions, and this activity is easily shied away from.  However, when a recruiter understands the “truer”, or sometimes hidden motivations of both parties, a match can be made which is beneficial to both the candidate and client.  

Making a Difference

There is also a parallel in that both activities center on making people’s lives better:  

As a musician, oftentimes you are performing on a Friday or Saturday night, for people that have slogged it out at the office or factory all week, and are looking for a few hours of escape from the stresses that affect their lives.  A good performer never loses sight of this. Whether playing for 1 person or 1000, you’ve got to give it 110%, you owe it to the audience.  I can’t describe the sense of joy experienced when people start engaging with your creative work, and start getting lively.  

I get the same feeling when I am hitting it out of the park as a headhunter.  Yes, part of this is that I stand to make a good sum of money when deals close.  But, a larger part of this is the knowledge that I am markedly improving the candidate’s standard of living, by either helping them attain a raise, promotion, more pleasant work environment, more time with family, etc.  And when I find that extremely hard to find candidate for a hiring manager, I know that I am taking a lot of stress off that individual’s plate.  

I could go on for hours waxing philosophical about both of these things, but I must get back to my day “gig”- talking with candidates and clients about their work environments and lives, and getting busy making matches!

-Dan