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It is difficult to look for a job – I already talked about it several times and even have a "Job Search" category to keep the related posts in one place.  Every time I encounter information that may help job-hunting CFOs and Controllers, I make sure that it finds its way into this blog.

But what about my peers and myself who are in an active headhunter mode?  Truth: we dislike looking for people nearly as much as job-searching.  I guess, being a seeker is not as enjoyable to us as it is to Harry Potter.  

Pitching yourself to prospective employers and recruiters is nerve-straining.  Dealing with unfairness, randomness and subjectivity is frustrating.  Facing rejection is disheartening.  That's all true.  However, after each attempt you collect yourself, you move on.  

On the other hand, recruiting people who will work for you, who will carry out functions you delegate to them, but for which you are ultimately responsible, is not just an excruciatingly difficult and tedious work.  When that stage is over, you are not done -  this is just the start.  Now you have to ease the new hire into his functions, fill him with missing knowledge, perfect his ability to perform the tasks, i.e. develop your new staff member into an asset. 

Here is what frequently happens.  After spending your preciously scarce time looking through hundreds of resumes, interviewing candidates by the score, all you want is to get this damned recruitment issue off your agenda.  If you cave in and make a mistake of hiring a wrong person simply because you are tired of the process,  you will still go through the remaining steps without a chance of achieving the desirable result.   So, all that time will be completely wasted.  Moreover, it is damaging to the company, to your own success, to your staff's morale.  It leads to enormous amounts of the worst type of frustration – the one that's based on guilt.

Why do we end up falling into this trap?  If you are not a giant corporation that can afford to fill departments with bodies and let the most ambitious and talented ones to surface, every person you hire needs to be the best you can find.  And of course, you are somewhat handicapped by the fact that you are not a household name. 

Still, it is shocking really how difficult it is to find good candidates considering how many people are out there unemployed.  On one hand, it is a buyer's market, on the other hand, the shelves are stocked with generic products who are limited, unfocused, and dull. 

And I am actually very flexible.  I don't hold industry-specific experience in much regard.  I believe that it depends on a person, and not the school,  whether he is well educated or not.  What I am looking for is that spark in the eyes showing intelligence; the ability of systematic thinking; the foundation I can build on.  And that's hard to come by.