The Flagrantly Fundamental Flaws Of Recruiting Consultants Through Headhunters

Did you know that if you put one pot of boiling water and another pot of lukewarm water into your freezer at the same time, the boiling water will freeze first?

This phenomenon has been known since the time of Aristotle, but apparently no one really understands why it happens.

Actually, the British Royal Society of Chemistry has put up a £1,000 prize for the first person who can explain it, but no has come forward so far. The reason why I’ve mentioned this mind-mangling factoid is because the same situation often plays out in consulting firms.

Some firms recruit their own people while some use headhunting agencies to hire people. And in spite of the fact that headhunting agencies use all sorts of fancy psychological and other testing processes to screen candidates, the best associates come from the people who’ve got directly recruited by their firms without any headhunter or fancy test interference.

We know this even from baseball or other highly popular professional team sports like, hockey or basketball. Many recruits who test excellently at their drafts end up as borderline duds. And many players who prove to be duds at their drafts end up becoming brilliant players. And the same happens to many consulting firms too.

Over the last few years it has become increasingly popular to use recruiting agencies for finding new associates for consulting firms. First, this lunacy has penetrated consulting giants, most of whom operate as contract labour mills, but now we can see this perverted tendency even among boutique consulting firms.

It seems, firm leaders care less and less about the quality of associates they bring on board. I reckon, they are far too busy protecting their personal billable hours. Thousands of candidates pass their headhunters’ screenings by having impressive credentials and bottom-achingly high scores on their psychological and other tests.

But when they start working at their designated firms, many of them quickly turn out to be as bogus as a $3 banknote.

And this is what we discuss this month's eye-poppingly inconspicuous episode of Commando Consulting, entitled, The Flagrantly Fundamental Flaws Of Recruiting Consultants Through Headhunters.

Enjoy!