Welcome back to the Hirewell Hot Corner, where sports and recruitment meet. I am your host, Dan Spittel, joined as always by my Ironman co host, Louie Morici. Louie, great to see you again. Let’s jump right in. What’s going on in your world in the world of sports today? Lots going on. We’ll start from, least important to most in my world.
Baseball and golf. Baseball game 40 or so of 160 million. Golf PGA championships going on literally right now as we’re recording. But let’s talk NBA playoffs. I guess it’s intense time. But for me, NHL playoffs have been incredible. Quick shout out to my FC Cincinnati. They won their fifth straight yesterday.
Staying in the hunt with Lionel Messi and his retirement squad down in Miami for the top dogs in the MLS. But let’s talk playoffs. We’ve got the NBA playoffs and the NHL playoffs, a lot going on in those and a lot of parity it feels like in both of those across the second rounds right now.
We have, what is it? Every hockey series is going to at least six, right? Correct. Correct. We’ll see game six for the Rangers and Hurricanes tonight. We’ll see game five for the Oilers in Vancouver. And then the other two series Florida and Bruins are going to game six tomorrow. The final series of Dallas and Avs going to six, I believe back in Colorado tomorrow or Saturday, one of the other.
Not only has there been a good amount of parity in terms of going into these long series there have been a couple of these where it felt like early blowouts and then there’s been a rabid comeback in both sports. Five days ago people talk about how the Timberwolves are knocking off the Nuggets.
They’re up 2-0 and Jokic is washed and now the Nuggets have a 3-2 lead because he is the three time MVP. And he is very good at basketball despite his feelings about the sport. And the hockey world, Rangers up 3-0 Canes looked dead in the water. Now all of a sudden we’re at game six.
It’s happening all over the place. Correct. And to start back with the nuggets, I feel like basketball, the tides change hourly daily, like, yeah, Jokic just won his 3rd MVP and they were quick to count him out. He’s going to win maybe 2, maybe 3 more of these in his career. Like, he’s got a, he’s got some runway and, that team behind him is nothing to slouch at Jamal Murray, Michael Porter jr.
Like, they’re good. And they’ve won 3 in a row against the team that everyone’s like, oh, this Timberwolves team is serious. And, Anthony Edwards, he’s great, but you’ve got a lot to prove, a team that’s already won the championship before in a three time MVP. Rangers, I want them to close this out.
I give credit to Rod Brind’Amour, the coach of the hurricanes for making a pretty big goaltending switch. And then going back and winning two in a row to force a game six tonight. It’s crazy closing teams out in any sport is not easy. I think it’s a little bit harder to do in sports like hockey and basketball because there’s such long series, it’s so intense.
So what haven’t these teams been doing that they need to do? What does it take to close the series down? Quite frankly, from a hockey perspective, I guess I can speak to that a little bit more comfortably than basketball, but whatever it takes, that could be blocking a shot with your face.
That could mean, chipping a puck in instead of trying to go through someone and play it safe and block a shot. Like there’s so many things. And it’s funny because those things that might come natural, and you just have to do them religiously and it’s going to hurt. It’s never easy, especially when the other team’s backs up against the wall.
In basketball, I feel like it’s a lot more dependent on how your star is playing. If they’re having a good game, your chances are you’re going to win. If Anthony Edwards is not at his 100%, that Nuggets squad is going to take full advantage of that. And it’s also the fact you didn’t even mention Aaron Gordon shows how stacked that team is.
But I feel like with hockey, I feel like great moments occur in the playoffs and players become playoff legends. It’s much more of individual performance. I mean, the team has to gel, of course, like power plays and all that is extremely important, but it’s not so much the star goes and puts the whole thing on their back.
It’s more of a team effort. I think, a great example was, I know the Leafs didn’t win the series, but they took it to seven without Auston Matthews. That’s a testament to someone else stepping up. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, their lineup was riddled with injuries. You had Willy Styles, Willy Nylander out for, I think games three, four and five. Matthews was out a few and played game seven, like, they don’t play the whole game.
