Keep In Touch

Last week, I contacted a young, talented consultant in the services industry. I wanted to speak to her for quite some time ago for the "keep in touch" purpose. I called her with a straightforward reason. I appreciated her highly as she is the proven successful hired that I could share the pride with her hiring manager in my ex-company many years ago. When we talk about her, there are only thumb up and compliments.

I still recalled the day when I first saw her in the assessment center. It was the day we invited graduates just like her for a day-long assessment and interview. She became the spotlight when she was leading the discussion in the room. She answered the though questions in the right manner. She was confident and well prepared herself to succeed generally. Of course, we offered her without thinking much was the best result we could have ended with it.  

I believed she has never expected I will contact her again after I left the company; mainly, I am not her friend, and I have never done so since she joined the company. In our phone conversation, I did not talk about any job openings in my current company. I swear because the call is never for the "poaching" purpose. We did speak of work, how we are doing now in our work and life. Additionally, We also talked about the hot topic, how's our experience in the COVID situation in the past three months. Lastly, the new skills we have picked up while we spent time at home, etc.

I got to know that she keeps her momentum to work for her career growth positively. She loves herself working as a professional consultant. Even though it seems obstacles are blocking her from achieving her career goal to a higher level in an unlikely situation, she stays calm and told me that she likes what she has been doing in the past, and will continue to do it the same in the future. She appreciates the recognition given by her company's leaders. She has excellent and supportive colleagues. She is satisfied with everything she gained in the company. Facing the intense challenges in her work has never stopped her, it strengthens her belief in pursuing her career in the consulting services genuinely. I felt warm when she spoke all these to me. She thanks me for bringing her the entry ticket to consulting's career when she was just graduated. Time flies, and now I am grateful for seeing her growth and doing well in her career progression.

The conversation was meaningful; at least I felt it was useful when I did not treat her as any of my potential candidates. Luckily, I did not ask her the standard questions from recruiters' angles. When I did not do so, she was more open told me more like a friend. It helped me improve myself for getting a quality career conversation in the end. It was something out of my expectation. However, I like the outcomes when I listened to her more.

Throughout the years working as a talent acquisition partner, I shall have performed a career advisory responsibilities as it is just fundamental. By not putting myself into a recruiter role who desires to hear the answers we hope to hear, I started to figure out how the different types of relationships between recruiters and candidates could be with just started through a simple "keep in touch" conversation.

Sometimes, I might have forgotten the principle of a career advisor when I eagerly fill a position. I want to do it differently by adding some new values to the "keep in touch" conversation with candidates. Maybe the first step shall be to break the patterns I am familiar with by practicing new ways. Of course, to find out better ideas on doing it could be essential for my promises on improvement. 

Stay tuned, and one day I might ring you! Let's "keep in touch" to check out how you could help me be a better recruiter and a trusted career advisor.