Christine Schafer

I attribute my success to the incredible mentors and leaders who have believed in me and poured into me throughout my career. At General Motors, I had a manager who took me under her wing, and she was amazing. When I moved to Dow Chemical, a senior chemist took me under his wing, and those were all great experiences. But the person who really believed in me and watched my career over the years was Brian O'Neill, the owner and founder of the Sales Empowerment Group (now known as Brickwork). He recruited me to come to that company when he was the CEO, and I would say he was instrumental in really propelling me to the next step in my career. He was an excellent example of how to work hard and have a dream and really do whatever it takes to fulfill that dream. He just really believed in me, and I really blossomed and grew substantially at that company. Over the years, I've had leaders who have really poured into me through extensive training like Stephen Covey programs, leadership trainings, sales certification, Action Selling certification, and ROI training. This has really helped me get to a point in my career where I'm confident, comfortable, know my why, and understand that I'm a good recruiter who recruits for the right reasons and is effective and successful at what I do.

The best career advice I’ve ever received was from Brian O’Neill: work hard, have a dream, and do whatever it takes to fulfill it. That mindset has stayed with me throughout my career and has pushed me to keep growing, learning, and striving for more.

You have to be able to pivot quickly in this role. Nothing is ever a done deal, even when candidates sign on the dotted line. I've had people have their offers rescinded the day before they were supposed to start work. I think if you enter into it with the mindset that you're here to help people do the best you can for both the hiring managers and the individuals you're working with, and you're transparent with them and working for everybody's best interest, that's what matters. When working with younger professionals, I can honestly say I've felt like a parent in some situations. I'm there to help them as much as possible, even when they text me a picture asking if a tie is okay with an outfit. It's really important when you're working with young professionals to ensure that their eyes are opened. You're going to get the salespeople, the recruiters, the types of people out there that are going to say anything they can to get that person to take the role, to get that button seat, to hit their metrics and goals and get the commission. Rather than looking at it from that perspective, you need to look at it from the perspective of doing what's best for all of the individuals involved. It's a relationship business, and it will come back to haunt you if you don't. Make sure you're making good connections, because then you always have this huge network of people. There are recruiters and individuals I've given chances to that still refer back to me 5 or 10 years later because I gave them a chance and worked with them. Recruiting can be gritty, recruiting can be a game of resilience, recruiting can be a numbers game. At the end of the day, the most important thing is it's a relationship-based field. If you have no interest or empathy, then it might not be the right field for you. I highly believe that at the end of the day, it's a relationship-based field, and the people that do well, the money will come if you're doing all the right things for the right reasons and you're working hard.

The biggest challenges in recruiting right now include high turnover, last-minute changes such as rescinded offers, and the constant pressure of meeting numbers. At the same time, opportunities abound through strong referral networks and professional platforms like LinkedIn, which enable access to high-quality hires and long-term relationships.

I think being authentic is huge. I know sales gets a bad rap, and recruiters included, for not being authentic. You do walk a lot of lines when you're working and recruiting with human capital, which is unpredictable and changes their minds quite often. I work really hard to make sure I'm doing a good job for the hiring managers, but also being true and good with my candidates and ensuring that I'm making a good fit not only for that hiring manager but for that candidate. I work really hard to never position somebody into something that, even though it checks all the boxes, for whatever reason, be it a gut feel or other things through the interview process, if I feel like they're going to fail in any way, shape, or form, I never want to put somebody in that position. As a recruiter, I am as transparent as I can be while respecting the hiring managers as well, but I'm a big proponent for letting candidates know all the facts, the compensation, really letting them understand and know what they're getting into so they can make a good decision. That reduces turnover on the back end as well. I think being authentic and transparent is really important not only in your professional career but in your personal career as well. Personal growth is a big one too. I look back on my younger self at times and kind of cringe because I thought I knew it all. I think personal growth and professional growth is really important, something you should continue to strive for. Your integrity and your character is really important, especially when you're working in a sales role, which I do include recruiting in that facet, because if I can't get behind the company, the product, the mission, it's very difficult for me to try to bring people on board or get them involved in something unless I stand behind it myself.