Episode #153 – The #1 Reason to Respond When an Animal Health or Veterinary Recruiter Contacts You
Julea: Welcome to “The Animal Health Employment Insider,” brought to you by The VET Recruiter. In this podcast, executive recruiter and veterinary recruiter, Stacy Pursell, founder and CEO of The VET Recruiter, provides insight and practical advice for both employers and job seekers in the Animal Health industry and Veterinary profession. The VET Recruiter’s mission is to help Animal Health and Veterinary organizations acquire top talent, while helping professionals attain career-enhancing opportunities that increase their quality of life.
In today’s podcast episode, we’ll be talking about the number-one reason to respond when an Animal Health or Veterinary recruiter contacts you. Hello, Stacy, and thank you for joining us today.
Stacy: Hello, Julea. As always, I’m glad to be here.
Julea: Stacy, we’ve discussed in recent podcast episodes the topic of how to respond when a recruiter reaches out to you, is that right?
Stacy: Yes, that’s right.
Julea: Well, my first question is what makes today’s episode different from those?
Stacy: There are a few things that make today’s episode different. First of all, those other episodes dealt primarily with how a professional should react when a recruiter reaches out to them at work, specifically when they reach out by telephone. Second, today’s episode deals with all forms of communication. It could be a telephone call or it could be an email or a LinkedIn message.
Third, today’s episode deals more with the timeframe involved than it does with how a professional should react. In other words, it deals more with not if a professional should respond, but how quickly they should respond. That’s because how quickly they respond is extremely important. And I have a few stories that illustrate this.
Julea: Do you mean case studies of things that have actually happened during your work as an Animal Health recruiter and Veterinary recruiter?
Stacy: Yes, that’s exactly right. These case studies have happened over the course of a few years, but these are not isolated incidents. Things like this happen on a regular basis. So I don’t want our listening audience to think that these three incidents are the only incidents like these that I’ve encountered in my 20-plus years as a veterinary recruiter and animal health recruiter.
Julea: That makes sense. Where would you like to start?
Stacy: I’ve mentioned this first case study before, but it certainly bears repeating considering the topic of today’s podcast episode.
I once contacted a professional about a position for which I thought she was a great fit. However, she did not respond right away. In fact, it took her nearly three weeks to respond.
When this person finally did respond, she said her current job would be ending at the end of the month because her employer moved their department out of state. Now she was interested in the position that I had contacted her about previously. The problem was that the position had already been filled.
Julea: That had to be disappointing!
Stacy: She was very disappointed by that news, but she had no one to blame but herself.
Julea: Why did she wait three weeks to respond?
Stacy: There’s a good chance she was working under the false assumption that she had job security at her current position. Because of that, she felt like she didn’t have to respond. However, if she had responded right away, she would have been moving from a position of strength and would have been considered a candidate for the position. But since she waited until after she found out that her employer was moving out of state, she was moving from a position of weakness. This was even more the case since by the time she responded, the position had already been filled.
But three weeks isn’t even close to the longest amount of time that a professional has waited to respond to me.
Julea: It’s not? What’s the longest?
Stacy: Three years.
Julea: Three years? You’re right, that is a long time!
Stacy: Yes, and it’s happened more than once. In 2012, I reached out to another professional to see if they would be open to exploring other opportunities. I reached out to them with a phone call and an email. And then I didn’t hear from them for over three years.
Julea: And why did they finally respond?
Stacy: Because they found out that they were losing their job with their current employer. At the very least, they saved my contact information. So now, all of a sudden, they needed a professional search consultant to help them find a new position.
A similar incident happened recently. I reached out to a professional through LinkedIn more than three years ago. They only responded a couple of weeks ago!
Julea: Was it the same situation?
Stacy: Yes. This person only reached out to me because they now needed my help. Of course, the position I had contacted them about three years ago has long since been filled. There’s no guarantee that I can help them immediately with their job search. I could have helped them before, but they ignored my message. Basically, they were ignoring opportunity, and that brings us to the title of today’s episode.
Julea: How’s that?
Stacy: The number-one reason to respond when an Animal Health recruiter or Veterinary recruiter reaches out to you is opportunity. They have an opportunity for you, and it has the potential to better than the job you currently have. You won’t know unless you hear about it. If it’s not better you can stay where you are now but at least you know.
Julea: So why do people do it, then? Why do they wait and procrastinate and only start to network when they’re desperate? That doesn’t seem to make sense.
Stacy: I agree, it doesn’t make much sense. I think the answer boils down to being comfortable and wanting to maintain the status quo. I’ve mentioned this many times before, and it’s as true now as when I first mentioned it. The best time to look for a new job is when you already have a job. Just because you’re looking for a new job does not mean you have to take the first job that comes along. It just means that you’re keeping yourself open to opportunity. It doesn’t mean that you’re a disloyal employee or that you’re a bad person. You’re only doing what is best for your career, and really, what’s wrong with that?
Yvette: I wouldn’t think there’s anything wrong with that. So Stacy, what do you recommend?
Stacy: When an Animal Health recruiter or Veterinary recruiter reaches out, you should respond to their message. It doesn’t matter if it’s a phone call, an email, or a message through LinkedIn. Respond to the recruiter and listen to what they have to say. Listen to the opportunity that they have for you. It doesn’t mean you have to explore it, but at least listen to it.
Don’t wait until you’re desperate to contact a recruiter or respond to a message that they’ve sent to you. If you do, then you’re not operating from a position of strength. You’re operating from a position of weakness. And I can tell you without a doubt that if you want to grow your career and maximize it, then you can not operate from a position of weakness on a consistent basis. It just does not work that way.
Julea: Stacy, thank you so much for all of this great information. And for those people who are considering a job change, be sure to check out the hot jobs on The VET Recruiter website at www.thevetrecruiter.com
Stacy: Yes, there are plenty of hot jobs posted on The VET Recruiter website. For those listeners who want to change their current situation and are interested in exploring Animal Health jobs or Veterinary jobs, I invite them to visit our website at www.thevetrecruiter.com. We post new jobs on a regular basis.
Julea: If you are a hiring manager and need to hire top talent be sure to reach out to Stacy as well. We have plenty of resources on our website for both job seekers and hiring managers. You can also sign up for The VET Recruiter newsletter on the website address at www.thevetrecruiter.com. Stacy, as always, thank you for joining us today.
Stacy: It is my pleasure Julea. I look forward to our next episode of The Animal Health Employment Insider!