Before I came to work at Agile Search I had some experience in the recruitment of IT specialists, but it was totally different!

In my previous job all I needed to do in order to find the right person was to post an ad. on the company’s website and a few other sites or go to a matchmaking event. Then, normally, this would be followed by many applications in my inbox, and all there would be left to do would be to choose the most suitable candidate and recruit them.

Having this kind of experience, I thought that working at Agile Search would be more or less the same – my inbox full of applicants’ CVs, many hours of screening them, a lot of interviews etc., but I was wrong! My work is quite the opposite of what I thought, and hence more interesting. Here are the 4 most surprising things that I have faced in recruitment industry:

1. I am the one who is “hunting” the candidates.

Instead of checking tons of CV’s and answering a pile of questions from the applicants through email or over the phone, my job is to find the best candidates by myself and “hunt” them. Practically it means that I am the one who is calling the applicants and sending them emails with my questions.

2. The interest of the candidate depends on my pitch.

The best candidates are generally already employed, which means that it won’t be so easy to attract them to a new position. So whether or not the candidate would be interested depends on my pitch.

3. A personal approach is what makes the difference.

I think we all have faced a situation where we weren’t selected for a job we have applied for, and got a standard email that has been sent to all rejected applicants – or no response at all. Therefore, I had the idea that it would be the same way at Agile Search. However, I was surprised in a good way. Our personal approach towards each client and candidate is what truly makes the company different. Each phone call I make, and each email I send is personal; before I call I screen the candidate’s profile and prepare myself for the conversation.

4. Other positions for the candidates.

Finally, the last, but not least surprising thing that I have faced in recruiting are the follow-ups with the rejected candidates. Again, in my personal experience of applying for a job or looking for the candidate, once the person is rejected, he/she is never contacted again. The situation at Agile Search is, as you probably guessed, different. If the candidate wasn’t suitable for one position, we try to find him/her a more fitting one.

A few words about my induction to the team; it was quite fast, and after a few hours of training on the first day, my colleagues expected me to start working right away, e.g. start calling the candidates and pitching the positions. What can I say, it was a truly agile induction for me.

Written by Natalia, Twitter