Don Hunter: A Few Parting Words From a Retired Recruiter, Part 2

Effective on June 30, Top Echelon Network Preferred Member Don Hunter of Bay Resource Group retired from the recruiting profession.  In last week’s issue of The Pinnacle blog, we published the first part of a two-part interview series with Don.  We’re concluding that series in this week’s issue.

We encourage you to check out Part 1 of the series. Meanwhile, Don, everybody at Top Echelon STILL wants to congratulate you and wish you a long and satisfying retirement.  Below is the rest of Don’s interview with Top Echelon.

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5. What are you going to miss the least about being a recruiter (and why)?

There’s not one part of recruiting that I can say I won’t miss.  If I miss anything, it’s the energy and enthusiasm I no longer have to be a recruiter.  I had planned to do this the rest of my life, but my gas tank to keep Bay Resource Group on the road just ran dry.  Recruiting didn’t change that much, but I did.  There’s not a thing I’m not going to miss about being a recruiter . . . except for maybe [Mark] Haluska.

6. What was your most bizarre experience as a recruiter?

I can’t recall a really bizarre recruiting experience, but maybe some of my colleagues can in deals that we completed or endured.  I will never forget one that Debra Stitt told me happened to her.  It involved a technician that she sent in for a face-to-face interview.  During the interview, they asked him to demonstrate his skills in troubleshooting a piece of equipment that they had set up specifically for him.  To make a long story short, he blew up the equipment and shorted out the buildings electrical system.  I believe Debra said they called her and said that they were not moving forward with him.

There was one client of John Zurek‘s that convinced me that my tank was dry.  He sent in one of my candidates that we thought was a very good fit.  The client did, too, but told John that he answered the questions too well.  They said it was like he had a crib sheet, he was so dead-on with his answers.  As a consequence, they decided to pass on him . . .

7. What advice would you give to somebody just started out in recruiting?

I would tell them they should have enough money set aside to sustain them for a year.  This is a very risky business to get into if you’re doing it because you need a job or are just starting your career.  It’s been my experience that most successful recruiters made a switch from a previously successful career path.  I was downsized, needed a job, and thought that recruiting was something I could do.  I went to apply at a national franchise office and flunked their test that determined if I had the qualities to be a successful recruiter.  I’m convinced I made it in this business because of my previous experience in the corporate world.

8. What are your plans for the future?

I wrote a farewell article for a newsletter that I worked on for years with Dan Simmons.  One of our subscribers, a professor from Auburn University, sent me an email stating that he was going to retire soon, too.  He said he loved his career and current job, but he wanted to have the “freedom” to do what he wanted to do without the encumbrances.  He said in one sentence what took me 500+ words to say.  I’ve now co-opted his statement when asked, “What are you going to do now?”

I would like to detail plans to you about how I’m now going to be able to do brain surgery during the day and build rocket ships at night.  But those who know me best know that brains aren’t my strong suit and I have absolutely zero knowledge of rocket ships.  So my answer is, I’m going to do all the things that I’ve always done without the encumbrances.  I’m into physical fitness, which I can now do on a regularly scheduled basis; pheasant hunting; training my super excellent Labrador pheasant-hunting machine; skeet shooting; coaching my three granddaughters’ softball team; traveling with my wife while she has to attend boring conventions; and many other things with no encumbrances.

Carpe diem, my friends.