Yesterday after work, as I’m shopping for lunch fixings at Smith’s, I get a call on my cell phone from a headhunter. He says, “Hi, my name is Joe So-and-so and I’m an executive recruiter with XYZ in San Francisco.”
I know why he’s calling. I have my profile in one of those professional networking sites, not because I’m looking for a new job. I just think it’s smart to keep your options open.
“Hi, Joe,” I say, “what can I do for you?” My daughter, seizing on an opportunity, points to the Dr. Pepper and mouths, Can we get it, can we get it?
Joe tells me his client is a mid-sized corporation in the Midwest and that they’re looking to fill a Director-level position with someone like me. He ticks off all the positions I’ve held at my current company that make me qualified for the role. “What can I do to entice you to take this job,” he asks.
Right away I tell him I’m not interested. I don’t want to relocate to that city, I’m pretty happy where I am, plus I’ve done that type of work before and don’t want to do it again.
“Take the position for three years,” he says, “use it as a stepping stone to Vice President somewhere else. Salary is $175 to $200K.”
By now my youngest and I are wandering aimlessly down aisles. I’ve shooshed away the Dr. Peppers and am being pulled toward the wasteful single-serving containers of Pringles.
“I don’t think so,” I tell him. He tries a bit harder, reminds me that the salary will go a long way in that part of the country. I beg him off. We chat a bit longer. He seems genuinely interested in me, keeps probing what it is I want to do in my career, so much so that I finally stop and ask half-jokingly, “Wait a second, do you want to find someone for your client or do you want to find a job for ME?”
I offer to send him a couple of names of people I know who might be interested in the role if he sends me his email. He asks if I’m OK with him holding on to my contact info in case something else comes up. I tell him that’s fine.
When I get home I tell Jim about the call. Describe the job and where it is; he says, “Glad you said ‘No’.” Mention how much the salary is; he says, “Hmm, that’s a lot.”
This morning I send Joe the names of two guys who’ve left the company for higher paying jobs. They’re hungry in a way I don’t seem to be. They are the kind of people who will relocate themselves and their families anywhere if the price is right.
I look out my window and see the Sandias. The grasses and trees have turned the muted greens and yellows and oranges that signal the final stages of autumn. My aging parents live close by. I can take Dad to CostCo when he needs to do a shopping trip. I’m not going anywhere.
But Joe’s call did make me wonder. Is there a salary I’d have been willing to seriously consider?
How about you, readers? Does your head have a price?
I’ve been a recruiter in the Valley for going on 16 years now.
Yanking your family around doesn’t do anyone any good unless money is the bottom line. And in the end, what have you got to show for the money. Often not much. The high pressure tactics are counter-productive. Those of us who have been doing this for a long-time work very hard to match people to companies where they can fly ~ enjoy their work, their lives
and enjoy a Dr. Pepper with a kid tugging at their sleeves.
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Hi there, jon. Thanks for commenting.
In all fairness to this particular recruiter, he wasn’t high-pressure. I felt flattered that he was interested in me, and he did say he had other clients that might be a good future fit. We talked about the challenges of getting someone to that particular city, which is not anything people outside the region would consider attractive.
The tough part is that many women — even if we are “heads of household” or “primary breadwinners” (as is the case with me) — are not as willing as men to put career over other priorities. I know it would take a LOT for me to put my career first. I might never put my career first. Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t recruit the hell out of women. DO! It’s just a matter of finding, as you say, the fit where we can fly.
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Maybe. I think it kinda depends where you are in your life, too. I’d still like to see some of the world, so if an opportunity arose to live in Europe and have a living wage, I’d take it.
Of course, if I hated the work… it isn’t worth it to waste too much of your time. Money opportunities are endless, but a lifetime is finite. Being stuck in a terrible job for the long term can never be worth it.
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A-HA!!
So THAT is what people on cell phones talk about in grocery stores!
