DENVER, CO - Here's a sweet little executive recruiting tip for all you hiring managers + corporate and third-party marketing recruiters who read this blog:
Some cynical executive search pros would say that a search ain't over 'til the winning candidate starts in the new position -- but that's a little too paranoid even for a glass-is-half-empty optimist like me. I'm not going to manage my desk by exception.
But the cynics have a point.
Currently, I have a Denver executive search where the offer has been verbally accepted by the winning candidate, and he and the hiring manager are haggling over a start date. This has been going on for a week.
Naturally, the candidate has not given notice at his current job on the grounds that he needs the paycheck. That's fair. I don't like it, but there's not much I can do about it -- other than politely threaten to submit additional A-player candidates to my client.
Meanwhile, the hiring manager wants me to release all of my other candidates, one of whom was a very close second in this executive search. I have strongly advised the hiring manager against dumping the field. Frankly, until the winning candidate quits his job and leaves the building -- there's always the ugly possibility of his taking a counter offer.
Seriously. Until he resigns and leaves, he is less committed to either company than he was before he had a firm promise of employment from both. He has "two birds in the hand and none in the bush," so to speak.
So take a tip from the Hairman: Don't release a single candidate until you are 110% sure that the winning candidate has resigned his current job and left the building. It ain't over 'til it's over.
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