I first heard of Danielle Fong from one of my recruiters, Tal Almany. Tal may have very well been the inspiration for this article being written (Danielle please confirm if you’re reading this). He does identify himself as a technical recruiter and makes it a point to ask everybody he speaks with about their ideal next job. And I know he spoke with Danielle right around the time this was written. I know this because he turned to me and said, holy shit, I think I just spoke with one of the smartest and most accomplished teenagers on the face of this planet. No not you Mark Zuckerberg. According to Tal, Danielle left middle school at the age of 12 to attend Dalhousie University and then at the age of 17 she went on to pursue her PhD in Physics from Princeton. Ya, talk about impressive.
Anyways, he then pointed out this blog post and after reading it, the overall concept that came to mind was that of inspiration and passion. I talk to many candidates on a daily basis and hear even more from my team of recruiters and this seems to be a very recurring theme in the marketplace. I’d say that out of every 10 people we speak with, only 1 or 2 are currently working in their ideal jobs where they can truly look themselves in the mirror and say they are passionate about what they are doing and genuinely come to work inspired to do something great. The remaining 8 are typically happy and content but would make a job change if they were presented with something that could genuinely inspire them. That becomes our challenge as recruiters. It is our daily mission to find out what it is that inspires somebody and then go out and find it for them. Sometimes we find ideal matches right away and sometimes it takes us up to 2 years or longer to find that one special opportunity for our candidate. But one common trend that we’ve noticed in our marketplace, is that people will not make a job change unless it is for their ideal opportunity. No longer are people making job changes because they have to. Today people make job changes because they want to and that raises the bar for companies and recruiters to deliver. Otherwise companies will find themselves employing b-level talent or going out of business.
As a recruiter, I love dealing with candidates who are passionate about their work and are in their profession for the right reasons. Because I know that when I finally do make that right match, I’ve truly found something special for my candidate and they’ll likely go on and do something great for the world because of it.
In this post, Danielle does a great job of outlining the qualities that she looks for in her ideal opportunity (list below). In outlining these qualities, I find that many of the a-level candidates share the same laundry list of qualities. Note to employers, the more of these qualities you can offer, the better success you’ll see on the recruitment front.
1) Does the work inspire me.
2) Is what I am doing/building somehow contributing to the greater good of society.
3) Am I part of a greater community working towards one common goal of furthering something (technology, community, social interaction, science, etc.).
4) Is the work that I am doing influencing some sort of social change.
5) Am I building a technology that will impact the lives of millions.
6) Money aside is this what I want to be devoting my waking hours to. The paycheck should only serve as the bonus not as the primary motivator.
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