In basketball, you can see someone play the entire game. So with the shift changes every 35, 45 seconds, you have to have depth. And you need those role players to contribute in a big way. And sometimes that’s what it comes down to. The top dogs cancel each other out, but it’s about whose third or fourth liners are going to be the ones to make the difference, be the hero, wear the cape.
Our time with the Penguin Stanley Cups over the last couple decades, you got some really great names out of there. Chris Kunitz was a huge contributor and some really key moments. Brian rust really pulling it out there. It’s anyone’s game. One person can step up and make all the difference, but, let’s make the transition. How do we talk about closing it out in the world of recruiting, Louie? Well, we could look at it like we always do from both ways, from an agency recruiter side and also from a candidate looking to close a job that you’re in a final interview for.
So from, the agency recruiter side getting potential clients to sign on, it’s about letting them know that you’ve worked in this space before, maybe provide examples of clients in a similar space or similar searches. Especially as a first time, relationship and a kickoff, it’s getting them comfortable, showing a track record of success and ultimately how you will deliver and laying out the plan for them. We have identified there’s a need. This conversation is happening for a reason. They need to hire for something. We help hire, that part’s already taken care of. It’s not so much the need versus solution. It’s a relationship. It’s, how will this partnership work together? Can you trust the people you’re working?
Are you comfortable having us run this for you? Are you comfortable giving us money and somewhat of control? It really comes down to the ability to build relationships, and you have to do that kind of in a quick turnaround because they’re looking to fill this position pretty quickly. We’re working on a bunch of stuff with a bunch of different clients, and sometimes you have one call, maybe two, to kind of fully plead your case, build that relationship.
Closing it out is doing your best to provide peace of mind. Provide some confidence that we know we can do this. These recruiters have done it. Here’s our success track record. Like you were saying. At some point, it’s a leap of faith too, though. It’s just getting across the finish line. But you more so deal with getting our existing clients to close it out when dealing with an offer for a candidate.
So I want you to speak to that. Yeah, it’s never easy because if it comes off like you’re forcing them, that means that they don’t want to offer a candidate. So there’s definitely this push or give and take sort of assessing the situation. If they’ve met with 10 people, they’ve interviewed 7, they’ve fully interviewed 5, they’re down to 3, there’s a good point to push there. They wouldn’t have trickled down to that 2 or 3 folks, or even 1 if they didn’t feel comfortable. So, in that scenario, giving them a nudge saying, “Hey, this person comes in at the comp. They are excited about the role. They meet the qualifications. They’ve done their research. You clearly like their personality.” And just kind of lay out for them all of the positives. Yeah, there might be negatives and feel free to highlight that and make sure it’s an informed decision, but kind of putting it all in front of them. Hearing from a different person usually gets them to, you know, I hate the saying, but it shit or get off the pot. It is what it is. That saying, in this case, it’s either you let the candidate go. Or you make the offer, but there can’t be this limbo. Time kills deals and sales, recruiting, all of it. So, if I were to push it is in order to do right in a timely manner, whether it goes one way or the other.
Candidate experience is absolutely top of mind for us we’re working with our candidates. But you talk about it from pushing the client side. There’s that mantra when we’re working with candidates, ABC always be closing throughout the process. Every step of the way, we’re talking with our candidates. We have a very clear picture of where they are in their process, what they’re looking for, what’s it going to take for them to make this move and we’re consistently checking in, making sure that, okay, if they turn around and offer you this position at this level tomorrow, will you accept that?
And typically the answer is yes, because we’ve done the homework we’ve laid the groundwork. So it’s not just us pushing on one end. It’s kind of facilitating both sides. We’re the middleman for everything. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Again, it’s when to push when not and just kind of understanding as much as we can.
I mean, we got to hope that clients and candidates are both being honest and upfront with us, but yeah, they’ll always be closing round one, round two, round three of interviews. We’re asking these candidates, are you more interested or how do you feel like? What other interviews do you have going on?