I had only ever heard snippets of conversations about “french style” or “whole cut” green beans…
By the way, those Sandias are worth quite a bit…
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It’s true. If you see an adult talking on a cell phone, being led around the store by an 8-year-old who points to one thing, parent shakes head NO, points to another, and so on…, then you can be sure it is a headhunter on the other side of that phone.
amuirin, I’d love to take my family on a 2-year-stint abroad. I’d go anywhere. Jim probably would only settle for Sweden or somewhere and insist on a Swedish au pair.
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I left a program management job making twice as much as I do now back in the midwest. My husband made much more than me. Now I make more than he does, and well, YB, you’ve seen the tiny adobe house we have in a take-your-chances neighborhood. But we left the high-pressure jobs behind and we both have jobs that we think make some kind of positive difference in people’s lives. And when we look around at the beautiful scenery here, we’re not tourists drinking it in for refreshment – we’re New Mexicans, breathing it like air. And it is sooooo worth it.
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Hmm. That is a lot of money. And this Midwest isn’t *that* bad (I spent many years in South Dakota too, and my sisters both still live there). But you seem very much in love with where you live now, so I’m glad this was an easy choice for you.
I don’t know what my price would be. And there are some places I simply wouldn’t go no matter what. Never having made more than $25,000/year, though, $200K is pretty damn tempting.
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I waded in at the bottom. I swam upstream to the top…and when I realized I was treading in a big cesspool..I dog-paddled back to my little pond never looked back.
What comes with money is headaches, high blood pressure, heart attacks and bald spots. No amount is worth missing out on life…your life.
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Ain’t that the truth!
BTW, this was for a not-very-attractive city in the Midwest, so it’s not that the Midwest as a whole was unappealing. Kind of like how I love the Southwest, but no way I’m moving to Phx.
I’m glad you’re a New Mexican now, bloomgal!! And I love your adobe abode.
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I will admit to missing my BMW at times…but it never did go off curbs as well as my big red jeep. 😉
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My head used to have a price. But, not anymore. I don’t know why. Just, maybe I’m tired.
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HA! I love your priorities, Heather! I don’t dream of fancy cars, either, that’s for sure.
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Maybe as men get older they want more money, and as women get older they want more sleep… ; – )
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And maybe you realize you live in the Land of Enchantment. How could anyone leave the endless sky, New Mexico chili, and the fragrance of piñon fires? (Except me. I was too young to know better, and I will always be there in my heart.)
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I’d like to have a job I enjoy back in New Mexico with a comfortable net salary about 40-50% better than the one I have here. I’d trade the Caribbean in a minute! I’m homesick anyway…
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I get calls like this from time to time. They say English teachers are either mercenaries, misfits, or missionaries. I’m a misfit. I once left a very lucrative management job in Canada to live in log cabin in the woods. I keep a job in China knowing I could be paid far more from a different employer. I like where I am, and my hundred of proxy children. At the moment I have no price.
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well, being as how mimbresman is also an expat teacher in another country, I think I would agree with those descriptors 8-).
The people I know you can’t be bought seem to live by the motto “I work to live” versus “I live to work.”
Also, I know there’s a lot of research on the different generations of workers and what’s important to each. I straddle Baby Boomer and Gen X priorities. Each new generation moves farther away from career-driven Baby Boomers.
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I got these calls when I first left my corporate job. Eventually, as I tackled the writing life, I faded into the woodwork for them. No more headhunters. I guess I was never one of those career driven Boomers. I’m more passion driven. There are days, however, when I wish I was driven more by money. I see the value in it. Particularly for women who often put their relationships over making money. I’m working for a balance.
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This was a great write on a peculiarly American phenomenon. I’ve heard of people referring these headhunters to coworkers they find annoying and are trying to get rid of.
Being a headhunter must be a perfect job for someone who loves to dwell in monkey mind.
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That’s a great insight, Elizabeth, about headhunting being a good place for those who like to dwell in monkey mind! (LOL, too, at your comment about referrals sometimes coming from people who want to get rid of co-workers. It never dawned on me to be so creative about figuring out how not to work with certain people.)
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Not to mention the fact that it’s a way to work positively with the energy of the Universe, rather than dwelling in the negativity of not being able to stand working with certain people. 😉
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Are you saying it won’t result in bad karma 8)
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