by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS
The VET Recruiter®
You may have read the title of this blog post and immediately thought to yourself, “What is a ‘round-about’? Is it a card game? A new dance? or like the Merry go Round we played on as kids?”
No, it is not a card game or a new dance, nor is it an old dance. It is not a dance at all. It is not a Merry go Round ride either. But as I will explain, it is a situation that you will want to avoid during your Animal Health or Veterinary career. It’s a situation that you could find yourself in both personally and professionally, but as you might expect, we’ll be discussing it within the professional realm.
To illustrate my point, I’m going to relay a personal experience that I had recently.
An improper breach of social etiquette
With more than 22 years of experience as an Animal Health executive recruiter and Veterinary recruiter, I have made thousands of connections through my networking efforts. These connections work in a number of different industries and a variety of professions, some of which deal with the Animal Health industry and the Veterinary profession and some of which do not. In the interest of anonymity, I’m going to keep this story as generalized as possible, but you’ll still see the central theme of the tale.
Earlier this year, an acquaintance of mine was looking for a resource to help her business, and I just happened to know somebody who could help her. So, I suggested this person to meet one of my connections, who happens to own multiple businesses and is very well respected. My acquaintance asked me to send her a link to this person’s LinkedIn profile so she could research him. I sent this acquaintance of mine this individual’s LinkedIn profile and said after she researched this person on the Internet, I would introduce her to this person, whom I also consider to be a friend. The acquaintance said that she would research my friend and get back to me.
So, several weeks went by, and I finally decided to follow up with my acquaintance and ask if she wanted me to introduce her to my friend. She said she had already reached out to my friend and business connection and that they already had a meeting set up. I was a bit surprised and annoyed by this. I was telling the story to a mentor of mine who is another executive recruiter who founded one of the largest executive search firms in the world. This executive recruiter is so well known that he once placed an executive in a job, who is also a former candidate for the office of US President but lost. He has placed board members for Fortune 500 companies and knows a great deal about professional etiquette.
“That’s called the ‘round-about,’” my connection said. “That tells you something about the person. What it tells you is that you may not be able to trust them in the future.”
I didn’t get my feelings hurt by what happened, but I was annoyed, for sure. I thought it was improper and was a violation of accepted social etiquette. The fact of the matter was I had known the connection, my friend, for 16 years. Instead of allowing me to make a proper introduction, the acquaintance took it upon herself to breach that social contract and contact the person directly which circumvented me being able to make a proper introduction.
The bottom line is that this is not good social etiquette, in either a personal or a professional setting. However, it does happen, and unfortunately, it happens to executive recruiters who are presenting candidates with premium job opportunities with their clients. Let’s say I present an opportunity to a candidate. The candidate says they will think about it, but as soon as they hang up the phone, they conduct some Internet research, find out who the employer is, and then reaches out to the hiring manager themselves.
This is also an example of the “round-about,” and it is also considered to be a breach of social and professional etiquette. Not only that, but as I’ve shared on previous occasions, it does not position the candidate better in the eyes of the hiring manager. In other words, the hiring manager does not automatically consider them a better candidate because they reached out directly. In fact, quite the opposite is the case. In nearly every instance, the hiring manager is just as annoyed as I am, and the person’s candidacy is often dismissed due to lack of proper etiquette. And all the person had to do was allow me to do my job and properly present them to my client.
Personal branding and your Animal Health or Veterinary career
There is a proper way to do things and a wrong way to do them. It might seem, at least in the short term, that taking a shortcut is the right thing to do. However, that is rarely, if ever, the case. The right thing to do is not to take shortcuts, especially when it comes to your Animal Health or Veterinary career. Considering the state of world affairs, personal branding is more important than ever. You want to brand yourself in the most positive way possible, and that becomes infinitely more difficult if you commit the “round-about,” or worse, make a habit of it.
Rather than going around a recruiter, you would benefit from building a professional relationship with one. An Animal Health or Veterinary recruiter, especially an experienced one, has knowledge and connections within the industry that you do not have, and they are willing to share those resources with you. They are willing as long as you are genuinely interested in building that relationship and networking the proper way in the interest of branding yourself in a positive fashion.
The “round-about” is not a dance. It’s not a card game. It’s a common personal professional faux pas that has the potential to damage your reputation and ultimately hurt your career.
If you’re looking to make a change or explore your employment options, then we want to talk with you. I encourage you to contact us or you can also create a profile and/or submit your resume for consideration.
We help support careers in one of two ways: 1. By helping Animal Health and Veterinary professionals to find the right opportunity when the time is right, and 2. By helping to recruit top talent for the critical needs of Animal Health and Veterinary organizations. If this is something that you would like to explore further, please send an email to stacy@thevetrecruiter.com.
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The VET Recruiter is The Animal Health Executive Search Firm and The Veterinary Recruiting Firm
Stacy Pursell is an Animal Health Executive Recruiter and Veterinary Recruiter and Workplace/Workforce expert for the Animal Health Industry and Veterinary Profession