As a third party recruiter, the worst thing that can happen during the holidays is that all your hot requisitions go cold, because Nancy’s at her son’s Christmas pageant (actually hitting the bars early to get laid) or Rick is going to be out of the office the rest of the year so he can see the family in North Dakota (actually going on a Bangkok Sex Tour). I don’t get how corporate recruiters and how the hiring managers basically take December off and don’t get fired. Are you telling me that you can take basically a month’s vacation and still have your shit ready for 2010?
I signed an exclusive, contingency contract the third week of November with BigClient. Now BigClient has a lot of levels of bureaucracy, yes, but they also really want to hire someone. Or, at least in the initial conversations, they REALLY wanted to hire someone.
First week of December: send over 3 top candidates. Wait for response. “So and so isn’t back from Thanksgiving.” “So and so is on our company Christmas retreat.”
Second week of December: “Oh, well, *hehe*, we sort of slow down for the holidays. They’ll get back to you, I promise.” Meanwhile, candidates are antsy. I’m antsy.
Third week of December: (someone put her big girl panties on and decided to be honest) “Yeah, we won’t really be getting back with you until the 4th or 5th of January. All the decisionmakers will be out for the holiday.”
Now I’ve worked Corporate and I’ve worked Agency. I still wonder: how the fuck does any corporation get anything done? What I love about agency recruiting: being hungry for the cash (and being able to make as much as I want based on how hard I work) and actually dealing with fellow employees who don’t take a month off for Christmas. They are hungry too. They work faster and smarter and better. So BigClient, your internal employees are FAIL. They have no motivation for December and basically treat the month as one big vacation. I, on the other hand, have had several really nice conversations with employees there at BigClient that actually were in the office, at their phones, when I made the call. They’d love to make a move. And if you waste my December on waiting and then DON’T hire one of my three spot-on candidates, trust, you will have some resignation letters and some spaces to fill in your organization come January.