We’ve all been there, on the roller-coaster of emotions that is recruitment. From the Monday morning hell which requires nothing short of a double espresso, through to the vainglory which kicks in during deal swag season. Here are some of my top song picks to get you through the good and bad weeks / months / years of recruiting:
1. Your first day as a recruitment consultant
Song choice: Travie McCoy – Billionaire
It’s your first day as a recruitment consultant. Your new manager sits you down for an introduction and the commission structure is broken down in more detail, meanwhile you’re sat there just thinking “I wanna be a Billionaire so bad”!
2. Monday blues
Song Choice: Daniel Powter – Bad Day
You’ve finally left the office after a miserable Monday, having endured the beginning of the month meeting where you were grilled by your seniors about last month’s performance. It’s now time to reflect and move on / have a large bottled size glass of red wine.
3. That HR manager blocks your deal
Song choice: Puddle Of Mudd – She Hates Me
Yes, you may have gone directly to the hiring manager behind HR’s back… but what else could you do when they decided to ignore your emails and calls, despite the fact that you had the perfect candidate for them? You managed to get the manager bought in and then you get a call from the HR manager telling you that all future communications are blocked and interviews have been cancelled!
4. That warm / smug feeling of being in high demand
Song Choice: Right Said Fred – I’m Too Sexy
When that same client (which you desperately wanted to work with) who turned you down after telling you that they decided to work with a range of cheaper agencies and assured you they didn’t need your services, comes running back.
5. Sifting through rubbish applications
Song choice: TLC – No Scrubs
One of the banes of being a recruiter, when you’re getting a pile load of irrelevant applications (often duplicate) and the applicants are also keen to check in twice a day on their application process and resell themselves in for the position!
6. Job insomnia
Song choice: Cypress Hill – Insane In The Brain
When you spend your thirsty Thursday staying late in the empty office alone (ignoring the continuous snapchats from others in the office who off out at your favourite bar) but it’s ok because you’re going to send over some top quality candidates to a new ‘hot’ job… It gets to the following Tuesday and your client’s disappeared off the end of the earth!
7. Realising that ‘amazing’ candidate isn’t so irreplaceable
Song choice: Beyonce – Irreplaceable
When you find a candidate that you think will get the job but they turn out to be a DIVA, maybe they blank you continuously for 48 hours and you’re feeling hopeless… then you find someone with a better skill set who’s keen on your role.
8. When that candidate comes crawling back
Song choice: Kelis – Trick Me
That same candidate that dogged you once comes crawling back. They might have a good set of experience on there CV but they’re a major Houdini when it comes to commitment. Now that you’re older and wiser to their trickery, you know exactly what they’re like and unfortunately that ‘role is no longer available’.
9. Budgets have been reset and you’ve got a pile of new jobs to work
Song choice: Missy Elliott – Work It
Wow, this is a change for the books – you’ve gone from frantically trying to find the scraps of unworkable jobs to having 10 land on your desk at once. Feeling funky with a fresh lease of life now, you’ve just got to decide if each one is worth it… and whether to work it or not!
10. Continuously being knocked down
Song choice: Chumbawamba – Tubthumping
When you work 5-10 hours overtime daily just to get badly beaten by another agency continually for two weeks. Note to self: keep self belief that there’s light at the end of the deal tunnel, and move on!
11. When someone asks you about your diet since having started our recruitment career
Song choice: Fast Food Rockers – Fast Food Song
Before starting in the recruitment industry you’d like to think of yourself as fairly healthy, but recently those late nights in the office trawling through jobs boards followed by a stint of continuous alcohol consumption has resulted in a rapid decline in the consumption of healthier alternatives, whilst Deliveroo and Dominos seem to have become an excellent option!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pgPq4FGWfk
12. Don’t go chasing waterfalls
Song choice: TLC – Waterfalls
When you’ve got no core roles on but things keep cropping up outside of your remit, not exactly the kind of area you cover and your manager’s stood over your desk telling you not to stray from what you know (maybe you’ll ping some people over outside of core hours).
13. KPI Chains
Song choice: Mary Mary – Shackles
When everyone leaves the office for team drinks but you’re 20% off hitting your months KPI’s and today’s the last day of the month – you realise that you’ll be begrudgingly catching up on these for at least the next couple of hours.
14. When office haters start hating on your high commission lifestyle
Song choice: The Notorious B.I.G – Mo Money Mo Problems
Last month you did pretty well and you’re feeling pretty fly in your new outfits this week, whilst you can admit that your new Versace sunglasses indoors may be a little excessive you can’t help but feel like haters gonna hate.
15. When you fill the ‘unplaceable’ job
Song choice: Montell Jordan- This is how we do it
Everyone told you that you wouldn’t be able to do it but you got that recruiter’s twinge to go outside of what people told you to do and guess what? Candidate start date is confirmed, notice handed in… do a little dance.
16. When they call out top biller for the month and it’s you
Song choice: Destinys Child – Say My Name
Yeah that’s right- it’s recap of last month’s activity and your director refers to the statistics before announcing the top biller of the month. You look around, hmm wonder who it could be (secretly know it’s you) and get ready to walk to the front in diva manner/act surprised.
17. All work work work
Song choice: Rihanna – Work
We all have those friends who always seem to be free to do something, yet you can’t help but feel like all you do is ‘work, work, work’. Bailing on social plans only to spend the night alone in the office submitting CVs is only possible if you repeat ‘staff incentive trip’ over and over and over again…
Every role has it’s ups and down and it’s no secret that recruitment can be testing – hopefully this will help to get you through the ups and downs and get you out the other side of the week! If you’d like to keep the playlist on standby, it can be found here!
