Last year, Top Echelon held its first-ever “Craziest Recruiting Story of the Year” Contest.  And now we’re having another one!

Yes, I know.  It’s only August.  We have almost five more crazy months to go in 2011.  However, that’s just going to add to the fun, because we’ll have a larger pool of stories to evaluate—and to share with you.  If there’s one thing that recruiters love, it’s reading about crazy recruiting stories . . . that happened to some other recruiter.

First and foremost, the rules: just like last year, there are three ways you can submit your “Craziest Recruiting Story”:

1. You can email your story to marketing@TopEchelon.com.
2. You can post the story by including it in the comments section at the end of this blog.
3. You can give me a call at (330) 455-1433, Ext. 125 and relay your story to me.

The deadline for submitting your “Craziest Recruiting Story of 2011” is midnight on Saturday, December 31.  We’ll announce the winner during the first part of January in The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog and also on “Top Echelon TV” (which still exists, we’re just taking a summer break, thank you very much.)

In the meantime, we’re going to continue publishing some of the stories from last year that didn’t win, as well as any stories that recruiters submit that didn’t occur this year.  After all, some recruiters just enjoy sharing their experiences with others, especially if those experiences almost have to be seen to be believed.

As crazy as last year was in the recruiting industry, I’d be willing to bet that this year is even more so.  Bizarre behavior is probably the rule, rather than the exception.  Sharing crazy stories of bizarre behavior can be a cathartic exercise of sorts.  It’s good to get stuff like that off your chest—not to mention off your desk.

So sit back, relax, and take a deep breath.  Tell me your tale.  The doctor is in.

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330.455.1433, Ext. 125
MDeutsch@TopEchelon.com
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Last month, we announced the winner of our “Craziest Recruiting Story of 2010” contest.  During the course of the contest, we received numerous submissions from recruiters, both inside and outside of the Network.  Some of these stories didn’t qualify for the contest because they didn’t occur in 2010, but we enjoyed them, nonetheless, and we plan to publish them in The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog for the edification of our readership.  Because if it’s one thing that all recruiters have—and that they don’t mind sharing—it’s a crazy recruiting story.

This week’s story comes from a Top Echelon Network recruiter in Virginia Beach, Va.  If you’d like to submit your crazy recruiting story, email it to marketing@TopEchelon.com.

“Several years ago, I was in general recruiting here in [Mobile, Ala.]  I had a long-time client that I recruited sales people for.  I had set up an interview one afternoon for a candidate that I felt was a ‘shoo-in.’  I felt his background was excellent and also that he and the hiring manager, who I knew quite well, would hit it off.  They had the same interest, personality, etc.  Later, I found out just how much they had in common!  I was really feeling good about this one.
 
“The interview was at 3 p.m. and knowing the hiring manager as I did, I knew I would get a call after the interview.  I waited in my office for the call until almost five and since I had not heard from the hiring manager or the candidate I called the company to check on it.
 
“I was told that the hiring manager was out of the office and knowing him the way I did I could understand why he had not called me so I decided to speak with the office manager to see if I could get any information.  Since I had worked with the client for so long I also knew this person quite well and as we were talking I knew something odd was going on.  He finally spilled the beans . . .

“The hiring manager’s wife apparently was having a long term affair, and during the interview he some how discovered that the candidate that I sent was the person his wife was seeing!  He came over the desk and jumped him and the fight was on!  They both ended up in the emergency room – noting serious but apparently each of them got in some really good punches.
 
“My candidate was not hired—not a big surprise—but I managed to keep the client and that certainly WAS a surprise!  What I never understood was why the candidate took the interview.  He had to know who he was seeing.  I never spoke with him again . . .he did not return my call.
 
“And now you have ‘the rest of the story’ . . .”

We’ll be publishing more crazy recruiting solutions stories in the future, and one of them could be yours!  Remember, email your story to marketing@TopEchelon.com, and your might see it in The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog.

Communications Coordinator Matt Deutsch and Membership Development Coordinator Drea Codispoti announce the winner of “Top Echelon Network’s Craziest Recruiting Story of 2010” contest.  And the winner is . . . Coleen Balogh-Walther of The Provident Search Group, Inc.  But her story isn’t the only one we highlight in this episode of “Top Echelon TV.”  We also give honorable mention status to a story submitted by Joe Noto of the Regency Search Group, one that’s crazy in two languages (but alas, happened in 2009).

For those of you who submitted stories, but didn’t win . . . don’t worry.  We might mention your story in a future episode, anyway.  Because we’re fun like that.  In the meantime, we want YOUR craziest recruiting story, not just from 2010, but of all-time.  You can email your stories to marketing@TopEchelon.com.  Or mail them in.  Or send them via pigeon.  We’re flexible.

We received the stories, we went through them, and we enjoyed reading them.  Just like we said we would.  And at the end of the day . . . we went to sleep.  But before we did that, we chose a winner, the “Craziest Recruiting Story of 2010.”

The story is a simple one, and the reason that we chose it is this one: it met the number-one criteria, the fact that it teetered on the edge of believability.  It wasn’t unbelievable, but we found it difficult to believe that a candidate would actually do this, especially one who was interviewing for the position of Employee Relations Manager.

The recruiter who submitted the story was Top Echelon Network Preferred Member Coleen Balogh-Walther of The Provident Search Group, Inc.  That story, in her own words, is below:

“I had a candidate interviewing for an Employee Relations Manager (Human Resources) position.  He had made it through several stages of the interview process and was interviewing with the General Manager and two Assistant General Managers, and throughout the interview, he repeatedly used the f-word!  Needless to say, they were offended and did not hire him.

“When I spoke to the candidate and told him WHY he was not getting the offer, his response was that he was not using the word to be offensive, but he was using it for effect.  I told him that if the effect was to NOT get the job, he succeeded!”

Congratulations, Coleen!  As promised, your story is being highlighted in The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog and will also receive mention in this week’s episode of “Top Echelon TV.”  I’d like to thank all of the recruiters who submitted stories to us.  They were all rather crazy, in their own individual ways, but unfortunately . . . there can be only one winner.

However, there was one submission that caught our eye in particular.  That’s because it would have won this year’s award IF it had happened this year.  But alas, it happened in 2009.  It was so crazy and so outrageous, though, that we decided to bestow it with an honorable mention status and also include it in The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog and “Top Echelon TV.”

The recruiter involved is Joe Noto of Regency Search Group.  And the story?  Well, we’ll let Joe tell you how it went down.

“A candidate I placed did not show up to start work as a General Manager of Mexican Operations in Juarez, Mexico.  It was four days before he contacted the client and me because he had been abducted by Mexican drug cartel/gang members and held captive.

“They stole his laptop, credit cards, cell phone and other personal items and threatened to kill his family.  They then cleaned out his bank accounts and later released him.  As unbelievable as all this is, it really happened, and the most unbelievable part is he still took the job, starting a couple of weeks later.”

We enjoyed some of the submitted stories so much that we might include them in selected future issues of The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog and episodes of “Top Echelon TV.”  In fact, we’ve had so much fun with this that I’d like to encourage you to send in your craziest recruiting stories of all-time.  Let’s open the floodgates.  I know the stories are out there.  They have to be.  This is recruiting we’re talking about!

So write them down and send them in.  The email address is marketing@TopEchelon.com.  We’ll be waiting.

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MDeutsch@TopEchelon.com
(330) 455-1433, Ext. 125