Turkey Hunting & Recruiting
This Spring has been the first time I have ever really taken an interest in turkey hunting. While I have been all-in on deer hunting for a long time, turkey hunting is a new venture for me.
Earlier this week, my brother and I had the opportunity to get together for a quick, morning turkey hunt and we had an awesome hunt together! As I reflected on the hunt the next day, I began to realize there are some interesting similarities between chasing these birds and construction recruiting. Check out what I mean:
Often times when you are turkey hunting, you are in the woods or in a field making a lot of calls trying to get the birds to respond and engage with you so you can locate them. Most of my days in recruiting are spent the same way…calling, emailing, reaching out in whatever way I can to qualified candidates in hopes I can get a response and an opportunity to engage with them.
Sometimes you may get a turkey to respond to your calls but it does not guarantee, by any means, that they are actually going to commit to coming quickly to where you are set up to check things out. I can tend to get my hopes up that when a candidate returns my call or engages with me that I am going to have a good chance of placing them with my client, but more often than not, these candidates are gainfully employed and end up staying put where they are for one reason or another.
Turkeys also can throw you a curveball and show up out of nowhere, very unexpectedly, ready to commit. They may come in quietly and you had no idea they were even nearby, much less ready to come into your decoy that is set up 8 yards from where you are sitting. One thing I love about recruiting is that sometimes, after a lot of calling and reaching out, a candidate will get back to you a year or 2 later ready to make a move and it all works out and comes together, rather unexpectedly.
I was surprised when I started to consider all the ways this new hobby and my job seemed to overlap. Two things that I know to be true…I love being out in the woods with my brother enjoying God’s creation, and I love the adventure of finding great candidates for my clients even if it does take lots of hard work to get them engaged and ultimately into a new position. I am thankful to enjoy the process (the highs and the lows) of hunting for animals and of searching for candidates.
If you’d ever like to discuss how we may be able to help you / your company, please don’t hesitate to reach out! (devin@frontierexecutivesearch.com)