Good morning from New York City. What I have on my mind this morning is rejection. I think I told you in a past episode that I dusted off my resume because I feel inspired to get back into the workforce. It’s interesting. This decision to give it a try was born of two incidents. One is my sheer excitement over the convergence of technologies and the exponential growth I expect to happen over the next five years. And of not wanting to be left behind, not wanting to sit on the sidelines, not wanting to feel like, oh, the world is happening so fast. I’m getting older. It’s going to pass me by. And just giving up. I don’t want to be that person, and that thought has inspired me to get back in the game and to see what happens. The other piece of that story is about the sheer cost of living in New York City, looking at the drain on my bank account and saying, Hey, something’s got to give here. Either you have to get outta dodge or step up to the plate and generate some income. So it’s these two things that have me sort of out in the world and throwing my hat in the ring.

It is very interesting to be on the other side because I was always sitting in the executive search chair. In that role I was perceived as the person who was saying yes or no or had some sort of power, which of course I didn’t have. Yes, I presented candidates. Yes, it was up to me to discern the suitability of a candidate, and I’ll admit sometimes it was difficult to be perceived as the person who had all this power because I was not the one doing the hiring. I was doing the filtering. I was a gatekeeper of sorts, but it was in my interest to get someone hired and people often don’t understand the role of the executive recruiter. Oftentimes, I think an undue amount of candidate frustration can be directed at the recruiter when in fact, one, the recruiter represents the company. Two, the recruiter always wants to create a win-win because that’s how they generate their own income. And three, as I said before, it is the discernment of the recruiter which candidates are seen by the client, but the recruiter also has information and insight into the strategic goals and direction of the company that the candidate may not be privy to. So, the candidate jumps to conclusions that they’re the perfect fit for the role, but they don’t have all the information.

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