Corporate Recruiting – The Close

June 28, 2011

Roughly two months ago, the CEO of a portfolio company reached out asking for some help recruiting a web designer. I came across a few decent candidates at first, but then lo and behold, I found a bona fide champion. I sent his profile over to the CEO and he was thoroughly impressed with this candidate’s resume, portfolio and wireframes.

The only issue was this champion lived in the United Kingdom. On top of that, he was being aggressively pursued by a handful of other expansion stage technology start-ups in the Bay Area. I can’t speak for everyone, but San Francisco is pretty amazing and would fall under my top 3 best cities in America. Tough competition for starters.

Without having any idea as to what these other companies were offering in San Francisco, this CEO took on the challenge of closing this candidate with full force. He flew the web designer (and fiancée!) over, put them up in the best hotel, took them out to a lovely dinner, and had them meet the entire team onsite. This wasn’t an attempt to brag or boast about lavish lifestyles. It was a clear message to the candidate saying, ‘you’re awesome and this is how much we’d like you to join our team.’

On top of all that, the candidate was given the option to return and work from his native UK a few times a year to help ease the transition across the pond. This type of treatment and already feeling valued so early in the relationship really does go a long way. 

Some people may feel it’s a waste of time and money. Those people are fools. With just about anything in life, whether it’s time or money, you invest most heavily in what matters most.  In corporate recruiting, you can’t close on top talent without showing that you care. In the end, the offers from the San Francisco start-ups were respectfully declined and our new web designer is expected to start next month.

Director of Recruiting

Victor Mahillon is the Director of Recruiting at <a href="http://kamcord.com">Kamcord</a>. Previously he was a Talent manager at OpenView.