A local theater company is heading off to Germany to perform an award-winning
play. The company is excited about the opportunity, but needs someone to join
them on the tour to help coordinate plans, event dates and accommodation,
and to act as a translator.
The production manager has difficulty finding an event planner who speaks
German and understands the workings of a medium-sized theater company. To
get help, she calls a personnel recruitment agency. The recruiter offers to
help, but even still, it's not easy to find a match.
"Sometimes finding the right person for the right job can be like finding
a needle in a haystack," says Marti Stites. She is a personnel consultant
who owns a staffing company in Berkeley, California. "In some fields, the
requests can be pretty specific."
Once, Stites was trying to locate someone who could translate package writing
into both French and Spanish. "That's not too easy to come by."
However, the reward of finding just the right candidate for a job is what
keeps personnel recruiters happy with their work. "It's pretty satisfying
to make that perfect match," says Stites. "It's enjoyable to place people
in careers that help them grow and develop, and that they will take pleasure
in."
Carla Perry is a personnel recruiter who specializes in office staffing.
She couldn't agree more. "This is the best job in the whole world," she says.
"It's quite an adrenaline rush to find the perfect match."
Recruiters are generally hired by companies to find employees, not the
other way around. However, the recruiters end up helping both parties if a
match is made. The employer gets the employee they were looking for, and the
applicant lands a job.
Perry compares working as a personnel recruiter to being an agent for a
sports player. "It's sort of like working for management, looking for the
right player, and also like working for the player's interests too."
Of course, a perfect match isn't always made. Sometimes the recruiter feels
she's found the right candidate, but the company disagrees. "The [downsides]
of this work are the pitfalls of not finding the right candidate," says Perry.
"Not getting that match you need can be difficult."
Part of finding the right candidate is knowing how and where to look. "You
have to get a thorough understanding from the client about the type of candidate
they're looking for," says David Spry, a personnel recruiter.
Once they know what the client is looking for, the recruiter needs to know
where to find just the right person for the job. "We're constantly looking
for ideal candidates and networking to find the right person," says Perry.
This can mean visiting colleges and universities, giving talks and presentations
and honing interview skills to be able to determine who would be the right
person for a job. "The more work we do, like going to universities, the better
the candidate is that comes to us," adds Perry.
Candidates aren't always bursting down the door to fill job vacancies.
"As the economy changes and shifts, so does this work," says Stites. "Three
years ago, we had lots of job opportunities in the Bay area but the applicants
were hard to find."
Now, with the economic slowdown, the reverse is occurring. "There are many
more people looking for work, but less jobs available," says Stites.
"It's all about trying to find a good balance between the two situations."
Stites adds that another downside of the job is that a lot of work can
go into finding an ideal candidate, only to discover that a client has changed
or cancelled their request.
"It can be frustrating to do all that work and then find that the job is
cancelled or that they found someone else in the company to do the work."
On the other hand, it's a wonderful sense of accomplishment when a client
is entirely satisfied with the way a recruiter filled the job opening.
Sometimes a match can work out so well, the recruiter sees a job applicant
return to their office. "It's happened to me quite a few times
that I've had someone come in and fill a job, and then to return later as
a client who wants to hire people," says Spry.
"It's enjoyable seeing people come in and really assisting them with their
career development," he adds. "It's a lot of fun to see people and find they
are a perfect fit for a job."
Perry adds that seeing new faces every day keeps the job interesting. "We
meet new candidates and customers all the time," she says. "It's a wonderful,
dynamic field to work in."