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Talent Trade Tidbit - Purple Spotted Unicorn

Published on: 28th March, 2024

On the hunt for the rare beast known as the "purple spotted unicorn"? We've got bad news for ya...you're not going to find one.

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Transcript
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Hi, this is Stephanie Maas.

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Today I want to talk to you about the purple spotted unicorn.

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Here's what the purple spotted unicorn is.

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The purple spotted unicorn, first and foremost, is a unicorn.

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I'm not even sure if that exists, but it's a unicorn.

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And then it's a very specific type of unicorn.

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Over the last couple of months, unfortunately, I've actually had to turn down a couple of different searches.

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And the reason?

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Was because of the purple spotted unicorn.

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What I mean is the hiring manager of the organization that I was representing had expectations of being able to find a purple spotted unicorn.

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And when I came to them and shared with them that, Hey, the skills, the compensation, the opportunity, all those things are not congruent with what the talent in the market is bearing.

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It creates a purple spotted unicorn.

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And we've had to back off and say, Hey, I don't even know if that person exists, let alone, I cannot confidently tell you I can go find it.

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Now, let me also clear this up.

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We're not looking for any handouts.

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We don't get paid for the easy searches.

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All of my searches are looking for some kind of a unicorn or a horse that maybe used to be a unicorn or something kind of similar to that.

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We can do that all day, every day, but the purple spotted unicorn, that's where we're going to have our challenge.

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And quite frankly, moving forward, especially in commercial banking and commercial finance, the unicorn or unicorn like talent is dwindling significantly.

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This is going to be one of our biggest challenges going forward, regardless of what happens in the market.

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It's truly finding the talent that we need.

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Unfortunately, for a lot of banks, this is going to mean getting creative, trying to find other solutions.

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And we're happy to talk through what some of those could be.

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If you find yourself really wanting a purple spotted unicorn, but knowing they don't really exist.

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About the Podcast

The Talent Trade
Presented by ThinkingAhead Executive Search
The Talent Trade is all about finding the right person, for the right opportunity, at the right time. But how exactly do you do that the "right" way? Executive Search Partner and Top Biller Stephanie Maas shares more than 25 years of experience about what it takes to be a top recruiter in today's "talent trade" market, using ThinkingAhead’s four-prong system focused on recruiting, business development, planning, and managing your mindset. It’s real, honest information about how to build your desk, perfect your niche, and stand out among the crowd in your search career.



Southwestern/Great American, Inc., dba Southwestern Family of Companies, for itself and its related entities and their assigns, reserves and retains all rights to their copyrighted materials and trademarks contained in this podcast.
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