This is a story about how the recruitment industry is broken in Canada and in desperate need of an overhaul. In Canada, it seems like it’s nearly impossible to get the attention of a recruiter and even more difficult to hold their attention long enough to benefit from their help. In this country, for some reason, the recruitment industry is not the tie that binds qualified candidates and talent-hungry employers. From the candidate side, recruiters seem more like elusive lovers who seduce but loathe to enter into relationships. My guest today is an English woman living in Canada and has struggled with getting the attention of recruiters for over a year and a half since immigrating here with her husband. Nicola Lockwood-Hall came to Canada with an exceptional resume. She studied Law at Oxford University and got her MBA at Cambridge. She practiced corporate law for six years before becoming a senior consultant at Ernst & Young and then moved on to lead Talent & Organizational Effectiveness for LexisNexis. Then, she became a very successful self-employed consultant in South Africa, working with global organizations who deeply valued her expertise, before coming to Canada...where she couldn’t even get a return phone call from a recruiter much less a coffee meeting or referral for a position far too junior for her level of experience. The part of this story that irks me the most is how many times Nicola has been declined for an interview because of her lack of Canadian experience. For a country that markets itself as diverse and democratic and welcoming to all, this is one hell of misrepresentation of our supposed values. Let’s talk to Nicola.