{"id":939,"date":"2014-07-22T19:23:01","date_gmt":"2014-07-22T19:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bullhorn.com\/?p=939"},"modified":"2019-03-02T09:12:22","modified_gmt":"2019-03-01T22:12:22","slug":"movies-about-recruiting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bullhorn.com\/au\/blog\/movies-about-recruiting\/","title":{"rendered":"Recruiting Lessons from the Movies"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are countless films that highlight the glamorous (and usually unrealistic) lives of people with fast-paced jobs.\u00a0 Stockbrokers, salespeople, realtors, even accountants. All of these professions have had their time in the cinematic limelight.\u00a0 Recruiters? Not so much.\u00a0 There are, however, a few movies about recruiting\u00a0do highlight the profession\u00a0in ways that give it\u00a0its due.\u00a0 Here are four films that feature recruiters in some capacity, from the corporate world to the crime world to the military world, and the lessons that come with them.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Headhunters<\/em> (2011)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Headhunters<\/em> is a Norwegian film that enjoyed a lot of critical acclaim, and one of its stars is Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, the man famous for portraying Jamie Lannister on Game of Thrones<\/em>.\u00a0 The story revolves around Roger Brown (Aksel Hennie), one of Norway\u2019s most successful recruiters who finds himself helping Coster-Waldau\u2019s character, the slick Clas Greve, find a job at a successful GPS technologies company.\u00a0 The flipside of the plot is that Brown is an art thief who targets his high-profile recruits and takes their prized paintings.\u00a0 Brown and Greve enjoy lunch and a game of squash to talk more about the job, and it is here where the plot takes a sharp turn away from recruiting. Brown\u2019s success as a recruiter stems from his charm and connections with big-name companies, but his failure lies in the fact that his charm is disingenuous, and Greve picks up on that. The takeaway from Headhunters<\/em>? Don\u2019t try to trick (or steal prized art from) your candidates.<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Sexy Beast <\/em>(2000)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Movies that deal with crime almost always involve a seedy character trying to rope in a former criminal gone straight for one last crime. Sexy Beast<\/em>, a British heist movie, features ex-con and expert safecracker Gary \u201cGal\u201d Dove, played by Ray Winstone, who is targeted by Don Logan (Ben Kingsley), an old criminal associate, to join a bank heist headed up by a formidable crime lord (Ian McShane). Don Logan is more or less the crime lord\u2019s recruiter, doing whatever it takes to land the right person for the job. Unfortunately, Logan is also an unhinged sociopath whose efforts to enlist Gal involve threats, barrages of insults, and attempts to woo Gal\u2019s friend\u2019s wife.\u00a0 Eventually, Gal, his wife, and his friends end up killing Logan after Logan attacks Gal in a hate-fueled rage.\u00a0 Gal actually winds up performing the job to quell suspicion in the wake of the murder, so at least Logan accomplishes his goal, even if it does cost him his life. The takeaway from Sexy Beast<\/em>? Don\u2019t be too aggressive in pursuing your candidates.<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit<\/em> (2014)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        This financial success from earlier this year has the word \u201crecruit\u201d in its title, so its relevance speaks for itself. While the Jack Ryan franchise has never featured any kind of recruiter from the staffing world, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit<\/em> does involve an entertaining recruiting process. Jack Ryan, played by Chris Pine, has an MBA from the London School of Economics and experience with the Marines, so his unique skillset attracts the attention of Thomas Harper, played by Kevin Costner, who is a high-ranking CIA officer working in counter terrorism. While Ryan recovers from a military injury, Harper tracks him down and gets Ryan\u2019s full attention when Harper says to him, \u201cI\u2019m in the CIA.\u201d It is a ridiculous moment that is heightened by Ryan\u2019s incredulousness, but Harper\u2019s recruiting strategy is sound. He doesn\u2019t even need to describe the position to Ryan; he just sells him on the CIA brand. When the two do talk, Harper mentions how he enjoyed Ryan\u2019s thesis from his MBA studies and how invaluable Ryan\u2019s education is.\u00a0 Ryan is sold even further, respecting the fact that Harper does not just see him solely as a military asset, and he opts to work undercover for Harper as a compliance officer.\u00a0 The takeaway from Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit<\/em>? Always be knowledgeable of the depth of a candidate\u2019s prior experiences.<\/p>\n

          \n
        1. Friends with Benefits<\/em> (2011)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          This might be the only film out there that truly zeroes in on a staffing company\u2019s actual process, albeit there are a few flaws with it.\u00a0 Mila Kunis plays Jamie Rellis, an executive recruiter who tracks down Dylan Harper, played by Justin Timberlake, for a creative role with GQ<\/em>, the popular men\u2019s magazine.\u00a0 Jamie goes about her recruiting in a rather unorthodox way (but perfect for the movies) in that in her effort to convince Dylan to move from Los Angeles to New York City, she takes him out in the big city to show Dylan how great it is to be a New Yorker.\u00a0 Of course, Dylan is convinced because Jamie makes NYC look amazing. Anything to land that commission check, right? Jamie\u2019s recruitment of Dylan leads to a friendship and then a casual romance, so the business side of things ends pretty quickly.\u00a0 There is one crucial moment later in the film that revolves around Jamie\u2019s commission, because Dylan hints at possibly leaving his new job at GQ before his contract ends, which would mean less money for Jamie. It all works out in the end, because it is a lighthearted romantic comedy, but that does not mean there is not a lesson to be learned. The takeaway from Friends with Benefits<\/em>? Don\u2019t let your candidates get away with too much, because your commission may be at risk.<\/p>\n

          Hollywood has not figured out yet how to make a blockbuster based solely on the staffing industry, and it does not seem like The Wolf of Recruitment<\/em> will be coming out any time soon. For now, check out these movies about recruiting and have fun trying to think up the next great archetype.<\/p>\n

          This Bullhorn Blog post was written by Ryan Galvin.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          There are countless films that highlight the glamorous (and usually unrealistic) lives of people with fast-paced jobs.\u00a0 Stockbrokers, salespeople, realtors, even accountants. All of these professions have had their time in the cinematic limelight.\u00a0 Recruiters? Not so much.\u00a0 There are, however, a few movies about recruiting\u00a0do highlight the profession\u00a0in ways that give it\u00a0its due.\u00a0 Here […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tips-tricks-and-how-tos"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMovies about Recruiting | Bullhorn<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There are numerous movies about recruiting that glamorize the profession, but how many actually get it right?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bullhorn.com\/au\/blog\/movies-about-recruiting\/\" \/>\n<meta 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