‘Jerry Maguire of Recruitment’ celebrates first decade

I founded Career Crossroads International (CCI) after feeling frustrated working for agencies too focussed on KPIs and dollars. “Are your billings on target?” was a recruiting catchcry, demanding the constant churn of candidates and placements, with a focus on quantity rather than quality. Whether at the top or bottom of the placement ladder, the prime mission was to get and fill jobs, with little consideration to ensuring the placement was the best decision for the individual. The agency took its fee and hoped the successful candidate would outlast the guarantee.

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Taking a more holistic approach

CCI was how I stepped away from that business model.

I had succeeded in agency recruitment because of my industry background and knowledge, with 18 years working for multinational enterprises in Canada and Australia. My experience gave me a point of difference, enabling me to see recruitment from both an employer and employee point of view. I hit my numbers and got promoted to senior management roles but the shallowness of that business model meant my success felt unrewarding.

I wanted to provide a more holistic approach to talent management. After 13 years in agencies, I took a leap and started CCI. My mission was to ensure our focus was on understanding and aligning a candidate’s personal and professional principles, their career ambitions and their motivations with the right employer for the best fit.

It’s about the individual

It’s important to recognise the candidate holds the risk when changing roles. We focus on quality not quantity and supporting an individual through the process of making a major life decision. Rather than place them in a role, grab the fee, then cut and run, we work together to help them make the right decision and continue our dialogue well past their probation period.

CCI’s candidate-centric ethos started early in my recruitment career when I was approached by a well-known ‘C’ level industry executive who wanted to move on from their current role. After working together to identify their strengths and aspirations we created a program designed to determine market interest in the candidate by advising targeted leaders of the candidate’s availability without revealing to their sector they were active. With our focus on the candidate, we ensured they executed a seamless transition into a new role.

It’s often difficult for people to recognise and confidently articulate their own skills, experience and unique value they will bring to a new role. As we enter the age of AI - where generic CV’s and cover letters can be generated via a few key strokes - our personalised approach to creating a standout CV offers indispensable value to individuals competing for opportunities on the world stage. If you believe adding a few key skills/attributes to your CV is going to get you noticed or prioritised in a database/bullion search - we need to talk.

Our talent management and executive outplacement offerings continue to grow and expand and our executive mentoring + coaching services can assist companies to enhance and improve employee performance and engagement, building more cohesive and productive teams. The growth in demand for these services means a large portion of what we do at CCI is centred around assisting individuals with their career and companies with their talent via mentoring, coaching and executive outplacement.

‘The Jerry Maguire of Recruitment’

The irony of “show me the money” - a phrase made famous by Tom Cruise in the 1996 movie Jerry Maguire – emphasises how ethics and integrity are important aspects when you interact with people in any sector, including recruitment. Jerry Maguire's decision to prioritise his clients well-being over profits highlights the significance of putting people first.

That irony deepened when I had an epiphany after reading the following testimonial from Sandra Mostertz-Florian, who I had assisted to find a new transformation role.

“Michael Boyd - aka the Jerry Maguire of Recruitment - was a breath of fresh air. If you are looking for humanity, honesty and integrity in your talent partner, he’s your man. He was an incredible help, not only in finding me an opportunity of a lifetime, he redesigned my resume and mentored me to take on a role I thought would be a bit too big for me. And yes, he showed me the money!”

I realised Sandra’s testimonial acknowledged the things that had steered me from agency recruitment to starting my own business and the difference CCI’s approach meant to her and her career.

For me, talent management offers an opportunity to help people understand and change their careers/lives for the better. However, you can only do the best thing for your client if they are onboard and working with you, recalling another important phrase from the movie Jerry Maguire: “Help me, help you”

What comes next?

We’ve experimented a lot during our first decade of CCI – at times trying to be everything for everyone. That’s led us to recognise our sweet spot is; working with individuals who are at a ‘crossroads’ in their career; and companies looking to build high performing teams.

Our team of consultants, (copywriters, image consultants, psychologists, etc) are on a mission to connect with individuals and companies with the same ethos - putting people first – and continuing to grow personally and professionally.

As I discovered during my three weeks offline while trekking to Everest Base Camp late last year, success is more about the journey than the destination. Like trekking, a career is a personal journey taken one step at a time, the path much easier to navigate when you’re not alone.