Are Your Candidates & New Hires *This* Excited?

Have I told you how excited I am these days?

Ask me about how things are going as the new kid on the block over at Marriott International… and I’m excited. Like over the moon excited. I’m excited about this role. About the company. About the opportunity. About their excitement for digital/social media/mobile. About the potential to do big, great things. I get home from work each day and I talk my hubby’s ear off about my day, the people, the work ahead of us… because it’s all just exciting. I can’t believe how lucky I am to have this opportunity and these colleagues.

Winding down at the last gig though, I mentioned to one of my internal clients, who I respect tremendously, that I was a little scared and nervous about this next step over to Marriott. She, of course, asked why and I shared that while I was super excited, I was totally nervous about navigating a new, huge place – and terrified of failure. What if I am a huge flop? What if big fish-little pond-me can’t hack it in this massively bigger pond? And what if in working for a much larger brand, I flop big time and it gets attention… say in Mashable or elsewhere. Eek! But then she gave me some of the best career advice I’ve heard in a while… maybe ever — that if you’re not scared or nervous about the next career step you’re taking, then it’s not the right move for you. The next step has got to be a challenge and it better stretch and push you. Otherwise, there’s no point in making a move. You’re doing the right thing if it scares you a bit.

So three or so weeks in, I’m not scared so much as I am still a bit nervous about the challenge ahead – but it’s an exciting kind of nervousness. It’s absolutely the right kind of challenge for where I am in my career and professional development.  And naturally, as a recruiter and HR gal at heart, I’ve stepped back to think a bit about this transition… and I can’t help but to think that everyone ought to be this excited and that scared or nervous when they start a new job. Are your candidates?

I know there have been discussions on blogs and such in the past about work just being work. It’s just a job. You can’t reasonably expect employees to pin their goals and hopes and dreams – and REALLY commit and dedicate themselves to an employer. But I’ve begged to differ in the past on that front, and I beg to differ now. And I really hope with every hire I’ve ever made in the past, it really was the *right* step as far as the amount of challenge the new role I offered presented the hire. And I hope that with every hire I’ve ever made in the past that it was a full-fledged commitment they made completely brimming with excitement. We so often get pushed to find talent who can come in on day one and “hit the ground running.” But what if the work isn’t enough of a challenge? What if they aren’t nervous and scared? What if the hire is just strolling in and thinking they can do the job with their hands tied behind their backs and in their sleep? Not good. Not good at all.

So aim for the perfect storm… an unparalleled amount of excitement, the right match for their past experiences and accomplishments but still a solid amount of challenge. Is that what you’re looking for as you recruit? Always good to take  a step back and re-evaluate how we do what we do.