Recruitment

Six Reasons Why You Need to Stop Looking for Unicorns

“The unicorn is a legendary creature. A beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead.” (Wikipedia’s description of unicorns.)

We are living in the century of labels, everything has one. And because of that recruiters gave the “Unicorn label” to candidates that are very hard to find. Very often it is impossible to find them because they do not exist.

If you’re still looking for unicorns, here are few reasons why you should stop.

1) You don’t like to waste your time

Time is something that we all have the same amount of. It doesn’t matter if you are Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos or a small kid from slums in some foreign country. We all have the same 24 hours every day. And nobody wants to waste the time we have in our lives. The time you spend searching for unicorn candidates is a time that you are wasting.

You don’t want to waste time looking for something that doesn’t exist, right? It could take you a year to find “the one”. During that year you could instead find three other candidates for that role. They could even grow into better employees than your unicorn candidate.

2) You don’t want to waste money

The time you spend on every position is cost money. Every time you refresh a job advert that you using to attract a Unicorn candidate you lose money. You are only throwing more money from the window because they will never reply to that ad. Your company is losing money with every ad refresh you do. Because they don’t have an employee who can do the job that you are trying to fill.

Giving a chance to a good solid candidate (read not unicorn) will not only save your time but also your budget.

3) You want Hiring Managers to be your fans

Are you looking for some way for hiring managers to love you? The solution is simple: Find the people they are looking for as soon as possible. If they want Unicorns, explain to them how the market looks and that unicorns are still a myth. Your “time to fill” will not only improve, but you will fill the role. This means no more excuses why the role is open for a year. And your hiring manager will love you!

4) You don’t want to live with the stress

You found a unicorn, they joined your company and then what? Other recruiters will be still looking for them. Are you sure that you offered them the best job, the best compensation on the market? Because there will always be somebody who can offer something more and better. You don’t have to live with the stress of losing the unicorn.

5) You don’t like surprises

What if your unicorn turns into another animal? You hired the shiny sparkle unicorn and after month or two they turned into a different animal. Their LinkedIn profile looks great. They received only positive ratings on an interview. But for some reason, they are struggling to fit with your team. They wore the unicorn costume and your expectations are something they cannot deliver. And everything is approaching an end.

6) You would like to work with people

I don’t know why you chose to be a recruiter. But I chose this job because I wanted to work with people. Instead of Unicorns, you should look for candidates; they are more real than Unicorns.

Conclusion

“Unicorn candidate” is only a label. And there is nothing worse than a label. According to society, labels are something that defines you. People give labels all the time. That “smart guy”, “talented women”, “the unicorn candidate.” When society gives you one label, it’s not easy to lose it. Labels only create stereotypes. And society is trying to fit people into these categories that we created.

I do not like labels at all because they are useless. They do not define another person and say nothing about that person. People should do whatever they want, there is no label category that will or should limit them.

Stop searching for unicorns, your search will only turn into wasted time. And it will also lead to one big pile of disappointment. Unicorns are great in movies, on t-shirts, or in books. And they should stay there!

Stop looking for them, Unicorns are still a myth.

Last Updated on January 15, 2024