Today I was up early and off to Toronto for errands and to meet with a recruiter. Recruiters are your friends, but they are not your friends. Recruiters get paid when they successfully place someone in a position. It’s a comparatively large payment, but nonetheless, they are not paid until the company offers their candidate a job and the candidate accepts it. So, for financial reasons they can be pressured into pushing a square peg into a round hole. This is similar to anyone who works on commission – real estate agents, travel agents, etc. But good recruiters recognize they are only costing long-term success to put the wrong person in the wrong place for a short-term pay-out.
So, keep your wits about you when visiting a recruiter. Be clear in your expectations, say no if it is not right, make the recruiter look good if you can and listen to their advice if they are generous enough to give it (after all, they don’t get paid by you).
About 1/2 hour into the start of my trip, I received an e-mail from one of my former bosses. I um . . . pulled over, of course . . to read the email and discovered he was looking for a 1 year contract Production Planning Manager in Orillia. Am I interested in discussing it?
Let’s recap! I am driving from Huntsville, Ontario to Toronto and back again which requires me to drive directly through Orillia twice. I have interview clothes with me, a copy of my résumé, business cards, a cell phone with internet access for company research and time within the standard work day. Could I be any more prepared than that? I wrote back and suggested that I drop by at 4 pm to discuss in person. He agreed.
I met with the recruiter (resulting in an excellent contact for my husband), swung by the Low Carb Grocery (hello, low carb and high protein bagels, yum), engaged in a lively text conversation about excellent job interview news from my best friend (You go, Lisa!), got my prescriptions refilled (take that Emile’s company!), had the mop on my head tamed (hello stylish self), and then headed to Orillia to check out this potential job and then finally dropped off forgotten Crocs in Gravenhurst (don’t leave your stuff at my house, kid!).
You can see why The Daily EO suffered last night. Phew.
April 25th, 2012 Extra-Ordinary: Not even a poker in the fire at 9 am, a contract job offer at 5 pm. Huh?
The Daily EO 