Building Your Street Cred When Youre the New Recruiter on the Block - Workology

Building Your Street Cred When You’re the New Recruiter on the Block - Workology HOW TO DEVELOP CREDIBILITY BELIEVABILITY Monday nights at 9 pm ET, there is a great Twitter community that comes alive for #internpro, hosted by @YouTern. We network, share some laughs and above all, provide meaningful career advice to Gen Y and one another. This past week, the topic was on credibility as a young professional. A few days later, I happened to help train one of my company’s newest recruiters. This got me thinking: how do new recruiters build credibility at work and show theyve got the right stuff? WHAT IS CREDIBILITY? As defined by Merriam-Webster, credibility is the “quality or power of inspiring belief” or the “capacity for belief.” As recruiting professionals, we must possess the power to inspire belief in ourselves, candidates, hiring managers, leadership teams, clients, colleagues and communities. That’s pretty amazing and no small feat! HOW TO DEVELOP CREDIBILITY BELIEVABILITY SHOW INITIATIVE. Early on, set up meetings with your hiring managers and other employees who are involved in the hiring process. Talk about their department’s goals and initiatives, open positions, what the vibe is on the team, what type of person they look for, and what it takes to be successful. Step by step, building your product knowledge and rapport will assist you moving forward. LISTEN INTENTLY. This may sound like an easy one, but to truly listen is an acquired skill. (I took an entire college course on it!) Listen to your hiring managers’ needs. Listen to feedback (the positive and negative) on your candidates. Listen to what’s going on in your industry. Listen to what your senior leadership is discussing. Never stop actively listening and learning. PRESENT QUALITY. I can’t think of a better way to build your “recruiter cred” than to consistently present awesome candidates to your hiring managers. The ultimate goal is to get your hiring managers to trust your judgment and that the candidates you send to them are worth their time. A great way to identify quality candidates is to first meet with current top performers. Identify the hard and soft skills they possess, and then look for those qualities in your applicants. WORK HARD. This means showing up on time and possibly working through lunch or past the closing bell. It also means planning your work and working your plan, providing exceptional service to all of your customers, and not giving up or making excuses. PLAY NICE. There is a lot of chatter about aptitude and attitude, and how they both play a role in our careers.   I dont think that nice guys (or girls) finish last; I believe that good things happen to good people. Striving toward a spirit of collaboration and being a positive presence at the water cooler will help you build trust, which is a key component to credibility. BE CONSISTENT. As with many things in life, consistency is important. As you build your credibility, youre also developing your professional brand and recruiter reputation. I love this quote from Warren Buffett, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, youll do things differently.” True. So, there you have it! Six ways to build your street cred whether youre new to recruiting or recruiting for a new company. We dont all get it right the first time out of the gate, though Im sure there are a handful of perfect recruiters, possibly? Ive failed miserably a few times over the course of my HR career. Ive been yelled at, cried at work, led a real doozy of a project and was once put on a warning. Many years ago, I was fired from a pretzel shop at the mall but thats a story for another day. The point is, even if you give 110% you may still mess up. Its how you get back up and whether you can hang tough that matters. LOOKING FOR MORE INSIGHT? This recent Undercover Recruiter post on “How to Spot if Your New Recruiter is Destined to Fail” adds some additional perspective to consider. So, be sure to read it and if you think you’re emulating those five bad habits, then start working on your recruiter street cred, pronto!