Posted in Freelancer,
It happened when I was watching Bluey, sitting there wishing for the millionth time I'd written that glorious show. The cricket episode, to be precise (season 3, ep #47 if you're wondering). It was all pretty topical as the summer roars into life here and with it comes the comforting thwack of leather on willow. Cricket season is upon us.
The episode was all about the spirit of cricket: sportsmanship, teamwork, resilience and a good tea. And in true Bluey style it plucked at all the right mid-life heartstrings. But through misty eyes (I'm not crying, you are) it also made me think about something else quite important. Why specialism really matters. Stay with me.
Growing up in the '90s meant I endured English cricket's alarming fixation with generalists: players who could bat a bit, bowl a bit, field a bit, but do none of it very well. Nice people, I'm sure, but our team was crying out for specialists.
That guy who grooved his perfect googly game after game in semi-professional purgatory, or the batter who spent countless hours practising a single shot at the expense of all other aesthetics. Pros who'd honed their craft over years and had become… specialists. The sort of player who could unlock the thorniest of opponents.
Cricket really is a specialist business. Turns out good recruitment is, too.
There are times when scale pays. If you're hiring scores of workers in one fell swoop, for instance. Or trying to fill multiple roles in numerous locations simultaneously. For many years, teams have tried to select generalists to cover all possible bases.
But when your hiring needs are specific and the urgency is acute, there's no getting around it: you need a proper specialist.
Because you want someone who's walked in your shoes. You want an adviser who knows what it's like to be that harried Head of Comms, sandwiched between leadership, media, shareholders and an overworked team, juggling the competing voices of all of them.
Someone who's been that crestfallen candidate, hollowed out after another rejection for a job they were convinced they'd nailed. Someone who's stared the same crises square in the face, navigated the same reputational headwinds, run countless campaigns, rebuilds and new beginnings, and lived to tell the tale.
Just like you.
There are many good recruiters out there. Power to them, I'm not here to knock the competition. But specialism really counts, especially when you're in a bind and the clock is against you. And our industries remain a specialist space.
Here at The Work Crowd, we are interim specialists. That matters because we know exactly how challenging it can be to find top-tier talent at the drop of a hat — it's the only market we operate in. And we know what our clients need, and what a great interim candidate looks like, because we've been both of those things too.
As an independent business led by founders who've navigated the same start-up and scale-up journey as many of our clients, that's fertile ground for us too. And as specialists, we know the value of working at warp speed.
So when you're hiring — if you find yourself running out of levers to pull, thrown into the middle of a full-blown crisis, or exasperated by delays, unhelpful shortlists or a bits-and-pieces approach — then it might be time to reach for a proper specialist.
Just ask Bluey.