Recruiter Pride: Nothing Like Vanity
PRIDE/Image: Jon Whitcomb (for the U.S. Navy, 1944)
Chet’s parents are proud of his acceptance at Harvard. A Bronx taxi driver is proud of his Yankees. A Marine’s sister is proud of her medal-winning brother who braved cross-fire to rescue a wounded buddy. CNN’s Anderson Cooper declares he is proud to be gay. Tyson is proud of his knockouts. A gang-banger is proud of his tattoos. Apple takes pride in its product line. Recruiters are proud of a job well done.
This all, or mostly, seems natural.
But is some, or all, of this pride mere vanity, or is it “nothing like vanity”—meaning “bearing no resemblance to vanity” (rather than “nothing is more satisfying than vanity and a cold beer”)?
In particular, what about “professional pride” as a recruiter?
Proverbs like “Pride goeth before the fall” suggest that all too often vanity, hubris or conceit is all that pride is. Is that all that or too much of what pride is? Or does the proverb overstate a half-truth?
(Actually, the original proverb, a Biblical quote, is “Pride goeth beforedestruction,and a haughty spirit before a fall.”—which makes pride seem even riskier.)
The Four Faces of Pride
Complicating our understanding, the fact is that pride comes in four forms:
1. A clear sense of superiority or “hubris”—of the kind Mike Tyson, horn-blowing triumphant Yankee fans and Chet’s proud and competitive parents feel if/when they are only boasting
2. A pure sense of being of service to others or to something important, which the 5th-graders’ parents and the Marine’s sister celebrate through their pride, if it is only service-based
3. A mix of (1) and (2), e.g., Apple’s pride, a combination of competitive gloating and satisfaction in enriching the lives of countless millions, if it is indeed a combination.
4. A sense of being unashamed and of being an equal, e.g., what Andersen Cooper and Gay Pride parades probably intend to convey. Recruiters, among whom there are those who feel pressured to defend their sometimes negatively stereotyped careers and their value, may be fully entitled, or at least highly motivated, to express pride in this sense and to defend their claim to it.
Whether pride is felt for one’s own accomplishments or for those of others is not as much of an important distinction as might be imagined. That’s because in either case the pride can be a vice—selfish, vain, conceited and boastful, or a virtue—altruistic, service-oriented and contributory pride.
Moreover, clearly it can be very difficult to determine whether the pride displayed is pure or mixed.
Service Pride vs. Profit Pride
What about recruiters ? If you are a military recruiter, you are very likely to feel the pride of service to your service, whose existence is officially predicated upon service to the nation (which is why military forces are called “armed services” and why police cars are often emblazoned with “To Serve and Protect” decals as job-description reminders).
It would also be natural for you to take satisfaction in the respect and admiration you will win for simply doing your job effectively and getting the personnel needed.
But. if you are a civilian business recruiter, the situation, on the surface of things, may appear to be somewhat different: Businesses run for profit. If they existed purely to serve, they would be called “charities”.
Sure, you can feel pride purely for being of service to a profit-oriented client or having others feel proud of you for facilitating earning profits. But it is harder to package it as celebrated altruism.
So, if pride,is viewed micro-economically, from the company-focused side, some may be tempted to say that it appears that there is nothing for a recruiter or HR manager to feel proud about, unless (s)he wants to boast and feel proud in sense #1, i.e., feel competitively superior. But appearances, as always, can be very deceiving.
Macro/Micro-Economic and Supply/Demand-Side Pride
Before reducing recruiter pride to hubris, competitive gloating and conceit, it’s wise to take in the whole picture, including its micro parts.
First of all, consider the macro-economic picture: A recruiter in a profit-driven business sector and economy—indeed, in a profit-driven society—is contributing to the well-being of everyone, at least theoretically, by sustaining employment within the economy and society. After all, isn’t that the classical point of capitalism: to make the lives of all better through the workings of the market?
Secondly, there is another important piece to examine, one in the micro-economic puzzle: the individual job applicant. Every single one of them has come to a recruiter not to make a profit, but to make a life, to survive and hopefully to do better than merely survive—for themselves and their families.
From this perspective, recruiters are entitled to believe that they are being of service, to feel proud of it and to have others feel proud of them. For helping others—even as a consequence of their actions rather than also as their main underlying intention—survive and enable them to take care of others is, in its outcomes, a form of service.
Every time a recruiter places or hires someone, (s)he can rightfully take pride in having done that, and in having made the candidate’s life and the lives of those depending on him or her better.
On this “outcome-based” interpretation of value, recruiters can be proud of results that promote lives as well as profits.
Having an altruistic motive would be a nice bonus, but not a necessary precondition for this kind of pride, unless actions cannot be adjudged to be right solely or mainly because of their positive consequences.
As for client-based pride, to the extent that a recruiter believe that his or her client or company is, like Apple, providing valuable services and/or products, (s)he can take pure service pride in that role, irrespective of whether providing value to customers and users is the or only a motive, or the consequence of Apple’s or the recruiter’s own operations. Either way, the recruiter can take pride in the result.
So, from both the micro/macro-economic and supply/demand-side perspectives, a recruiter’s professional pride can be more than mere boastful vanity, gloating and conceit.
The beauty of the job is that so often it is.