On Being a Complete Cult

And so we come to some observations about the recruitment business. 

To the external observer, the recruitment trade is full of people who make a great deal of noise. The reach of the noise made has increased dramatically with the availability of social media.

Some of the loudest voices belong to urban men (it’s almost always men) in their 30s and 40s who either go to the gym a great deal or don’t take any exercise at all, wear cheek microphones in video presentations and who don’t shave daily. These people are the self-declared “influencers” and “thought leaders” for my trade and have many on-line cult followers.

I contend that a significant number of these men don’t know what they’re doing. Suggesting that the emperor has no clothes attracts huge pile-ons from cult followers. This cult following behaviour and shutting down of negative comments has become all too common in other circles, especially politics.

Worryingly, there is an ongoing effort by some “influencers” to form cartels and build conspiracies against the laity by providing “consultancy services” for groups of senior managers in the trade.

The way it works is, recruitment company CEOs pay good money to be on the inside of a “thought leader’s” bubble. “Motivational events” are set up and paid for with the “thought leader” to be delivered to the company management and staff, sometimes for one company at a time more often for groups of businesses in the trade.

The CEOs and senior management of the participating companies meet in groups (often over food and booze) of companies advised by the “thought leader”. They talk of many things, but you might want to have a look at the client pricing structures of the participants.  

There are ways to develop your business as a recruiter that are very effective and don’t involve vast amounts of cold calling. These methods are not given credence or discussed because you can’t charge £1000 a skull and do a motivational session on being rational and professional about stuff.

This last point is why I write a lot about navigation and observation. I’m not going to give it away, but I put down plenty of clues on how to run a recruitment businesses successfully without being a git.