In this first edition of Recruiter Tales, ThinkingAhead Partner and Recruiter Cathy Moll shares the story of how she found her way into the industry, and one quality that might make it a good fit for the right person.

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I have been recruiting with ThinkingAhead for the last 23 years and 23 years ago if you had asked me if I was Planning to be a recruiter, the answer would have been no.

So I don't think anybody grows up thinking that they're going to be a recruiter.

We don't have any kind of major in college for recruiting.

My major, by the way, was social work, which I guess comes pretty close, but I really had no idea that recruiting was going to be what I ended up doing for most of my life.

Recruiting is one of the hardest jobs.

that you'll ever love, and I stole that from somebody who works on my team.

If you like people and really are interested in finding out about people, finding out about what makes them tick, what's important to them, then this could be an opportunity for you.

But there's much more to it than just finding out about people and liking to talk to people.

It's also a sales job.

And I mean that because sometimes people need a little nudge in the right direction.

It's up to us to introduce new opportunities to people, and it's up to us to introduce new opportunities to people if in fact they're open and interested in hearing about them.

We really look to be consultants.

We look to find out as much about people as we can.

And about the clients or the companies that we work with as well and sort of matchmaker introduce the two.

Um, and sometimes that process needs help along the way.

So, it's not easy, and it's mostly not easy because our product is people, and people can change their mind or may not necessarily be able to see some of the things that we can see with regard to future potential opportunities.

Glad that I joined.

Thinking ahead 23 years ago.

And by the way, how I came to be here was the person that was that recruiting consultant that we used for the company that I was with found out that I was going to be moving because my husband had a new job and approached me about joining the organization.

So I knew how he worked.

I knew how the company worked and their philosophy.

And that just got things started.

So again, did I think that I would be doing this 23 years ago or for 23 years?

No, I didn't.

But am I happy that I did?

Absolutely.

So I hope that you'll take a look at what recruiting is all about, specifically with thinking ahead and give it a try.