A Guide to Middle-earth Recruitment
When you’ve been dedicated to hiring tech talent for a particularly long period, you are bound to imagine implausible scenarios and create magnificent storylines that involve way more than clients, candidates, and tech stacks.
In the name of the glory of geekiness and the taste for epic fantasy, we have come up with the new recrooitment genre. Our today’s mission is to discover what the hiring process would be like if you’re to be hiring staff for the Fellowship of the Ring.
Is Middle-earth recrooitment slightly less competitive than our tech recruitment world? Would you find a candidate skilled enough to walk Frodo through the gates of Mordor without leaving the crumbs of lembas along the way? Here are your odds.
The intro: Recrooiting history lesson
It began with the development of the online recruitment platform.
- Three programming languages were given to the Engineers, immortal, wisest, and grumpiest of all beings.
- Seven tasks to the Marketing-Lords, great miners and craftsmen of the customer personas and funnels.
- And nine, nine admin accounts were gifted to the Recruiters, who above all else desire to know if you’re well.
For within these tech skills, assignments, and recrooitment plans was bound the strength and the will to govern each open position. But they were all of them deceived, for another ring was made. But that is Frodo’s business, now back to the recrooitment.
One referral to rule them all.
Ever since the period of Watchful Peace ended, employee referrals have become an increasingly favored and a substantially productive way of finding talent. The only recruiting strategy more effective than employee referrals is including recommendations from an unlimited number of tech talent and recruiters into the equation.
If it weren’t for Bilbo’s and Gandalf’s friendship, Frodo would never enroll in the Ring Bearer position, right?
In our era of Watchful frenzies and perpetual competence, companies can rely on Recruiting Wizards and LinkedIn Sourcerers. Recrooiters, much like Middle-earth inhabitants, come in various forms and bring along diverse, relevant skills, expertise, and tech-savvy acquaintances. Recruiters, HR Managers, Software Engineers, Developers, and others can participate.
Hiring the right person is equally satisfying as kicking Grima Wormtongue out of Rohan, and you know it. Don’t keep it secret. Don’t keep it safe. If you know tech talent, hit Recrooit and change some career lanes.
Maybe today’s referrals don’t include a trip to Undying Lands, but they drive results. For everyone.
Meet the Management
Not to be a total Karen about it, but — Can we speak to the Manager? In this case, our Hiring Manager is Gandalf, one of the Istari order. For all of those who didn’t know, he is a Wizard, a Mentor, and the Leader of the Fellowship of the Ring. The tall dude with a pointy hat who bumped his head in Hobbiton and chose to save the world right after that (no correlation between these two thoughts whatsoever). His primary mission is to be the guide figure and to oversee the hiring process.
Even Tolkien has sensed that Gandalf would be an awesome leader and Hiring Manager, so he relied on an etymology when naming his character. In old Norse, the name Gandalf roughly translates to staff-elf.
So, in Tolkien’s and Peter Jackson’s world the project’s essence was to toss the almighty ring into an eternal flame and save the lives of all living creatures. In today’s world, the only equally noble cause we can come up with is erasing cringeworthy content from TikTok.
Yeah, like that’s gonna happen. It is far more likely to encounter a suitable candidate for The Ring Bearer position.
Now, it is your turn to Recrooit. Sign up!
Job Overview
Our fellowship is looking to hire a courageous being, comfortable working under pressure, and all right with possibly getting their finger bitten off. The certainty of death and small chances of success are covered by private health insurance in Rivendell.
Join our dynamic team and participate in a series of battles against 150,000 orcs, trolls, and Men who have allied with Sauron.
Key Responsibilities
- Working remotely
- Changing your name and LinkedIn title
- Disappearing in Prancing pony (counts as a day off, sorry)
- Wearing a mithril coat (all equipment is provided by the employer)
- Taking the ring, though you do not know the way
- Walking barefoot to the Mount Doom with regular performance reviews
- Doing intermittent fasting throughout the entire thrilogy
- Hiding from the Orcs, Uruk Hai, Saruman, Sauron, etc. (detecting security issues and eliminating threats)
- Befriending a Golum
- Grasping Golum’s true nature (testing before deployment)
- Fighting temptation
- Completing the project successfully
Referrals gone LOTR
If you choose to recruit candidates for the Fellowship of the ring, you must keep all requirements and preferences in mind. Filling a position when Gandalf is your Hiring Manager is a tricky task.
Here are a few recruitment tips that might help you understand the criteria and hiring needs.
Aragorn II, son of Arathorn
We have all been there. You are sourcing candidates and have come across the best LinkedIn profile ever.
This candidate is proficient in all domains your client is looking for. Here’s a valuable recruitment lesson: oftentimes, when things seem to be running smoothly, and a candidate’s resume looks too good to be true — it most likely is. Aragorn is simply overqualified for this position.
Recruiting Tip: If the role is too simplistic for the candidate and would represent a step backward in their careers, don’t push it. Try to build a bond that enables you to collaborate in the future when a more suitable position opens.
Legolas, Son of the Elvenking Thranduil of Mirkwood
If you were recruiting solely for a dart tournament, Legolas would ve the most fitting candidate for the job.
However, even though he lacks no experience and mastery, he is more of a follower. This position requires some independence. Flawless hairstyle and unparalleled bow & arrow skills are his strengths. Long walks and decision making are not.
Recruiting Tip: Personalized interview questions help. Get to know the candidate for real. Although you have to reject them at the moment, you will have the perfect job opportunity for them the next time around.
Gimli, son of Glóin
Not the best candidate for the job. We get your enthusiasm about him — he has a long beard and looks like someone who enjoys craft beer. Still, he has a bit of an anger management issue.
Not to judge, Gimli is highly skilled and experienced, plus his dark sense of humor is what every team needs. Regardless of these qualities, he is a bit biased toward the Elves and isn’t much into versatility (despite the fact he was later remembered as the Elf-friend).
Recruiting Tip: Be objective and always strive to see the big picture. No matter how good your relation with the candidate gets, you must keep the client’s requirements in mind always.
Boromir, the heir of Denethor II
For real? Did you not see what happened to Sean Bean in every single movie and TV show? Have you been living under a rock for the past few decades?
This referral counts as massive recruitment fail.
Recruiting Tip: Dude. (rolls eyes in elvish)
Peregrin Took
Don’t take this as a personal vendetta against Pippin for making the entire movie theatre cry when he sang Edge Of Night. We are sad to send a rejection letter to the youngest Hobbit, as well.
Gandalf would just say — a fool of a Took, which means that a dedicated recruiter who recommended this candidate needs to get creative and come up with more appropriate feedback autonomously. No second breakfast for you today.
Recruiting Tip: Do the background check. In this case, as lovable as the candidate was, he had a history of misunderstandings with the Hiring Manager.
Frodo Baggins, son of Drogo Baggins
Frodo was probably not the perfect candidate, but he still got the job.
To clarify the metaphor — he gained Gandalf’s trust and was assigned with the most significant duty due to his wholeheartedness. Motivation beats skills. The willingness to grow beats the experience. In Frodo’s case, and in some recruitment stories.
Recruiting tip: Perform the screening thoroughly enough and listen to the candidate actively. You might be pleasantly surprised by their inspiration and enthusiasm.
Suppose you picked Frodo and believed in him during each step his fluffy Hobbit’s feet made — kudos! You have just earned a referral that includes the life of the Eldar. As for the rest of you:
“Go back to the abyss! Fall into nothingness that awaits you and your master!”
Or, you know… Rethink your recruitment strategy and become a wizard in the next story. You’ve got this.
