Dear Diary, It Was a Most Splendid Day.

This week I went to an event with my fiancé, during which I was passively scrolling LinkedIn. He asked what I was doing, and I said, “Well I’m kind of working.” He laughed and said, “Is that what your job is?” Kind of. Kind of not. I feel like recruiting is so obvious that so many pieces of this role are easy to miss, even if you know a recruiter. I feel inspired to share an inside scoop on my day.

I started my morning at about 7 a.m. I always make myself drink a quart of water in the morning before I get my special treat—a coffee. Our supermarket recently brought back pumpkin spice creamer (cue applause). I update myself with some headlines, so I know broad strokes what’s happening in the world. I clean up the house a bit and get dressed even though I work from home. I feel it helps me transition to work better. I make my way to my office and start my day.

I always look at my calendar first thing in the morning, because I always have anxiety that I’ll forget about an 8 a.m. meeting that has never happened in all of my career. Four interviews today, an easy Friday. I make my way to our applicant tracking system (ATS) first. As someone who struggled to find work for so long after graduation, one of the things I value the most is other peoples’ time. I owe them the respect of promptly looking at their application and resume for all the time and effort they spent sending it my way. I make a note on our spreadsheet of all the people I requested interviews from, so I can better organize my work life. While I’m in the ATS, I go to all the candidates I’m interviewing today and remind them via text of our interview and how it will be conducted. I then prepare my interview materials. I have an interview at 9 a.m. today, so I really need to get this done quickly.

Because treating people with dignity is such a strong value of mine, I don’t have the luxury of letting emails sit. I comb through all that I can before 9 a.m. I jump on the call after quickly checking I don’t have anything in my teeth in the video preview. Shoot! They’re late. I check my email and ATS texts, and I don’t see anything from the candidate until Bing! an email says they’re struggling to get Teams to work on their phone. I trouble shoot tech issues with them, and we just decide to postpone and call over lunch. They have to leave for work.

I go through the rest of my emails. Everyone has been responded to. Everyone has received the interview confirmation. Fires have been put out. Ahhh, the first gap in the day. The biggest task of a recruiter is relationship building, and I do most of that through social media. I go through my Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn to respond to messages and look at the amazing things people are doing out there. A great thing about ABA recruiting is that there is a never-ending supply of adorable and/or inspiring pictures to see.

Oh! I see my marketing chat is popping off. I go through some approval requests and provide some constructive feedback. That’s one of the hardest parts of my job. Does anyone like providing critical feedback? Surely not if they’re doing it appropriately. It’s time to jump into my next interview. I think this one will be really good. They have everything I’m looking for. The clock runs a bit, and I check my email and ATS texts again. A few minutes in, I see a cancellation come through. They’ve already received an offer. Not surprising after seeing their resume. I let them know via email that I’m happy for them, and hope they’ll reconsider connecting in the future.

A few offer requests come through, and I work to send those out. That’s the best part of recruiting. I love being the person who gets the privilege of offering a “yes, you’re in!” Having submitted hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of applications any time I’ve looked for a job, having been ghosted by so many recruiters, and having been told countless times I didn’t get the role perfect for my skillset, I relish in the feeling of giving people the “yes” that I was once so desperate for. It’s exhilarating.

I take an early lunch to accommodate my new lunch appointment. It’s not much of a lunch, as instead of doing my chores last night I decided to DIY all of my wedding florals. The dishes get washed, the surfaces get wiped down, laundry folded and a new load started. I have about 10 minutes to relax before I need to get back at it. I should start the new book that’s been staring at me for weeks, but I want something more mind numbing.

My lunch alarm goes off, and I return to the office. The rescheduled call goes great, and I feel cheery when we hang up. I head to my emails to plan next steps and see there are a few higher priority things I have to immediately take care of. I have to be firm in an email, and I never feel good doing that. I wonder if that will ever get easy, if I’m too soft and need to grow my emotional skillset, or if everyone feels this way. Not too much time to dwell on my abilities, I have to provide my team with updates on several projects and conversations.

I start to shift to preparing for my next interview, but see a cancellation come through via email. Some days you just don’t seem to catch a break in recruiting. You’ll have days where everyone shows back to back to back all day, and days where it’s crickets. No worries. I work on making incremental updates to a few projects and send them to reviewers. I answer a few more messages, send out a few more interview requests, check in on offers. It’s shaping up to be an easy afternoon.

Then, I get a Teams message that there’s terrible weather at one of our centers, and they have to head home to maintain safety. Can I reschedule my candidates’ tours for this afternoon? Oh my gosh! The flooding on the East coast has been so scary this summer. I call the candidates immediately, who didn’t want to brave the storm anyway, and we reschedule. I send all my good thoughts to the team on-site and hope that they all got home before things got too bad, and I’m thankful to work for an employer that prioritizes safety over profit.

It’s time for me to prepare for another interview. This one goes super well. Easy peasy. I clean up my notes and prepare them for next steps. I’m just about to connect with the team when I start receiving feedback on those offers and shift to negotiating instead. I love when people advocate for their needs and wants, so the negotiation process is always fun for me.

Another hiccup comes across my plate, and I have to respond firmly. I’ve decided that no one really enjoys having to be firm, but that people who lead with passion just are more likely to put themselves in situations where they have to advocate for what they strongly believe in. I feel like I’m in the right place, doing the right thing, at the right time. I feel thankful to work with a team that recognizes we’re all trying to advance the work, and that pushback isn’t to get our way, but to advance the cause. I leave the office feeling accomplished, reinspired, and assured that I’m alright at this recruiting thing. I feel thankful to have a team beside me that doesn’t make me yearn for the time I’m not at work. What a splendid day.