Headhunting calls on diverse talents
Negotiation, networking and people skills are crucial
Jared Shaw didn’t grow up with dreams of becoming a recruiter.
“I’ve never met anyone who knows that’s what they’re going to do from Day 1,” says Shaw, who runs an international video-game development recruitment company, 31337 Recruiters, from Qualicum Beach, B.C.
Shaw began his winding career path with a hotel and restaurant administration degree. He found work with an immigration firm in Winnipeg, where a client looking for skilled workers asked if he could speed up its search for new hires. The process to bring in people from abroad was taking about a year.
“And so it just occurred to me, well, I’ll just pick up the phone,” Shaw says. “I’ll call a couple of companies, see if anyone’s not happy with their job.
“It never occurred to me that what I was doing was headhunting. And it was interesting. It was fun.”
Matching companies with talented employees became a rewarding career for him.
Recruiters say job satisfaction comes from helping others build their careers and in helping companies find the skills they need to prosper.
Daryl Henry is vicepresident, Southern Alberta, for Executrade, a recruitment firm with offices in Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. He joined the business in Calgary after 20 years in the telecom industry.
“My first week here at Executrade, one of my teams had placed a gentleman who happened to be from Colombia, and he came in to drop off his signed letter of offer,” Henry says.
“And no word of a lie, he was in tears because we had honestly helped him. That got me pretty passionate about it. I’ll never forget that story.”
Recruiting is a field that’s open to people from many backgrounds, but it demands a deep and diverse skill set.
“A recruiter really is an HR professional, psychologist, a consultant, a salesperson, a private investigator and a negotiator,” Henry says.
Above all, recruiters need keen people skills.
They need to be able to understand their client’s businesses and their needs, develop networks and relationships with talented professionals, and negotiate between these two groups.
Heather Phelps knew she wanted to get into recruiting when she was still in school. The Toronto-based Phelps Group was started in 1986 by her mother, Valerie Phelps. The company is a family affair: Phelps’ brother Jayson and father Al are also part of the team.
The business was already part of Heather’s life when she incorporated it into her MBA program.
“That’s the field I knew so well, so that’s the field I studied,” she says.
Phelps encourages recruiters to build on their skills by pursuing a certified personnel consultant certification through ACSESS, the Association of Canadian Search, Employment, and Staffing Services.
Coursework involves taking five core modules costing $172 each. A certification test costs $149.
Because most recruiters build their skills and networks in another industry, leveraging those is critical to success in a highly competitive field.
Shaw says specialization — in his case, within the videogame industry — gives him a leg up.
“There was a game called Fear that was put out a couple of years ago,” Shaw says.
“The artificial intelligence (AI) in that game was absolutely the best for its time.”
“So my job right away was, OK, figure out who the AI team is. Get in contact with these people. And get to know them for the future.”
Shaw says his work is as much about building relationships as transactions.
“The reality of it is, I’ll meet somebody, stay in contact with them for a year, sometimes two, before I even place them.”