Meet Scott Faurot of Blue Shoe Recruiting in Rancho Penasquitos

Today we’d like to introduce you to Scott Faurot.

Scott, before we jump into specific questions about your work, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
My story? I’m fifty-two years old, I’ve traveled great distances, had a lot of fun and helped a ton of people. I either aided in the healthy recovery of candidates’ careers or assisted them in making more money. Mine is a long story, but I’m not gonna bore you with the lengthy version; I will just hit the finer points.

I grew up in a tiny Los Angeles suburb thirty minutes east of metropolitan LA and just north of the Orange County line. The town was Diamond Bar. Rustic and suburban at the same time. There were herds of cows on the hillside and small shopping centers being erected what seemed like every month.

My family moved us to Diamond Bar when I was only two years old. Moving from Temple City to Diamond Bar was purely an economic act. My Dad was a college professor, and my Mom did not work outside the home.

I attended all the public schools in the district and graduated from Diamond Bar High School. My senior class was only the second group to graduate from this newly constructed high school.

My childhood summers were spent either at the beach or on a baseball diamond. In fact, those were the two places I felt most connected to who I really am. Something about rolling around in the dirt or duck diving a wave really spoke to me.

I continued with baseball through my High School years, winning awards for my achievements on the field. I won all-conference awards and hit the CIF game-winning double in the finals against Mission Viejo High School.

I went on to play a couple more years of baseball at Cal Poly but fell out of love with the game. The constant practicing and traveling pulled the fun from the game I loved so much, so I quit.

I replaced playing the game with sitting on the bench, literally. I became the baseball team’s Athletic Trainer (think of an Emergency Responder for athletes).

During my senior year of college, I was hired by the Dodgers in the Winter of 1990. The Dodgers paid me to be an Athletic Trainer for their single-A team in Yakima, WA. I spent that summer traveling the northwest by bus from small-towns to even smaller towns, ensuring my players were healthy and ready to take the baseball field.

Returning home, I proposed to my college sweetheart and married her just after we both graduated from Cal Poly.

Career-wise, I took my love for sports to the health profession. I pivoted my knowledge from on-field medicine to outpatient physical therapy and loved it. I worked for an innovative team of Physical Therapists in Fullerton, which heightened my desire to become a Physical Therapist myself.

I did, and needless to say, it did not suit me. I quickly realized that moving large patients was going to take an irreversible toll on my body and decided to pivot, once again, to my new career of recruiting.

I answered a newspaper ad and began my recruiting career after three, three-hour interviews for a company in Orange County. I quickly won awards, promoted from the ranks to a senior partner and was tapped to rehabilitate an ailing recruiting branch in San Diego.

I asked my wife to join me and migrate to San Diego with our very young children, and she happily said yes.

Once established in the new branch, my team began to win awards and receive recognition. However, my company was not happy with the lack of progress we made, so I was stripped of my manager title and demoted to a staff recruiter.

As a staff recruiter, my work was noticed, and I was recruited by Google. I jumped at the opportunity and became a contract recruiter for Google in Mountain View, CA.

Living in San Diego and working in Mountain View, CA was not easy. I awoke really early on Monday morning to fly up to the Bay Area and worked there until Friday afternoons when I would hop on a plane back to San Diego. My Google contract lasted for six months. I found a role here in San Diego, which allowed me to earn the money I did on contract with Google but do the work here in town.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Sure, I faced obstacles and challenges along the way.

I moved my family down from Orange County to San Diego in the Fall of 2003. After getting settled in, finding the kids adequate daycare and beginning to feel at home, my Grandmother passed away.

Being the only relative near enough to look after her, I was asked to assist in any way I could while trying to balance a career. However, the job suffered as I was not fully committed to the 8-5 grind and found myself being demoted from a Branch Manager to a staff recruiter.

Three years after the death of my Grandmother, the financial crisis of 2008 began. Clients who had regularly relied on me to provide staff suddenly stopped returning my phone calls. I sustained a 50% decline in my income, and ultimately my wife and I were faced with the decision to either declare bankruptcy or sell the house. We opted to sell the house and begin renting a home but wiped out more than 75% of our retirement savings.

The hits kept coming. In the Spring of 2011, my younger brother was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer and died shortly after.

In early 2013, my wife lost her mother to complications from cancer. To address the mounting bills, I took on two more part-time jobs, and my wife went back to college to begin a new career path. Working three jobs and with my wife in school full time, we had little time or energy for one another, but we made it.

We’d love to hear more about your work.
I started my business, Blue Shoe Recruiting, in the early part of 2018. The idea of being a business owner was always in the back of my head, but when a friend recommended my services to his employer, the idea took flight.

Why did I decide to call it Blue Shoe Recruiting? The name was born out of frustration. Throughout my recruiting career, colleagues of mine would always try to complicate the deals they worked on by bringing unsuitable candidates to their clients. My philosophy has always been straightforward – if a client is looking to buy a blue shoe, bring them a blue shoe, not a brown or a red one!

Being precise and not cutting corners have been the reasons for my success. Today, when I meet with potential clients, I ask some really in-depth questions upfront. This is not because I am nosy, but rather, I want to get to the core of their needs and ensure I match their needs to my services. In essence, I want to bring them a blue shoe precisely matched to their goals.

My consulting services are a combination of all that I have learned in two solid decades as a recruiter. Boiled down to three specific areas; I help people find jobs more quickly and efficiently. I help businesses hire the precise candidate they need to propel their business to historic new heights. Lastly, I help mid-stage companies develop a Talent Acquisition team which keeps the recruiting function in-house and curbs costs.

I have a unique blend of abilities. I spent fourteen years in a sales, transactional talent agency environment, and I also have more than six years of enterprise recruiting. This fusion of skills from both sides of the industry allows me to assist my clients as they navigate toward their exact needs. For example, I help job seekers reach past HR and approach the hiring manager, something we are taught as agency recruiters. I support CEOs looking to obtain the best candidate on a shoestring budget, which is a common goal in the corporate world.

My clients know me for my timely advice, sage counsel, and unwavering ability to find the best talent in any market condition. My reputation for performing well and bringing my client that “blue shoe” sets me apart from my peers.

I am proud of the work I have done these two decades, but what is a real testimony to my ability have been the repeat customers. The candidates or the businesses who have come back to me and asked for my help again.

I recruited a woman in Chicago several years ago, and she commented on how thorough I was. She took note of how well I communicated with her throughout the entire process. Several years later, this same woman sought me out when she was considering a job change once more.

Historically, referrals and repeat customers are the signs of a job well done. Based on these, I believe that I continue to do great work finding rare “blue shoes” all over the country.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
The way we find and secure jobs is not an efficient use of our time. Corporate recruiters who review resumes are pressed for time and typically will not hop on a phone call with a candidate which does not meet the job description criteria. Pushing to correct this and other issues are my line of work. I show CEOs how to find and hire the right talent to take their businesses to new heights, usually hiring more people in the end. I work with top Human Resource officers of enterprises, showing them how the correct hiring processes will net top-performing candidates. I work with staff recruiters and candidates to educate both on the nuances of the job market and how to find one another quicker. Success to me is defined as a world in which people are earning money and feeling secure enough to spend it to enhance their communities.

Contact Info:

• Email: blueshoenotbrown@gmail.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/scott_faurot
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blueshoerecruiting/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/talentgettr
• Other: https://www.quora.com/profile/Scott-Faurot-1

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