If you are part of today’s WorkForce in Corporate America, sooner or later you are going to hear from a Recruiter. Like the rest of the Rat Race, they are just trying to do their job. Some recruiters, however, are doing it worse than others. Here’s how:
1. Contacting you at your place of employment
Often times they will call you at the office. Sometimes its because you were foolish enough to put your current work number down on your LinkedIn profile. But usually it’s because they are looking for a Widget Washer so they start cold-calling the ACME Widget Company in hopes of finding someone who is ready to make a move. The thing is, you really don’t want to have this conversation at your cubicle. That co-worker who cannot hear you every time you ask him if you can borrow his stapler will hear the softest “can you call me back on my cell phone” whisper. It’s better to call after hours, leave a voice message and have the potential prospect call back on their lunch hour. Better still, provide only personal email or a cell phone on your LinkedIn Profile.
Your boss is right there? Don’t worry, I’m calling him next
2. Be coy about the job details
I love it when they call and say “we have a position in downtown Chicago at a large financial firm.” Downtown Chicago, as opposed to exciting and exotic Oswego! Chances are good that in your specific industry, there are only 5-10 large representatives of that industry firms in downtown Chicago so why not just come clean with the company. After all, if you are looking for an audit specialist, said audit specialist might have already worked at one of those places you’re trying to fill.
3. Not read your resume
Which brings us to not reading the details of the resume. I get that you have a lot of resumes to have your software program sift through. But once you narrow it down to a few select potential recruits, maybe you want to spot check to make sure you are hiring someone appropriate for the position. Not only would you weed out the people who already worked at ACME Widget but you avoid the following scenario:
I often get calls because I worked for a company that got bought by another company, and that Parent company is big in a certain vertical market. Thus I get tons of calls from recruiters telling me that I’m the perfect ideal candidate for a position I have zero qualifications for in the first place. And no, it’s not politics! It’s like calling Whirlpool looking for dishwasher repairman and soliciting the washing machine builders. Not even close!
4. Burn their bridges
This happens all the time and is so unnecessary. The recruiter is trying to fill that Widget Implementer position at ABC Widget Incorporated. So they are talking to Joe Smolinski at ACME Widget Company and Jeannie Stein at Better Widgets Partnership. ABC Widget picks one of them and the recruiter stops all communication with the other candidate. The thing is, next month that recruiter is going to be trying to fill the position that first candidate left. Hmmm, who might be qualified and looking for a change? It seems like it would be a slam dunk to get the person who didn’t get the job at ABC Widget, but you’ve pissed them off by not returning calls or emails to let hem know the position was filled. Now some other recruiter will place that position and what could have been easy commission is gone.
We just want to watch this kid fall down
If you are trying to fill a position at someplace and you have a couple of potential recruits, you are really only going to get one of them to fill it. But that means that guy is leaving a position in the industry and you’ll likely have to fill that position. You have two birds in your hand, why break off the connection with the guy who didn’t get the job?
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