Derek Schlender
speaker
59 appearances
2 recordings
1 series
first heard Jul 2024
last heard Feb 2025
Derek Schlender’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsNo recordings in the last 12 months.Older appearances are listed below; set an alert to hear about the next one.
Appearances
It's a lot of just, I've had experience in key areas that I know bring value to my clients. And then on top of all that, I would just say that their resume really matters. A resume for a star candidate happens. has to look like someone who hasn't moved around a lot. You know, there's occasions where a quick stint somewhere can be explained and that's okay.
But again, I need to understand their story in a way that can be conveyed in a way that's understood and accepted. And then the last thing is just compensation. Because as much as we're talking about representing candidates, our primary responsibility is still our clients, right?
which is sometimes hard to think about when you're thinking about, hey, I'm representing talent and trying to go place them in the market. You still have to ethically understand, hey, my primary job is to solve a need for my client. A lot of that comes down to simple math. Does this candidate, are they someone who's affordable?
Are they someone who's commanding a salary that the market will support? Again, if I'm not niched, I don't know my market, I may not be able to answer that question. And I may not actually be able to add value to my client. Because if I bring them someone they can't afford, it's great that this candidate's a rock star, they can produce, they add all this efficiency value.
But if they aren't in the budget for what the client can pay, I'm wasting a lot of people's time.
Yeah, that's a great question. I think, again, I'm going to probably beat this horse the whole time, but being very specialized is the key.
Because if you get a phone call from someone who is specialized to represent the niche you literally operate in as a candidate, as a professional, and someone calls you, it's a different conversation when you can convey to them, hey, the only space I recruit in is your world.
And so what I'm going to do first and foremost is I'm going to pursue understanding you as a professional before we, I mean, whether or not I have an opportunity that I'm recruiting for or not, that for me is the right approach. Even if I'm taking a search to market, because it's going to take me some time to truly understand if you're the right fit for this search.
So even if there's a search, hey, I am specialized, I'm niche specific, let me understand your situation. And as we develop that relationship with the candidate, the beauty is the value we bring to our clients, it's not going after people who are thanking God that you called them on that Tuesday afternoon.
It's the people who didn't really have time to talk to you, but they start to catch, oh, there's a value in talking to this recruiter because they are actually in my space. Even if it's a quick conversation, I want to keep in touch with them. It's very relationally driven.
Again, it's a value proposition to the candidate that, hey, whether or not I go take you to one of my clients right now, we need to know each other, even if for a long-term relationship. And so that's the approach that I take. And then from there, again, being specialized, you can pick up on things that are causing pain when you hear how things are actually going. Well, Derek, it's been...
A good year, I've produced X amount in volume. The only frustration is it's taking 60 days decision to deal. Hang on, that's a huge red flag. But I only know that if I truly know the timeframe it ought to take for a lender to decision transactions.
So things like that, as you're talking to someone and they're engaging with you, you can say, hey, can I provide some feedback based on my expertise in the market? I think you're in a place that's kind of preventing you from being the best you could be. You mind if I give you some feedback? And so it's developing a relationship of trust based on expertise.
That's a great question. So a lot of it for me is just paying attention in a number of ways. It's absolutely paying attention to who's producing at different levels, who are the top places that are competitively looking to be in the top 10 in the country, top 20 in the country, and having a relationship developed with those hiring managers to understand how are you going about that?
What kind of talent is it going to take for you to achieve your goals? Do you have the support in your back office to support the production you're looking to have? But it's also understanding what are the kind of new to market, new to the stage players who may not have as much volume publicly traced where it's like, hey, you're actually going to be a player in the next two to three years.
But knowing the people in your niche, it's achieved through a number of things. It's what I just talked about in terms of the rankings. It's attending conferences and actually getting in front of your market and getting to know the people in your space. But again, it's very relational and it's asking, hey, what do you need right now? But where are you headed?
What are you going to need in the next year? If I came across a top qualified candidate in the market, is that someone you would want to have a confidential conversation about? Every hiring manager you talk to is going to say yes. But again, it comes back down to, can you actually produce that in value to them?
And so if you can come back to the table and say, hey, I really heard you when you and I talked about the talent that it's going to take for you to get where you're headed and give them some feedback that you actually have the talent that they're looking for, 10 times out of 10, those clients want to have a conversation with you about that.
The challenge for most of my clients is not paying a fee to a recruiter or even going the search route. It's working with recruiters who don't bring them candidates who are well-vetted, who actually solve a need or actually thrust them toward their goal. So it's connecting those two dots.
But again, I think it's a lot of relational business development conversations that are not just centered around what search do you have for me today, but let's have a business conversation around where are you trying to get to? What type of people are going to help you get there?
Showing 21–40 of 59 · page 2 of 3
← Previous
Next →