If you have absorbed most of the information in this program, it won't come as a surprise to you that the biggest challenge recruiters have with hiring organizations is they are "spiritual beings acting human." Just because the organizations might need to hire a professional on any level doesn't mean that they're going to do it all the time, or that they will change their minds about the kind of person that they need a number of times in the process of a search, or corporate politics, unrealistic expectations of what the candidate market will provide, mergers and acquisitions, buyouts, unexpected changes in the business climate, stock prices, product failures and so on. Non-human events like 9/11and Hurricane Katrina can postpone or shut down the best of intentions to hire someone.

Like most professions, ours is one that is full of uncertainty. We deal with human beings on both sides of the equation.  We're one of the few professions whose "product" can say " no " and walk away and whose " client " is just as unpredictable.

These two primary challenges are what make our profession so exciting and gratifying.  The service of a recruiter can change the lives of the individuals they are involved with as well as the course of their companies.  But the downside of this kind of gratification has lots of emotional and business risk.