Because if we get to that point where yes, they do make an offer at this level, you should, be able to understand pretty good if they’re going to accept before it’s even offered. So taking, the out of nowhere out of it, don’t be blindsided. Again, we can do all of this and still be blindsided, but at least do your due diligence to mitigate that amount of risk.
Yeah, and then look, look at it from how do you close it out? As far as like, the actual candidate goes, closing out the interview process on their end. Obviously, step one, I think everyone knows this at this point is you send a thank you email to the people you interview with. Typically, the day after you interview. Reiterate your interest, hit on some key points, things you talk about in your conversation.
That’s an obvious step one, but otherwise be communicative. If you’re working with a recruiter, chances are we’re talking to you pretty consistently anyway. So that’s not so much of an issue, but as much as we tend to reach out we want the same back. We want to hear from you. We want to make sure that you’re still on board.
You’re still interested and do so with the hiring manager as well. Just continue to reiterate your interest. There’s an opportunity to ask questions in an interview. You can utilize an email as a potential for follow up questions. Maybe you have one or two that have stemmed from thinking about the conversation.
If anything else, it just shows your continued interest and you’re still thinking about this opportunity, so. Absolutely, I think you hit 3 major points. The thank you email, providing some extra context, maybe more questions. Yeah, that came from after you’ve kind of sat back and pondered what was discussed in the interview.
Be communicative, letting folks know, hey, I’m interested. I want this, like, showing that buy in. It really goes a long way with the client and with us as recruiters. A couple other tips have references ready to go. Contact info, email, phone number, titles in their current company, your relationship, have those ready.
Nothing’s worse than they want to offer you, but they need three references and you, then you have to scramble, talk to those people that can take some time. So have those ready to rip and then ask for the job. I mean, I come from sales and I’ll tell you this more times than not. If you’re in a sales role, and I assume this goes remains true for a lot of industries.
If you want the job, tell them, be like, I think I can do this job. I’d love to work with you all. Please hire me. Some framework of that. They don’t want to guess. If you could take that out of them and they know that if they’re going to offer you, obviously within where you’re looking to be and you tell them you want this job. Talk about the confidence that you have in yourself, but also in accepting and working with them.
It’s a nice feeling. It’s not always that easy, but sometimes it could be that easy. Yeah, it just shows confidence. It’s a closing tactic in sales, so I guess that’s kind of where I stem that from, but it does go a long way. 100 percent of the time, it works 60 percent of the time. There you go. Or vice versa.
Two-minute drill, Louie. Let’s take it home. Who is going to be the first team to close out their series in the NHL? I’m thinking the Rangers. I’d love to see them clean out the Hurricanes. Hurricanes are a very tough bunch. Top to bottom. They are scrappy.
They play just like their coach, Rod Brind’Amour. But I think, Igor Shesterkin, the goalie for the Rangers. If he lets up more than two, we’re going to have a problem, but I think he shuts the door. And then the power play, all their stars, and they need to stay disciplined, stay out of the penalty box. I think if they do those three key things, they’re going to close it out tonight.
As a Penguins fan, that’s enough. We can talk about Igor Shesterkin for now. On my end, I do think the Canes force a Game 7. I think Boston forces a Game 7. I think the first one to close it out is gonna be the Stars. I think they’re gonna take it in Colorado, Game 6, move on to the Western Conference Final.
I know they’re only on Game 5 tonight, but I do want to shout out the Vancouver Canucks. I feel like they’re kind of like a sleeper team at this point. They’re not super flashy. They don’t have all the big stars, but I like them. I want to see them succeed. Yeah. That’s going to be a great series.
And we were talking about this before. I mean, very well, all of all four of these series could go seven. I mean, we have three game sixes, so there you go. Just how close knit and how tight these games have been. It could really go in the caliber of teams left. So would it be awful if there was a four game sevens?
No, as just a hockey fan. And also selfishly kind of want the Stars to close it out because I’ll be in Dallas for the next week. So good time. Yes. Well, on behalf of Louie and myself, thank you once again for tuning into the Hirewell Hot Corner. Please do join us again for our next episode. And as always stay classy LinkedIn.
