Greatest of All Time Interviews Series: Wilson Cole Interviews Danny Cahill

What Every Staffing and Recruiting Firm Should Know

Danny Cahill went straight to recruiting from out of college, was a general manager at 26/27, he bought Hobson Associates and grew it into one of the largest recruiting firms. He was even elected into the Knapp’s hall of fame. He is a true renaissance man he is an author he is a playwright, he has a recent book called Aging Disgracefully. We’ve talked to him regarding his thoughts on the recruiting industry and he answered some questions itching at the back of our minds.

Danny Cahill, The Greatest of All Time in The Recruiting Industry

How Did Danny Get Into The Recruiting Industry?

Danny was asked how exactly he got into the recruiting industry at first, whether he wanted to become a recruiter or he just stumbled into the business. Turns out, he stumbled into the business unknowingly as he was hired with no Idea what he was going to be doing.

How Did Danny Get Into Training Aspiring Recruiters

At first, Danny had not intentions of becoming a recruiter. He didn’t even know what trainers were. He even thought that the trainers were “hucksters” who used a lot of sales gimmickry. He was astonished at the fact that the boss was running a “boiler room” operation that hired five wide recruits and then firing four of them a month. He was used as an example for the recruits where the boss says “Here’s 24 year old Danny who’s making a quarter of a million dollars, you could be the next”.

This didn’t sit well with Danny and by the second year, requested the boss to let him teach the recruits despite not knowing much about training. However, his guts has helped him become the greatest of all time in the recruiting industry.

What Advice Would Danny Give a New Recruiter?

The business has evolved, according to Danny and that 15 years ago, the norm was to just make as many cold business calls as possible. Today, if you do that, you’ll end up failing. So, it takes a much longer time to ramp up compared to the old days where it took you 4 to 6 weeks to ramp up. Today it takes 4 to 6 months. This business has become systems engineering as it is social engineering and you have to learn everything from phone skills to internet skills.

What Advice Would Danny Give a Seasoned Recruiter

Danny mentions how combine all the channels of communication to succeed. Thanks to business evolving and people getting stuck in their old ways, seasoned recruiters refuse to use or utilize the new tools. These tools can help them make twice as much money with much less effort. Truth is, if you stick with one branch of recruiting and it goes under, you’re going to be in a lot of trouble.

What Are The Biggest Challenges Over The Next Five Years?

Many people think that the biggest challenge is artificial intelligence or new technology. However, Danny thinks that these are more of an advantage as most of the time, the recruiters have more skill and finesse when using these tools to their advantage. The biggest challenge according to Danny is the combination of these technologies and the company mentality that goes with hiring recruiters from a recruiting company. They give the hired recruiter a corporate salary as opposed to their commissions, which makes it cheaper for the companies but hurts the recruiting industry. The recessions are also a cause for concern as they can hit from out of nowhere. They could also go one of two ways. Either business will be booming for people like Danny or it could end up going poorly for the recruiting business.

We can't recommend it enough to go out and contact Danny because you know as Danny mentioned everything that I have been told. With people that have gone through it is it’s not a theory, it’s practicality and it does get results.

Quotes

- That’s the fantastic thing about youth. You dive in, you make it work.

- Work smarter and not necessarily harder.