The first placement I made as a recruiter – the first time I successfully helped a person find a job with one of our clients – was for a Director-level position with a major bank that was in the process of setting up their IT security division.
The best part was that the job didn’t even officially exist.
When I started speaking with the candidate about the job… well, I couldn’t really talk about the job because “the job” didn’t exist. It hadn’t actually been created. All we knew was that the person I was speaking with would be someone who the bank would be interested to meet.
Basically what happened was that one of my colleagues had just started working with a hiring manager who was responsible for building a new security division for the bank he was employed by. Back in 2000 when this story took place, IT security professionals who held a certification called the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) were in high demand and limited supply.
I had been referred to a guy who not only held his CISSP and was an experienced IT security professional but was starting to think about looking for a new job but wanted a senior level position that would be a good move for him and for his family.
While it took a bit of convincing that he should go over to the bank and meet with the hiring manager for a job that didn’t actually exist, he agreed to do so and the initial meeting went well.
For the second and subsequent interviews, it was agreed between the hiring manager and my candidate that the two would put a job together that met the company’s requirements and that also met my candidate’s requirements and thus, a position was created that he accepted. He started with the company about 5 weeks after the first time I’d spoken with him regarding the opportunity with the bank.
Another example I can think of – this can happen quite frequently actually – was when I sent a candidate out to interview for a job with one of my clients but where both the client and candidate ended up agreeing that the job was not a good match. Instead, the company created a new position for this person that would make use of some of the skills he had that other candidates they’d interviewed did not have.
In the first case, my candidate was hesitant to go interview for a job that didn’t exist and where no job description existed. In the second case, my candidate understood ahead of time that he didn’t have all the skills the client was looking for but was still willing on my suggestion to interview for the job and ended up getting a job more suited to his abilities.
What does this mean to you?
While you want to apply for jobs that fit your profile and interests, don’t be so quick to turn down the opportunity to interview for a job that on the surface may not be exactly what you are looking for. It might not lead to something else but in the two cases I mentioned above, it certainly did.
