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Friends longer than colleagues

by HOTELS Editors

August 10, 2011 - Categories: Blogs,

Friends longer than colleagues

Last week I received an e-mail from a potential candidate that I spoke with more than three years ago when I was in a recruitment role. In her message, she said,

“I just wanted to send you a quick and sincere ‘hello.’ I hope you remember me — you and I had a career chat a while back. I wanted to reconnect and tell you how much I appreciate your kindness to a stranger. Thank you again for your advice and time, and for your mentoring spirit.”

To be honest, I spoke with more than 1,000 candidates during this time, and I don’t fully remember my discussions with her. If I were to review her resume, I’m sure it would jog my memory. It made me happy that I was able to make an impact on someone’s life, even if it only required a few moments of my time.

My philosophy has been to always help others and give good career advice (especially to co-workers) because you can be friends longer than you may be colleagues. I once interviewed a gentleman to work for me at an Internet start-up company (unfortunately, we could not afford his salary) who ended up hiring me when he became the president of a CVB. 

According to goenglish.com, “Our relationships with others are like bridges that take us from one place to another; when we ‘burn our bridges’ we destroy our relationships and make it difficult to go back.”

How have you shared career kindness with another recently? Has the effort repaid you in some form?

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