The most common question that I get from candidates today is 'why, in a tight job market, do clients still hire to skill set and not to drive and ability'?  Well, maybe not exactly in those words, but allow me to expand. 

In today's world of candidate shortage in software sales, sales engineering and business development disciplines I still find it interesting that clients are still scared to make solid hires based on drive, capability, and auxilary experience.  I simply call this the CYA or Cover Your Ass hiring plan.  We're coming out of a recession and I've seen it before.  Clients want the safe bet.  Hire the guy or gal out of a competitor so that if they don't work out they can point to their resume and say 'well, they came from a competitor, how was I to know?'. 

Let me rant a little here, as I think that the best hires that I've ever seen in my 14+ years of recruiting are those where the hiring manager hired the best athlete, or the DNA hire, as I call it.  There are several reasons for this;

1) when you hire the best athlete you hire someone who is motivated and has demonstrated success coming up to speed in new technologies.
2) you get more loyal employees.  When you hire someone that has something to prove they typically work harder to make sure that you know that they appreciate you taking a chance on them (being that they weren't necessarily coming out of a competitor and an easy hire for you).  Also, they tend to stay longer at companies, in my experience, when given the right resources.
3) they don't have to explain to their customer base why they were 'wrong' for several years, now selling that customer a competitive product or service.

Smart hiring is tricky, but it costs you money if you don't hire right.  Consider these factors when bringing your next person aboard.  If you see that a candidate has 80% of the skills and 100% of the attitude and ambition to succeed in the role, then you have just discovered the right recipe.

So, next time you see a resume from someone that is in an complimentary market, take the interview.  You never know what kind of jewel you'll find. 

There's no second chance to make a first impression, right?  Then you have to think that an interview is more than a meet and greet.  This is an opportunity for you to get all initial hurdles out of the way.

Ask yourself these questions before you enter an interview;
1) Do I have a clear idea of what I'm going to ask in today's interview?
2) Have I practiced how I will handle difficult questions such as 'why did you leave this or that job', 'why do you have so much movement on your resume', 'what do you know about our space', 'why do you want to work for our company', and 'what sort of money do you need to make'. 
3) Did I think about how I can illustrate to the employer that I can come up to speed quickly?  This includes having a bulletized hit-list of correlations that you can make between solutions that you've sold and how you think they apply to the hiring company's offering, as well as which verticals you've sold in to and price point and complexity of solutions.

With everything going so fast in today's world, when you accept the responsibility of taking an interview you must accept that you, too, will accept the responsiblity of taking the added time and measures to sit down and prepare for this interview like you would a sales call.  Make yourself shine and while you're at it make your recruiter buddies shine, as well!!!

Although there is a lot of hiring activity, I have to admit that it's a true mix
when it comes to finding clients that are truly motivated to hire. 


The market is very hot for sales talent, the talent pool is
thin and it's more and more important to hire in a timely matter than ever
before. 

I was reminded of this today as I looked at my white board and decided to do some visual house cleaning.  Now, having had a white board for years and years and years I'd say that I'll throw out a rough estimate that it takes me about 3+ months of having an opportunity on the board before the ink 'dries', and by dries I mean so dry that it just won't come off with the conventional eraser they provide you with.  On a side note, if you ever have this problem take an old dry erase marker that isn't writing well and use that to rub off the letters.  Works like a charm. 

I literally erased 10+ opportunities off of the board that had been on there for 3-10 months. 

I'd like to get some industry perspective from others out there on what's going on, in your opinion.