As many of you know, I was a fly-fishing/river guide in the Montana Bob Marshall Wilderness.  I arrived fresh out of quitting my legal assistant job to my new role as fly fishing guide and wrangler.  I was given a “rock solid” horse to ride, Windsor.  He was “bulletproof” – you could shoot a gun off his back and he’d chill.  He was good with dogs…mules and people.  All necessary for a good trail horse.

Windsor retired the next year and due to this and other reasons, we needed a large number of horses for the business.  Where do you go when you need more than one horse?  A horse trader, of course! 

So, one spring day, we find ourselves choosing 12 new horses from a large herd (you may wonder how a legal assistant from Chicago was suddenly qualified for this task…).  We selected a dozen and ran down the line naming them:  Ash, Sorrely, Dutchboy, Hershey, Buck…

I was told that I could have my choice of the herd.  So, which one did I pick?  The pretty one, of course.

I soon learned that Dutch was largely untrained (though we had seen someone ride him when we bought him…and perform all manner of tricks).  He had clearly been abused and was afraid of almost everything (a sneeze, the gesture of reaching for your hat, quick movements, etc.).

For the next year, I attempted to “train” Dutch to be a good trail horse (I read books, took him to training weekends, spent a boatload of money on halters, bits, bridles, etc., etc.).  We rode together at the front of the string (designed to give him confidence), but all this really only resulted in my falling off in all sorts of situations (many of them spectacular – in rivers, on hillsides, on rock hard ground…and in front of our “guests”).

I’d usually “come to” to find Dutch standing over me, breathing on me to check and see if I was still alive.  This seemed to indicate to me that “he didn’t mean it” – we’d make up, and I’d get back on…until the next great disaster.

The moral of the story is when choosing a critical member of your team, look deep, ask the right questions (have a solid interview process), introduce him/her to the team and get their feedback, take a test drive (ask for a presentation, samples of work), talk to references.  No amount of costly training or micromanagement after the fact will remedy the problem. I was lucky…picking the pretty horse only caused me bumps and bruises to both pride and body.

We submitted 2 candidates to interview for a role for which we are recruiting.  In each case, we were upfront about the salary for the position – indicating that the client is not flexible on the compensation range.  (The position is a junior level role – so the compensation matches accordingly – but as you can guess in this market, there are a lot of people looking for a new job and many overqualified for the position.)  So, we were careful to state the range early on in our conversation – in order to verify continued interest, acceptability of the range, BEFORE we spent time qualifying the candidate for the role.   We didn’t want to waste the candidate’s time, our time, or our client’s time.

However, twice this week, we’ve had candidates agree to acceptability of a range, go through our screening, move forward in the interview process, then, indicate to the client that the salary range was not acceptable.

I ask, "What were you thinking?"

Are you holding onto hope that the client will love you – and consequently offer more than the indicated range for the role?  That you are so fabulous they'll do anything to get you?

Be honest! If the range “offered” for a particular position doesn’t work for you, let your recruiter/potential employer know, and you will maintain a positive relationship in the event the compensation range is relaxed (or a more appropriate position opens).