Hey! I Know stuff!

Wow. I just finished having lunch with a very smart, very accomplished woman with about 20 years of experience in a high demand field. You might be asking yourself, why would such a woman want to have lunch with someone with less than two years of experience in recruiting (the newbie in recruiting, I like to say or if you prefer, the recrewbie)?

Because, I'm there. This highly accomplished woman called me because she saw me here, and here, and over here and all over the place. She and her cohorts, the exec set of my city, have finally started calling my phone, asking what they can do to solve their hiring, retention, recruiting and branding issues. Weekly, I speak with smart, fancy pants people, who think I am the resident expert in talent in Omaha. Am I the expert? Nope. Am I learning everything I can about this field? YES...

What startles me is what they don't know.

-They don't know that managers need training in communication
-They don't know that some of their key hires will likely leave in two years (and that's okay)
-They don't know how to write up their job descriptions like resumes, with every line a selling point
-They don't know how to implement flex time or flex spaces
-They don't know how to properly use consultants
-They don't know when and why to instill a hiring freeze
-They don't know how their dept fits into the company

I could go on and on. The point is not to bash hiring managers or even executives (evil grin). The point is, they don't HAVE to know any of this stuff. I know (some of) this stuff and they can ask me. Their job is to manage and lead their team or corporation. As all of us in the HR industry know, recruiting, retaining, overseeing, reviewing, attracting, motivating, coaching, and planning for employees is a FULL time job.

So, it's okay that the exec set doesn't know all that stuff. It's not their job to know. It's MY job to know. Even when I don't get the sale, even when I'm internal and helping a job seeker. Especially when times are tough and people need solid career coaching, they know they can call me and I WILL know. And if I don't, I can find out here, or here or here.

Things I can do:

- Start a group for execs between jobs

- Help companies go after social media the right way (my way, of course)

- Speak. Sometimes I forget that not everyone spends their days doing what I do.

- Speak slowly. I didn't learn it in an hour. How can they?

- Coach. Paying it forward, by helping people pro bono, is part of my core philosophy. Of course, it can be fun too. And you meet lots of great people that way. (both exec level AND up-n-comers)

Frankly, I'd love to use some of the "new curiosity" surrounding what I do to help local companies rethink their talent strategy. So many have been stuck for so long. Perhaps the "new economy" will shake things loose?

Editor's Note - Maren Hogan is a millennial living the dream in Omaha, Nebraska.  When she's not plotting the downfall of Gen Xer's like me, she's doing marketing, recruiting and development for multiple companies. When she's doing that, she's blogging at Marenated.com and becoming addicted to Twitter...

Comments

[Jim Durbin]

Nice post Maren. You totally get it. This candidate saw you as an industry expert based on your profile online.

That's been driving my success for 5 years now, and I'm surprised more recruiters haven't put the time into making it work.

More for you and me.

[Jennifer McClure]

Maren - I learn a great deal from you every day on Twitter, RecruitingBlogs.com, over at www.marenated.com and here on Fistful of Talent! This post points how how others can also learn from you (and many others) using your personal experience as an example of how to leverage your education and common sense by diving into the social media world to soak up every bit of information you can, not being afraid to say you don't know something (but you want to find out), and your willingness and guts to pick up to the phone or reach out to the experts in the areas you're interested in to learn from them.

And if it wasn't for me following you in all of the places above, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to reach out to you when you were stuck in the Cincinnati airport to grab some dinner. While we also had some fun getting to know each other better face to face, your coaching and advice was spot on and very much appreciated! You DO know stuff!

[marenhogan]

Jim, I'm surprised as well that more folks don't put at least some of their eggs into the social media basket. I frequently hear that they don't have the time, which I can see. I think, like exercise, you have to have a passion for it naturally, or it has to get to the point where it's absolutely essential. I think that social media is pretty forgiving to late comers, which is another reason I love it!

Jennifer, thank you for your kinds words. Knowing how smart and accomplished you are, they really mean a lot. The best part about the conversations I have with people like you and others is that I learn so much for them and later I found out that I actually contributed to what they were doing. I think it's not about asking the right questions but like you said, being willing to ask questions at all. Curiosity rules!