What makes a great search/talent professional?

There is not a fully defined path for an individual in the search industry. If you look at the great search and internal talent professionals, there is no one common Bachelors, MBA program, or career path that leads to their success. Those in our industry have a divergent set of skills and experiences. Common to all great talent professionals are leadership competencies, a sense of urgency, superior project management skills, the ability to engage people at all levels, the ability to analyze data, knowledge of employment law, as well as many other customer focused skill sets. It extends much further than simple cold calling and basic sales skills.

The world of talent acquisition is increasingly more demanding and in a constant state of change due to technology and increased networking channels. I have hired and trained recruiters at all levels, have built and managed an internal talent team for Fortune 500 global organizations, and built my own Retained and Contingent firm that includes Westport Intl – PinPoint Solutions – PinPoint Talent Services. In all of these career experiences, I have learned the value of having great people on the team.

We have virtually given up on hiring professionals from other retained and contingent competitors. We need professionals who can work horizontally across our clients at every level and will provide a quality search experience. It has been extremely challenging to re-train individuals from other talent and/or search firms. Most struggle to adapt and change. Based on past successes, we have developed our own competencies and tools with which we can assess potential new hires.

Our philosophy is to develop our own talent. We continue to formulate and adapt a recruiter development program that meets the needs of our ever-changing business and our clients. It has proven successful. We have also learned that this development process is very time intensive and can take up to one year even with the best initial hire. There is no single formula or profile, but there are definitely common competencies among great talent professionals.