They say to write what you know.
Now don’t share this with anyone, but on quite a few occasions recently I’ve wondered if I actually know anything about recruitment. Do I even know enough to write about it?
Surely I must be able to. I’ve been doing it long enough!
Long enough that I can take comfort in the fact that I’ve felt this exact same way before; through banking sector collapses, political upheavals, wars, cyber-attacks, global pandemics, cost of living crises, entire aid programmes being dismantled...
But it’s hard. How do you get back on track?
Well, talking of tracks, one subject I definitely know something about is running. It’s my ‘go-to’. My happy place. So, for me at least, that might be a good starting line…
I’ve always found a lot of parallels between running and life, running and parenting, running and work. Running and recruitment.
A Good Training Plan
Whether you’re training for a marathon, an ultra, or to complete a 5k, every good training plan has some key factors. Non negotiables. Just like recruitment…
1) The Long Run: for runners the long run helps build stamina. The more you do something the better you get at it, right? This is about teaching your body to keep going, push through the pain and come out the other side. It’s about time on your feet. Or perhaps time in the seat?
Sometimes it's about the churn. It’s about the reps. Doing more and more iterations of the same thing helps you learn more and more about the activity - and more about yourself.
It’s not the most glamorous part, but never underestimate its importance.
2) Speedwork: The long, easy miles are important, but the quicker stuff equally so. Workouts with sustained intervals at a tough speed or bursts of sprinting; designed to get your heart rate up, and ultimately make you a better, stronger and more explosive.
We can’t just stay one-paced. Sometimes we’re in a literal race to get results, to hit fast-approaching targets, to prove ourselves, to get that quick turnover of CVs just like that quicker stride turnover. Production, production, production.
And we need to be ready for that. We need to nimble, be able to think fast, move fast – and we can’t cut corners (or we’ll get found out).
3) Hill Repeats: This is the hard graft. Trying to run quickly up a hill while feeling the whole world is against you before ambling back down and then dragging your body back up to the top again. Over and over and over.
This is when the market, the economy, the forecasts all seem to be against you. A steep, scary mountain that you need to somehow climb.
At times like this it's easy to fall into desperation, smear war paint on your face and blindly sprint forward yelling 'charge!'. But don't. Instead, take a breath first
Take a breath and make sure you’re doing the basics right. Make sure your ‘form’ is correct. Look at the mountain in a logical way and work out the best way to get to the top. You might fall down on the way, but it's all about how any times you get back up and keep going.
If you can deal with running up and down a horrible hill, you’ll suddenly find the flat roads far easier to navigate.
4) Mix it up. This the most important part of the training plan.
There’s value in the long easy miles, the time on your feet, the repeats, the speed work, the higher turnover, the hills, the graft…but doing any of those exclusively would be booooring.
I also like mixing up who I’m training with. I love the solitude of running – it’s where I do my best thinking (or my best non-thinking), but I also love doing speedy track sessions with a group, or chatting with a friend when covering one of those long runs.
Sticking with one way wouldn’t invigorate us, we wouldn’t get much out of it, and we’d frankly be weaker runners as a result. And, yes, it would just be far less fun.
You Can Have It All
You hear a lot about finding a niche in recruitment – and I couldn’t agree more – but having a specialism and having some variety in your work doesn’t have to be a binary choice.
The world’s a big place; so many geographies to explore – each with their own nuances and dynamics, so many different levels to hire at, so many different branches growing from each sector.
A specialism in TMT recruitment can also mean AI, digital transformation, big data, customer retention, new product development. AI then leads into robotics, NPD then leads into innovation...
A Government Advisory specialist can naturally find themselves covering transportation, healthcare, food security, risk analysis, education reform. Transportation leads into smart cities, food security leads into nutrition and wellness...
A few left and right turns - a bit of agility - and suddenly this is all a little bit more interesting.
And with a good training plan we should be ready to tackle whatever track or mountain is infront of us.
- Tariq Siraj