Executive Chat

Everybody Deals with Rejection, Even Tina Turner


by Rebecca Patt, Senior Vice President of Development, Wray Executive Search

Sometimes, even if you’re a legend in your field, you don’t get the job. It pains me to reject anyone, and as an executive recruiter, I dish out a heap of rejection on a regular basis to candidates who don’t make the cut. A while back, I heard a story about the casting of the classic movie “Ghost” that helped me get perspective on what I find to be one of the most un-fun parts of being an executive recruiter: telling good candidates “no.”

Executive search has some similarities to Hollywood casting, so when I heard a few years back that two Hollywood casting agents had written a book about their careers and were coming to my local bookstore for a reading, I eagerly attended. Janet Hirshenson and Jane Jenkins, prominent casting agents in Hollywood for over 30 years, wrote the book A Star Is Found: Our Adventures Casting Some of Hollywood’s Biggest Movies.