At Top Echelon, we like to grade things. And we like to ask recruiters to grade things. Is that because we think school is fun? Not necessarily. Slow down there.
We just think it’s a good way to gauge recruiters’ opinions about things. We also think combining the fine art of grading things with a recruiter poll is an even better way to gauge their opinions.
And we have good news! We conducted another recruiter poll recently of Top Echelon Network members . . . and yes, we asked them to grade something. In fact, we asked them this question:
Which overall grade would you give to 2015, both personally and professionally?
Results:
We presented a choice of six answers, which are listed below, along with the percentage of recruiters that chose each one:
- A—14.4%
- B—43.3%
- C—30.0%
- D—8.9%
- F—3.3%
- Is there a grade lower than F?—0.0%
Summary:
Okay, these results aren’t too surprising. After all, the majority of people are going to select “B” before they select “A” because they might be afraid that they’re fooling themselves about how good their year really was. OR they might have actually enjoyed an A-level year, but then they start thinking about somebody else’s year, and they start to experience “year envy.” The result? A grade of “B.”
So for the 14.4% of recruiters that chose “A” as their answer, they must have really had a good year. In addition, a certain amount of the 43.3% of recruiters that chose “B” might have actually enjoyed a year that was just as good as some of the “A” recruiters, but for whatever reason, they short-changed themselves.
Almost twice as many recruiters (30.0%) believe that their 2015 was average as believe their 2015 was of “A” caliber. Then the numbers start to drop off, as might be expected, as 8.9% chose “D” as the letter grade that most closely resembled their past year and only 3.3% selected “F.” Absolutely nobody chose “Is there a grade lower than F?” as their answer.
Analysis and Conclusion:
Let’s take the “big picture” view. Yes, we asked recruiters to grade their year both professionally and personally. However, when you think about it, how well you do professionally most definitely affects how well you do personally. If you bill a lot during a given year, you might be able to smooth over some of the rough edges of your personal existence. (“Here’s my payment. Turn my electricity back on.”)
All that being considered, 87.7% of recruiters gave their year a grade of “C” or higher. That’s a tremendous number. That indicates that 2015 was a great year for the recruiting industry. And yes, Top Echelon has other numbers that reinforces the notion that 2015 was a great year for recruiters, but it’s always good to go straight to the source.
If we had run this poll during, say, the depths of the Great Recession, the results would almost assuredly have been markedly different. What about YOU? Which letter grade would you give yourself for 2015? Which grade professionally? Which grade personally? Which grade overall?