Behold yon maiden in Domenichino’s painting. Forsooth, she hath the air of a tinkersome pigeon! Wherefore smiles she so?
Because she’s just been handed a fistful of fifties – that is, she’s just been given £500 for referring a candidate for one of our unicorn roles*.
Gadzooks! That's £250 more than our usual referral fee.
It's not enough to buy a new harpsichord or ransom her departed uncle Guido from Purgatory. But she'll probably get change from a family-pack of indulgences, a La Senza chastity jumpsuit and those new GHD straighteners she's secretly been coveting.
A unicorn, in recruitment parlance, is a perfect candidate for a position that requires a combination of skills that’s so rare that it might only exist in myth. Often, the skills required aren’t skills that people put on CVs or Linkedin:
‘We’re looking for a C++ coder whose background includes work on any machine code variant of Frogger. Must be interested in learning Esperanto.’
Hunting down these candidates requires the fierce fortitude of Captain Ahab, the investigative skills of Columbo and the networking skills of someone with networking skills.
The thing is, if you ask clients enough questions about what kind of person they really want to hire, you'll probably find that most - if not all - roles are unicorn roles.
Scrutinise your own blend of skills closely enough, and you'll probably find that you're a little bit mythical yourself.
Unicorn recruitment is an attitude rather than an industry. It's a Hemingway-like big-game-hunter mentality. It's a rugged, hardboiled approach to recruitment that seeks to validate the profession by proving just what a human being can do with nothing but his or her wits, an indomitable spirit, and broadband internet access.
Unicorn recruiters relish seeking out candidates for roles that scoffers call unfillable. What's more, true unicorn recruiters treat every role as a unicorn role. They're always saying to their clients things like - 'Yeah, I heard you, buddy - you want a B2B digital account manager. But what kind of person are you really looking for?'
Unicorn recruiters are always asking their clients: 'What's the horn?'** In other words, what's the thing that would make a candidate not just special in your eyes, but gosh-darned legendary?
Anyway, time to get yourself £500 or a new job. Here are our two current unicorn roles:
French-speaking Project Manager with Business Analysis skills and fleet management software experience, Midlands, £competitive.
Japanese-speaking FMCG scientist, PhD preferable , Cambridgeshire, c.32k
If you are a unicorn, or if you know one, get in touch. Our staff of ethereal maidens are awaiting your call.
* The witty reader will have observed that one unicorn equals twenty ponies.
* * Don't ever actually say that to a client.
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