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Executive recruiter Bob Watkins regularly turns away people in his business. And would-be employees don't always react kindly to getting no for an answer.
In his early days as a recruiter for Mattel, Inc., in Los Angeles, Watkins informed a woodcarver the company had no position commensurate with his qualifications. The applicant retorted with a harsh letter, concluding Watkins was either "an ignoramus, a charlatan, a hypocrite, a liar or merely a grimly inept incompetent."
Watkins framed and preserved that letter. But at a later meeting, in which Watkins presented his side of the business, the rejected woodcarver decided Watkins wasn't such a bad guy after all and offered his apologies.
In fact, Watkins' friends say he's got a heart of gold. While he can say no to would-be employees, he has trouble turning down requests from community groups, international athletic causes and friends of friends seeking career advice.
Watkins, now 47, is the founder and president of San Diego-based R.J. Watkins & Co. When he rejects job applicants, it's for the good of his client, which usually is the hiring corporation, he says.
Born in 1943, Watkins entered the job market collecting tin, old rugs and discarded furniture for the "rag and bones" man (junk dealer) in his native England. He got paid in goldfish.
After moving to San Diego in 1952, he sold bars of soap to earn money for summer camp and delivered newspapers. He worked several jobs during high school and college.
Watkins got into the executive-recruiting business by chance. He told a placement director at his alma mater, San Diego State University, that he enjoyed meeting people and was eager to travel. The corporate director suggested recruiting, so Watkins scoured the job ads in The Wall Street Journal. He found an opening with Mattel and arranged an interview at the toy company's Los Angeles office the next day.
Watkins waited three hours to meet Chuck Raber, then director of recruiting at Mattel. He eventually was interviewed and treated to a cold hot dog in the Mattel cafeteria, Watkins recalls.
Watkins got the $530-a-month job and within a week was in New York with Raber, learning how to recruit employees. Instead of cold hot dogs, he enjoyed dinners at the...