The snow storm dropping several feet of snow on the East Coast turned a routine retained executive search into something short of a Sundance Film Festival movie. With flights on hold, one of our account managers decided to fill up his tank and make the 8 hour drive down to our clients site as he was requested to sit in on the interviews.  As the 8 hour drive turned into a 12 hour road trip with the freeways at a crawl, it was shaping up to be a great week.

 Fast forward to the end of the week and flight schedules are still a mess. While driving back the account manager receives an urgent 8pm phone call since our client’s executive team wanted to see a candidate before they departed the following day for meetings. Given such short notice the candidate had the option of making a 4 hour drive in the blizzard the following day or passing up the possibility of not being considered for the position.

 The candidate, while showing great interest in the position, said he was willing to make the drive and made the appointment on time. But can it really be that easy? Our client’s team had offsite meetings that day and the record snow fall ended up trapping them on the highway for several hours.

 We get the interview started over the phone to make the best use of our schedule  but for such a senior level position you really want to spend time with someone in person. Our client’s team arrives with just a few minutes to shake hands and say that they must grab their stuff and run for the airport.  Alas, our clever candidate offers a million dollar solution.

 “How about I follow you to the airport, you check your bags and we can talk while you wait for your flight?”

 Not only did the candidate invest over 8 hours of total drive time in a blizzard, he was also willing to drive in that same snowy mess to one of America’s busiest airports and invest even more time with the executive team as he truly wanted the position.

 If someone ever asks us again what it takes to get a job in this economy we will share this story because this is what you may be up against. We want to thank this candidate for going above and beyond (you know who you are) as great things can happen even during the most stressful and difficult times.