Lessons on Sales From the Worst Recruiter on the Planet

I went to school to be an accountant. On day one of working for Price Waterhouse, I thought to myself, “WTF have I done?”

(Who knew how ahead of the curve I was in 1985 with the use of “WTF”?)

So, 18 months later and after finding out I had enough public accounting experience to earn my CPA designation, I resigned – staying about one minute longer than necessary. Of course, I had another job. Another accounting job. Back then, if you had any public accounting experience, you had recruiters hunting you down and four or five interviews and offers in a matter of a week. Ah, the good old days!

I went to work for a large multinational. It sucked. The next company sucked. As did the next one. Five companies and seven years later, I left the accounting profession. I realized it wasn’t the companies or the work that sucked – I realized I hated accounting and finance. It was me that was the problem; not them.

So, what does an out-of-work accountant do?

You give sales a try. Specifically, you try pimping people.

Yes, I became a recruiter – and possibly the worst one ever. I became a recruiter for the largest finance and accounting placement firm out there. You know its name.

You see, this company thought it was a good idea to hire recruiters who understood the industry in which they would be pimping – uh, I mean “matching” accountants with people who needed to hire accountants.

Company training was off the charts. This firm invested in its people. No complaints there. I was given all the tools I needed to be successful. I was coached and mentored by successful people sitting beside me. I was handed clients on day one.

But here was my problem: I was trying to place people in jobs that I thought sucked. And I couldn’t get that out of my head. What was worse was when I knew a company sucked. Frankly, when a company is always hiring (for the same position) and not growing, there is something wrong at that company, be it the product, or the work itself, or the leadership, or the simple fact that the industry the company operates in is dying a slow death.

One year into this gig, I was moved to an IT recruiting position. I actually did much better. I worked alongside a great mentor, and he trained me well. I was able to get past the jobs-that-suck problem because I had never held an IT position, but I was still struggling with overcoming “my” thoughts about some employers.

One year into this new role, I placed myself – in a company that developed proprietary financial systems for its clients. I was pretty good at understanding the current technologies back then, had a very analytical mind, and figured maybe this was a way to avoid totally throwing out my accounting education and experience.

I skipped out of the office smiling on my last day as a recruiter. Recruiting did, however, teach me two things that apply to any sales position.

First, it taught me that if you don’t believe in the product or service you’re selling, chances are you are not going to be successful. I know this sounds trite, but I also know that there are people sitting behind sales desks right now with big carrots, – a.k.a. dollar signs – dangling in front of them. Run! And fast! It is never going to work for you. Never.

(Disclaimer: Of course, this is not the case for everyone. Some people could sell – what’s that old saying? Ice to Eskimos? But the rest of you know who you are.)

Secondly, unless the product is truly unethical or immoral, it is not for me to decide the value of the product or service. In the case of my recruiting stint, it was up to the candidate to ask the right questions and determine whether or not the potential employer was a good fit. Not me. Maybe that publishing company just kept hiring terrible senior accountants, hence the permanent ad in the newspaper? (HAHAHA!)

But we have all walked into a business where someone was trying to sell us something and we could just tell their heart was not in it, they were not educated on the product, or, in some cases, they flat out told you not to buy certain things. I was that person. Guilty as charged.

These days, I sell employee happiness and a better employee experience. And when I think back to all those bad accounting jobs, I realize I was always the one the boss would turn to when it came to increasing morale, building teams, and more. Maybe I just needed to have those other experiences to figure it out?

I hope you don’t take as long!