With the Rio Olympics about to kick off, here’s a question for you: If there was a category for recruitment at the Olympics, would you be competing?
Well, you might not have the physique, but you certainly should be working hard enough. So you may have more in common with Olympians than you think. An Olympic recruiter should know all about endurance, they should be well versed at making calls and making placements, and they should know how to see out the tough times, seeking out that one moment of perfection.
An Olympic recruiter should know their industry, training and honing the services they offer. And good recruiters are well versed in marathon tasks. Tip top professionals know how important it is to plan for the long haul, they know how much effort is needed to make placements day after day, so the process of athletic training isn’t as alien as it might initially seem.
We Love Water Sports (Because We’re Fish)
At Firefish, we love a good nautical reference, and we’ve been known to litter our blogs with ocean-based puns. So, of course, we’ve picked three water sports to focus on: swimming, diving, and sailing. These splashy sports tie into three hallmarks of outstanding, Olympic recruiters: enduring, perfecting, and preparing for the unpredictable. So, without further ado, let’s dive right in...
Swimming with the Best
The UK is well represented in Rio. Our 26 strong swimming team, led by world-record holder Adam Peaty, looks set to put the UK on at least one winning podium. But for Adam, it’s not all about the medals or the adrenaline from high stakes competitive sports. It’s about committing his life to training for that one moment in the sun.
‘People won’t see me for a while now because I’ll be so tired, but that’s what it’s going to take – and I’m greeting it with open arms.’
Adam's training routine means he’s in bed every evening at 7pm and up at 4am throughout the Olympic season. And this routine is par for the course for an Olympic athlete. Britain's most successful Olympian swimmer in over a century, Rebecca Adlington, described her daily training routine as:
‘I train four hours a day, six days a week, doing 10 pool sessions in total. On top of that I have physiotherapy, massage, and strength training. There are no luxuries in training terms when you reach the top. I'm still up at 5am, training from 6am-8am and again in the afternoon.’
Endurance then is the watchword of a professional swimmer. There’s no time for anything other than training and Rebecca’s and Adam’s competitive careers are, for the most part, devoted to preparation for the future. Both are endurance athletes, investing time and energy into developing their respective abilities.
And Olympic recruiters do the same. They plan for the future by practicing and honing their abilities in the present moment. There are rarely any quick returns. It takes years of training and long hours to reach the top in any profession, and recruitment is no exception.
Diving In
London Olympic Bronze medallist, Tom Daley, heads up the UK diving team. Tom started out at just 14, appearing in the Beijing Olympics, and his career is one focussed on perfection. As with world class swimmers like Rebecca and Adam, Tom has worked hard to reach the pinnacle of his profession.
But it’s what we don’t see that turns an athlete into an Olympian. The gruelling schedules, the lean diets, the time spent in solitude, training and pushing themselves to achieve great things - these are, again, hallmarks of a world class, professional recruiter. For every successful placement, there are many failed phone calls; plenty of time wasted on poor prospects, on bad pitches; many late night finishes bleeding into early morning starts.
All of that work, though, dovetails into one moment of perfection, that outstandingly executed flip from the top of a diving board, making all of the hard times worth it in that moment. And all of that training leads to a feeling of conviction. You know you will succeed when you need to. It’s about having faith in your abilities. As Tom confidently said to BBC Sport:
‘I want to go out there and win an Olympic gold medal. I feel like I’m at my peak in terms of strength and conditioning, my consistency and the degree of difficulty with my routines.’
Pushing the Boat Out
Giles Scott, competing in the Finn Class, is tipped as Britain’s best medal hope across all competitive categories. He’s a four time Finn World Champion and Rio marks his first Olympic debut.
When discussing his training routine, Giles said: ‘I tend to head out on the water, then to the boat shed. I spend a lot of time in the gym and a lot of time cycling.’
Giles is another driven athlete who works hard to keep up his fitness levels. He trains hard and he’s resourceful, using other sport types to feed into his training.
The Sailing Team have to prepare for unpredictable weather conditions and in Rio, look-out for floating obstacles. They have to stay up to date, keeping a watchful eye on the competition. Paul Mullan, British Sailing’s Head of Sports Science & Medicine, said:
‘...Our field of play changes every second. It is never stable. It’s like an eight-lane swimming pool with water jets firing off at random times in different directions - and you’re expecting the swimmers to get from one end of the pool to the other and keep abreast of what the competition on the field looks like. The complexities are vast.’
Olympic recruiters stay up to date with industry events, remain competitive by monitoring relevant industry trends and are prepared to change tack at any stage. They know what the competition is up to, they only recruit for winners and they present awesome candidate shortlists. But they’re also prepared as the world of recruitment can often be as unpredictable as the world of professional sailing. Recruiters at the top of their game train hard so they’re ready for any and every eventuality.
So, are you an Olympic recruiter, are you really in it to win it? Who thinks they should have a place on the podium as a world class recruiter?
