Everyone has a sense of value

Today, I had a call with a client scheduled to get his feedback on a candidate whom they wanted to offer. It was not going to be an easy case and they will not be able to meet his salary expectations. The candidate was okay, he has a side gig and it was one that would pay him handsomely anyway. But what was supposed to be a standard call took a turn and whilst I was cautious of taking up more time from this client, I was very drawn to the insights this client gave me about life and work and the future. I hope to share some insights to my connections through this.

As with the title, Client - (hereby called C) , told me Weihua, everyone has a sense of value when it comes to what they deserve for salary and also what they are trading off for a salary. The way this was put across to me, I found it difficult to brush this aside. So often a times, I had clients telling me this is our budget - no go for your candidate's salary expectation. It is that clinical and by the book. I sensed a huge amount of wisdom and empathy from C's words that I feel will deeply impact me in how I deal with my candidates and people around me from today onwards.

So many people are out there now, holding on to their sense of value and external forces are driving them down. 

When I just started out in recruitment I was extremely transactional: call- qualify -send cv- follow up- offer- close. All ideally by the end of the month. I slowly started losing to a particular competitor because she was more humanistic in her approach.

She is like a friend to me. 

Those words rang in my ears. Friend? Recruiter being a friend? That was an alien concept to me but I wanted to be the best so I tried. I spoke to candidates longer than 10 mins, called clients every week to catch up. I put my authentic self out there after 2 years of being just a recruiter. Now I am so happy of who I am, the friends I made and today's conversation is a timely reminder and affirmation of that.

Until the next revelation folks!