The "easiest" placement I ever made

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In the space of a week - about two years ago - I made the smallest placement I've ever made and the largest placement I've ever made.

The smallest was pitched to me as a favour. Very little work required. Flexible end-client. One-stage interview. They needed someone in quickly.

The largest was an international search for an extremely complex C-level role. Seven-stage process. Flights booked for face-to-face interviews. A protracted board-approval process before any offer could be made.

One of those caused me sleepless nights, endless stress, five times my usual level of involvement, allegations of fraud (not against me), threats of lawyers and a fallout that spread several months after the placement was made.

I'm sure you can see where this is going and which one was which… 

The largest placement ended up being the smoothest, most professional placement I've ever made. A real career highlight. 

The other one? I'd need a few drinks to get into it. 

But I'll give you the lesson it taught me. 

There are no shortcuts to a lasting outcome. 

On paper, the gap from A to B between the two processes was astronomical. 

The big placement had structure. Clear timelines communicated from day one. A defined process that both sides bought into before it started. Expectations were set in writing. 

When things shifted there was a framework to absorb the change without the whole thing falling apart.

The small placement had none of that. It was too loose and informal. Verbal promises ended up being disputed and the ‘easy way’ ended up snowballing into a complex bunch of issues, which had no framework to sort or fall back on. 

The whole thing unravelled and I was caught in the middle trying to play referee. 

So here's what that week taught me.

The "easy" placement torched a client relationship. Cost me sleep and inches off my hairline. It dragged on for months after it should have been done.

The big one? Smoothest process I've ever run. Because we did the boring work before the main work started.

Do the boring stuff first. Especially in markets (*cough* Dubai) that love to optimise for speed and fill in the gaps after.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people go full steam ahead into processes only to get to the end and find out both sides were MILES apart on expectations.

Oh and if something is too good to be true, it definitely is.

- Charlie 

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- Charlie.