This recruiter will self-destruct in 5 seconds. 5…4…3….
My name is Paul and I am a tech recruiter…
Its no big shock to anyone that recruiters in general don’t have the best reputation. I sometimes feel we are in the same box as tax inspectors, traffic wardens and the Trump administration in terms of public perception and likability. There are lots of reasons as to why this has come to be. We work in a largely un-regulated, fast paced and highly competitive industry and, more often than not, the ‘blood on the carpet’ as a result of this heady mix will belong to good candidate service. We live in an age where people do not tolerate bad service and are not shy in being vocal about it. And rightly so.
I have dedicated the bulk of my (almost!) 20 year career to the recruitment industry so take a sense of pride in what I do. I frequently scour the social media comments and blog posts that are critical of our industry, but very rarely am I able to offer a counterpoint to what people are saying. Their service from recruiters has been grim. But what bothers me the most is that we don’t do ourselves any favours.
So here comes the rant part…
Yesterday I saw a Linkedin post from a tech recruiter (mercifully based in the US and so not within slapping distance) that had me spitting out my coffee in disbelief – and I HATE wasting good coffee…
Reader – I will try to be brief…
2 things about this post really grind my gears. The first is that the person described themselves as a ‘Sourcing Ninja’. If you ever see or hear me describe myself in such terms you have my full and express permission to come up to me as I strut across Donegall Square and punch me full in the face.
The second thing that winds me up is the nature of the post itself. This person was justifying why they will never reveal the names of their clients to candidates who have applied for a role. At least not until they have been ‘properly screened’. The argument is that clients have entrusted this recruiter to act as a ‘gate keeper’ for them and therefore a candidate must earn the right to find out who the company is by going through a screening interview! Their next point: if you phone up asking the name of the company then you are not serious about your career ‘you are just concerned about the name and not finding a good fit’. Aye – dead on. I will leave it up to you then shall I, complete stranger, to tell me the best environment for me to work in?? And the final point, the sucker punch.. This person expects the candidates to tell them the names of companies they have applied to ‘in order to avoid duplication and as a courtesy’. Yes, not for market intel gathering purposes at all…
This annoys me because we very rarely name clients in our job ads so when applicants enquire they genuinely want to know the company that they are applying to. It is a pretty obvious starting point. People WANT to know as a key part of our service to them. The benefit to us is that we can then get to COMMUNICATE with the candidate about the company, the role, the opportunity, the culture, what their perception of the organisation is and whether this is right or wrong (in our humble opinion). This is where good, candidate-focused, influential, consultative, communicative recruitment comes in. This is where you make your bond with a candidate. This is where good service kicks in.
This kind of ‘I will tell you, but I’d have to kill you’ approach is insane. It might work in Silicon Valley (if the tech community in Silicon Valley are genuinely have way more applicants than they do actual jobs), but it does not work in Northern Ireland. People here just wont tolerate that attitude – and nor should they.
As recruiters we need to come to terms with the fact that we are in the Service Industry. OK it’s a consultative, advisory part of the service industry but that shouldn’t really matter. Candidates are the lifeblood or any recruitment business and our reputation for treating candidates well is central to any recruiter’s career. We need to build trust with candidates from that first enquiry – that’s where it all begins. Refusing to provide basic info until a candidate proves their worth to us is just unacceptable and a big reason why our industry gets such a bad rep. Surely good business and good manners can go hand in hand??
If this is typical of the service level from a ‘ninja’ then they should stick to the movies.
(Rant) Over and out.
