Wisdom » Reflections

Recruiter Stories #1: So Un-Latvian!

So be it - since all my free and not-so-free time is taken up by running my own company, I will write about my everyday life. Perhaps someone will find it interesting to read an insider's stories about the day-to-day of recruiting.

Kventin: "Why do you call yourself a recruiter? Do you select people for the army?"

I get flustered: "No, of course not. I recruit skilled specialists and managers from various fields. Well, yes, I do prefer the vacancies for the guys - technicians, engineers, draughtsmen, programmers, system administrators, production managers, sellers of industrial equipment or machinery."

Kventin: "Then why not call yourself what you should - a personnel selection specialist?"

Oh, "what you should" - I thought to myself, and feel irritation beginning to rise in me - what you should, for whom?!
I reply: "I don't select from submitted applications to a job advertisement, I recruit - I go out and approach people directly."

Kventin: "Ahhh, I see, so you're a headhunter."

I can't stand that word. I begin to slowly simmer internally, but try to continue explaining calmly: "Yes, I'm a... direct approacher."

Kventin doesn't back down: "Right, right, so a poacher, a head-hunter."

I, now quite defiantly: "Well, I haven't cut off anyone's head and brought it to the client yet. But in the future, who knows?!"
I give my interrogator a meaningful look, letting him understand that it is precisely his head being referred to.

My opponent Kventin refuses to let go: "Anyway, that word 'recruiter' isn't Latvian."

Of course, I could begin to go into detail about the word's contemporary international usage - recruiter, рекрутёр - but now, angrily, I snap: "I like it that way." To myself I thought - interesting, how would my profession be rendered if I started calling myself a "vervētājs" (drafter)?

Kventin again: "Well, it doesn't read well. Your book also has such an unfortunate title "How to Recruit More Successfully" - "A Personnel Selection Specialist's Handbook" would sound better - it would sell out in one go!"

Me: "Yes, that was one thought, even the publisher tried to suggest it, but I didn't want to be so... so once again very Latvian."

N.B. All stories are based on real events. The names of the characters in the stories are not mentioned or have been changed to preserve anonymity.