One of the best hires I made at Experis Executive started with a cold call.
A young man called me out of the blue and asked for an appointment. He wanted to interview for a job as a recruiter. His English wasn’t great, but his name sounded like that of a European friend of mine, and that small coincidence made me think: “Yeah, what the heck? Let’s have this kid come in and show us who he is.”
It wasn’t a particularly scientific hiring decision. But it led to a very good one.
We spoke for about 30 minutes. What struck me immediately was his positive energy. It was almost infectious. I brought in several other members of the team to meet him, and they came away with the same impression.
His English was far from perfect. His Japanese was almost nonexistent. But he was clearly smart, curious and eager to learn. He seemed genuinely interested in people, and he had an attitude that made you want to work with him.
So we gave him a shot.
Curiosity that turned into results
In his first year as an associate consultant, it quickly became clear that he could learn what our clients did and understand how he could help them.
That is a big part of recruiting for technology companies. You need to understand enough about the client’s business, products and people to explain an opportunity properly to a candidate. You need to translate the client’s needs into something the candidate can understand and judge for themselves.
He took that seriously. He asked questions, listened and kept learning. By the end of his first year, he had achieved his target.
The following year, he was promoted to consultant and took responsibility for his own accounts and clients. He continued learning about the technologies those clients developed and sold. He built good relationships, helped by that same positive energy, but also by the effort he put into understanding their businesses.
Clients could see that his interest was genuine. He wanted to understand what they were trying to achieve and how he could help.
I think that authenticity was critical. His enthusiasm held up because there was substance behind it.
He achieved his target again and was promoted to senior consultant. A bigger target, more responsibility and better rewards followed. And once again, he delivered.
There was no great mystery to it. He understood what was required to succeed, focused on it and did the work. His self-improvement was visible from one year to the next.
The person I wanted to clone
I used to joke that I wanted to clone him.
He was very likable. He brought positive energy into the room. He was intellectually curious, willing to learn and disciplined enough to keep getting better.
Those qualities reinforced each other. His curiosity helped him build knowledge. His knowledge made him more useful to clients and candidates. His genuine enthusiasm helped him build relationships. And his discipline turned all of that into consistent results.
For me, that is the ideal young recruiter archetype.
Of course, you still have to learn the job. There are skills to develop, difficult conversations to handle and targets to achieve. But someone who brings those qualities gives themselves a very good chance of growing into an excellent recruiter.
Where language fits
His experience also shaped how I think about language requirements.
Working with global technology clients, he did not need strong Japanese to make a valuable contribution. Even his English needed work at the beginning, and it improved over time as he learned and gained experience.
That does not mean language skills are unimportant. The requirements depend on the clients and candidates you serve.
For larger, more established companies in Japan, much of the candidate market may consist of people who do not speak English. A recruiter working in that market needs to communicate effectively in Japanese and build relationships in that language.
For a young native Japanese-speaking recruiter, though, the qualities I hope to find are exactly the same: positive energy, genuine curiosity, authenticity and the discipline to improve continually.
Language helps you have the conversation. Your interest in the person and your understanding of the opportunity help make that conversation worthwhile.
Moving on, and doing well
Eventually, he met his partner, got married and moved out of Japan.
We were sorry to lose him, but happy for him. He was making a decision for his family and his future, and we understood that.
The knowledge he had built in recruitment, together with his curiosity and energy, helped him move into sales for a software vendor. His career has gone from strength to strength.
That has been wonderful to see. I always felt he would land on his feet wherever he ended up in the world, and I couldn’t be happier for him.
People like him are hard to find. But they are the people I would love to hire again.
If you are a young recruiter who enjoys learning, takes a genuine interest in clients and candidates, brings positive energy to your work and keeps putting in the effort to improve, I would be very interested to talk to you.
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Written by Murray Clarke, Founding Partner of Aspiring Partners.
