Words that Have a Completely Different Meaning to Recruiters
People say that learning to speak a new language is quite hard and quite unlikely once you are out of school.
Wrong.
In fact, all of us pick up and speak multiple languages every day quite effortlessly…we usually just call them professional jargon.
And when it comes to our industry, recruiters and professional jargon are like peanut butter and jelly. They just go together.
Here is the proof (and also a handy list you can share with non-recruiters so they can decode what you are saying):
1. Purple Squirrel
Regular Definition: A creature with an unfortunate genetic mutation
Recruiter Definition: This is a mythical being, product of the vivid imagination of over-ambitious hiring managers. It’s the non-existent candidate that checks all the req boxes and also saves babies and puppies in her spare time.
2. Passive
Regular Definition: Accepting or allowing what happens or what others do without active response or resistance.
Recruiter Definition: A potential candidate who is currently happy in their job and not looking for a new role but is approached and lured by a recruiter to a new opportunity.
3. Pipeline
Regular Definition: A long pipe, typically underground, for moving oil, gas, etc., over long distances.
Recruiter Definition: A carefully curated list of stellar candidates that you hope to pick from as future jobs open. Your secret cookie jar that you cannot tap into just yet.
4. Screen
Regular Definition: A movable device; a framed construction that is designed to divide, conceal, or protect. Also a monitor for TVs, computers.
Recruiter Definition: The call that determines if a prospect will become a candidate. The watershed moment.
5. Dashboard
Regular Definition: The panel facing the driver of a vehicle or the pilot of an aircraft, containing instruments and controls.
Recruiter Definition: The home page on your ATS that lets you know what candidates are in play and where.
6. Requisition
Regular Definition: An official order demanding the supply or use of goods.
Recruiter Definition: A job opening, a search, a headcount. Your reason for living/breathing/existing as a recruiter.
7. Turndown
Regular Definition: What happens in a hotel room at about 5pm, and in the best case scenario fresh sheets are accompanied by a little delicious chocolate square on the pillow (or a whole basket of treats if the above picture is to be believed).
Recruiter Definition: The call you make to tell someone they aren't getting the job; like breaking up with someone.
8. Kickoff
Regular Definition: The start of a football game.
Recruiter Definition: The meeting you have with your hiring manager where he/she describes the 'purple squirrel' they expect you to find.
9. Comp
Regular Definition: A free meal in a restaurant.
Recruiter Definition: The number of zeros in a candidate's salary offer required to make your hire.
10. Sourcing
image by CollegeDegrees360
Regular Definition: Crediting the works of others in your research projects.
Recruiter Definition: The practice of recruiting talent using strategic search techniques.
11. Intake
Regular Definition: An amount of food, air, or another substance taken into the body.
Recruiter Definition: The meeting that takes place between hiring manager and recruiter to kickstart the recruiting process.
12. Talent
Regular Definition: A special ability that allows someone to do something well.
Recruiter Definition: The awesome and smart people that you want to hire.
13. Check-in
Regular Definition: To arrive and register at a hotel, airport or event.
Recruiter Definition: A mobile web app that lets you instantly capture leads at events and manage them easily in LinkedIn Recruiter.
14. Close
Regular Definition: To move (a door, window, etc.) so that things cannot pass through an opening; to end a business day.
Recruiter Definition: When you get a signed employment contract back (and the celebrations begin).
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Topics: Industry humor and fun
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