Roger Tremblay, founder of Point Clear Search, discusses how a surprise Wall Street Journal opportunity led him to Dallas and shaped his recruiting career. He argues that hiring now prioritizes learning ability and cultural fit over past experience, and credits daily learning and teaching others as keys to happiness.
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All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. Today, Roger Tremblay with us. He is the founder and principal of Point Clear Search, an executive recruiting firm that focuses on placements in marketing, communications, sales, and sales management. So welcome to the show, man.
Thank you very much. Happy to be here.
Of course, man. Grateful to have you on. The first one we got for you, Roger, is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Well, when I was in graduate school at Michigan State, I was finishing up. The reason I went to graduate school is because I couldn't find a job when I finished my undergraduate degree. My degree was in advertising, and advertising jobs back in those days, if you were in Michigan, everything was dependent on how the automobile industry was doing, and a bad year for cars meant a bad year for jobs. So I'm finishing graduate school and I get a call one day from the chairman of the advertising department, who says, what are you doing Thursday afternoon? I said, I give up. What am I doing? He says, well, the Wall Street Journal is coming here to interview, and I think you should sign up. Well, I got the kind of the red light went on because the good professor thought I had no business in graduate school because he disdained my intellectual capabilities. So I said, come on, Dr. Atkins, what's the deal here? He said, well, to be honest with you, No one has signed up to interview. We're not gonna embarrass ourselves by having no one interview with the Wall Street Journal. So with little competition, I got the job. Now then, the job was supposed to be in Chicago, which I was excited about because I love Chicago. Great city, great place to start your career. But the guy who hired me, 2 weeks before I was gonna start, got promoted and they sent him to Dallas. And he called me at my apartment at school and said, hey, "Would you like to go to Dallas?" I went, "What? Where?" I'd never been to Texas, let alone Dallas. But the reality was to get your first job at the Wall Street Journal out of school, I would've gone to Timbuktu. So I graduated on a Sunday, got on a brand new plane on Monday, and got to Dallas when it was 98 degrees, the coolest it was for the next 4 months, but made my life here ever since. So I think there's a lesson for that, Be open to opportunities even if you aren't expecting them.
Absolutely, man. Dude, that is an awesome story. Thank you for sharing that with us. The next one I have for you is, I'm excited for your answer on this one too. What is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
Well, the recruiting industry is going under kind of a massive overhaul, if you will. A lot of changes taking place. When Microsoft bought LinkedIn, that was a big game changer. But the reality is today, you know, you've got 3.7% unemployment. And theoretically, that makes it a great opportunity for anybody who's in the recruiting business. Because, you know, if you ask almost any CEO of any good-sized company in the US, you ask them what keeps you up at night, he'll say acquiring and keeping the best talent. 'Cause most companies' successes are built on the quality of the people they have. So, you know, given the fact, you know, that we work in marketing communications, you can make a good argument for the fact that technology has changed and impacted media more than a lot of industries. So there's this, you know, there's this constant upheaval. I read my newsletters at the end of the day, and, you know, some days my head spins because so much, So much has changed and so much is new. So in our business now, you know, the key learning point is it doesn't really matter what you did 5 years ago, which sort of devalues the purpose of a lot of your resume. The real thing is what are you capable of learning? How quick can you take a steep learning curve and absorb it? You know, so that's what we're looking for. And of course, The critical part of almost any search in our business isn't necessarily, you know, the capability to do something. I can look at 100 job descriptions and I can pretty much tell you who can do what with almost 100% accuracy. The real trick is finding a fit, and the fit's a little trickier to figure out because the fit's got to go both ways. You know, the person, the candidate's got to be good for a company, but the company's got to be good for them, or they'll wake up in 6 months and say, "What the hell have I done?" I'm miserable here, I hate these people, I hate this job. And then a lot of time, money, and effort's been wasted. So you try to stay away from that.
And then if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
I would tell my younger self, always try to learn something every day. And whenever you talk to somebody, whenever you meet with somebody, make sure they go away with a new piece of information. Make sure you taught them something. Make sure that they will always look upon you as a source of learning something, and they'll always be anxious to meet with you.
And kind of going a little bit down a different path here, in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
You know, my wife worked for Neiman Marcus for 25 years. She was a senior officer, and, you know, that afforded me the opportunity to have a couple of meals and a couple drinks with the illustrious Stanley Marcus. And one night after, after dinner, Stanley Marcus said, you know, the key to life is simple. You find something you love to do, and you pour yourself into it, and everything else will take care of itself. You'll make enough money, you'll be happy, and your life will go in a good direction. And I've always thought about that and think he's dead on perfect.
And what is the best book that you've read? And what was the number one thing you learned from that?
You know, I'm a fan of Stephen Covey's book, The 7 Habits of Effective People. And I guess the other— I mean, there's a lot of stuff in that book, but the thing I learned most, I think, was just, you know, focus and maintaining relationships. You know, I can make a good argument for the second best book is the Bible, which It says, "Do unto others." And in the people business, that advice comes across pretty well.
And then what is your favorite quote and why?
Yeah. Well, people accuse me of this all the time, that my favorite quote is, "Murphy was an optimist." And that it goes to, you know, whatever can go wrong will, and often, you know, more than you think. So in the course of my career, I've always tried to anticipate what can possibly go wrong and prepare for it.
And it sure has come in handy Well, listen, thank you so much for coming on, man. The last one I have for you before we let you go is, where can our audience best find you online?
Our website is www.pointclearsearch.com. Again, we, we specialize in placements in marketing, communication, sales, and sales management. We're happy to talk to anybody.
