In any recruitment business or role, the candidate must be at the center and every effort must be to provide that candidate with the most suitable mission. All going according to plan, the candidate will become an employee, someone you’ll have to nurture and treasure. Somewhere down the road, you might face situations where you’ll just have to do some selfless act to provide the means for that employee to grow beyond him/herself and the company.

This is easier said than done because daily pressure hits from all around. Clients, peers, HR policies, business guidelines, projects will challenge your ability to act the way you should by pushing you to act the way you have to.

At one of the presentations I delivered to our new trainees, I found myself talking about an episode that happened to me early in my career. It was about a consultant I hired and had to let go in order for him to carry on his path.

Without knowing it and long before I could even imagine I would have the wit to talk or write about the subject, I lived an experience that illustrates this selfless attitude. The year was 2001. I was on my first year as a staffing business professional and dealing with the fine art of recruiting, hiring and managing talent.

Daniel (let’s call him that) had just finished his degree. He already had some professional experience achieved while studying and applied to one our job ads.

I interviewed Daniel and decided to submit his resume to one of our clients that had an opening. This opening was a fit for someone with Daniel’s profile (junior position in the service department of a multinational software house). The client interview was a complete flop. Somehow the resume was forward to some sort of a marketing support role. Although the client interviewer’s efforts to sell the position, it definitely was not a fit for Daniel.

I didn’t gave up. I managed to get the client to have a second interview, this time with the right department. The interview was a success and the client gave me a green light. I hired Daniel and placed him in the client as an external consultant. For about 2 years Daniel was involved in some projects delivering the client’s product. His performance was very positive and he was really happy with the mission.

After these 2 years the client business when through a very hard period. A lot of people (especially external workforce) had to be laid off or their contracts terminated. Daniel’s situation was on a cliffhanger. I managed to keep Daniel during that time. I took more risk than I should and didn't know for how long I could keep it going on.

At the very end, I no longer was capable to sustain the situation. But the client presented the option to hire directly Daniel and remove him from that cliffhanger every external consultant was.

I lost the position and the business. But I helped my client to keep an important consultant for its business. Also I held on to Daniel for as long as I could and ultimately provided him with a path beyond my own company. A path he was enjoying and he could thrive on.

What makes me even gladder with all this is the fact that Daniel still works at this client. He had the possibility to take part of important projects and develop an international experience along with it.

So, have you done any selfless act?

Photo by Will van Wingerden via Unsplash under CC0 1.0 Universal