However, at the time, the job market for hospital administrators was not at its strongest.
"At the time, they were closing hospitals left and right," Glickel said. "So I'm coming right out of school with not a lot of experience, and I'm competing with people that have five and 10 years experience in hospitals for the same positions but for less hospitals."
As a result, Glickel changed his plans. Right after graduation, he went to work for ARA Services (now known as ARAMARK), where he did accounting and asset-management work. After being employed there for three years, he went into office equipment sales. After selling office equipment for a year and a half, Glickel began working in medical sales.
"I got into business equipment to get the experience that I needed to learn how to cold call prospects, manage the territory, so that I would have the capability of getting into medical sales, which is what I really wanted," Glickel said.
He remained in medical sales for three years before joining Sales Recruiters, Inc., in 1995. Glickel was already familiar with the firm, as it had placed him in his first two jobs. About a year and a half after joining Sales Recruiters, Glickel bought the firm.
At Sales Recruiters, Glickel said, he spends the bulk of his time placing salespeople with his clients. And the remaining 10 to 15% of his job involves him and his colleagues providing other services, including help with recruiting, screening, interviewing, helping clients get the talent they need, and "maybe doing resume selection for [his clients] and letting them do the interviewing." Although sales recruiting is his company's main function, it also recruits candidates for other positions for its clients, as well.
Glickel said that it's easier to make placements when his clients are more involved in the process.
"I find sometimes companies say that it's really important, that this hire is critical, and they need to get it done yesterday," he said. "And then, in reality, even though their job is to bring the best talent on board, they literally don't make the time to recruit the candidate [...] if they can't go out of their way to facilitate the process and work as a partner with me, it's harder to make the placement. My best clients are people that literally say to me very simply, 'Henry, tell me why you like this person, tell me what your concerns are, and tell me what this person wants.' And what they do is openly talk about what the candidate wants. They already know what they want."
Glickel said one of his clients is a fast-growing technology company. He also has clients in the medical field and in other industries. He said sometimes his clients want to screen the candidates themselves, and his firm provides the clients with the candidates' resumes.
"We can basically recruit people and get them over to [the clients]," he said. "And they walk it through. So they pay us on a retained or contract basis or a contingency basis."
Glickel discussed some of the things he enjoys most about his job:
"I have the ability to control my own earnings," he said. "And I get to build big companies. You get to chart out a company's success with the talent that you bring to the table, and many good companies that you partner with—many people that I've partnered with—value what we do."
He added that one of the most satisfying aspects of his job is seeing someone he placed do well.
"One of the first-time placements that I made [is] still there at that company," he said.
Glickel said one of the hardest things about his job is breaking the news to a candidate that he or she didn't get the job.
"The biggest problem that happens in many cases is we have multiple candidates that can do the job," he explained. "I get multiple candidates who want the job; all of them can do the job. But one person's going to get it. I've got to make phone calls sometime this week to two other people who are not going to get it. That can be devastating."
Glickel talked about some of the attributes that a good recruiter should possess:
"They've got to have the ability to learn quickly," he said. "They have to be goal-oriented. They have to be very detail-oriented because, in reality, you get in a lot of conversations, and you can't just go, 'What did this person say three weeks ago?' You've got to have it all written down. I recommend being computer-literate. They should have good communication skills [and be] high-energy, goal-oriented, money-motivated. They've got to be intuitive, they've got to be resilient, and they must be proactive."
He said one of his biggest role models is Phil Holt, from whom he bought Sales Recruiters.
"He was really a class individual who remained calm no matter what happened," Glickel said.
Other role models include banker Bob Wheeler and entrepreneur Darrell Chiles.
Glickel said he likes to spend his free time with his wife and their four-year-old daughter. He also likes to travel as well as play golf, even though he admits he's "a lousy golfer." Additionally, since he and his family live on a lake, they often go boating in the summer. The last books he read were Rich Dad, Poor Dad and The Millionaire Next Door. And for enjoyment, he read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. The last magazine he read was Harvard Business Review. His favorite TV show is Entourage.
Glickel said that his ultimate goal as a recruiter is to recruit a company from "top to bottom or build an entire sales organization."
