A Recruiter's Job, Explained

Imagine a children's toy, one of those ones with a bunch of different shaped holes and corresponding pegs that fit in, designed to teach young humans about shapes.

Now picture a wall of those holes, all different shapes and sizes, and your job is to fill as many as possible from your basket of pegs. Ideally, you'd work with some sort of order in mind, maybe starting from the top and working your way down, or starting with all the square holes, then moving on to the round ones. But some of those gaps start flashing big red lights and making loud noises if they don't get a peg immediately, so it can become a matter of multitasking very quickly.

When it comes to matching pegs and holes, it can get tricky. Sometimes a peg looks like it fits, but upon closer inspection it's an oval, rather than a circle. It might fit, if you shove it, but you know deep down that it'll just fall out again later, and then you'll have to start all over again. So you put it back in the basket and keep looking. Some square pegs are determined that they belong in that round hole, even though you've been doing this for ages and know it's not going to work out. Sometimes they are really good at pretending to be round, so you've always got to be paying attention.

This would be challenging enough, but most recruiters know that's only the beginning. Let's add in the fact that you have to source your own pegs, some of which will jump back out of your basket (usually just after you've found the perfect spot to put them). There's also someone on the other side of the wall who will occasionally, and without warning, push one of your pegs back out. It's usually when you're not looking, and by the time you see what happened, the peg has hit the floor and rolled away, never to be seen again.

This is all a very abstract analogy, and I know human beings are a lot more complicated than wooden pegs, but it gives a little insight into the world of recruitment and how incredibly full-on it can be. Business strategist, salesperson and career-matchmaker, recruiters wear a lot of hats, and I am forever grateful that I got to experience life behind that clipboard.

I used this story to explain to my partner why I was so quiet when I came home from work. How do you talk to people about your industry?