Yes, Virgina, There is discourtesy in the employment process.

Recruiters are often Rude

This post may seem a little cynical, but it's not been such a good day. I have posted before on recruiter's behavior and answered posts from others on recruiters behaviors. It's still very surprising to me sometimes how things can go these days.

John Lucht of Rites of Passage fame, says "Encountering rudeness? It’s not new. It’s not you. Cope! "

Well, John, I am coping, but it is still surprising. Considering that the recruiter stands to make a fee of 25- 33% of a candidate's first year salary, you would really expect them to treat you with more respect. Candidates are in fact their lifeblood. I have even had this experience even with some I believed to be in a trust relationship.

Now all this being said, I truly believe in developing trust relationships with professional recruiters. Helping them will pay big dividends to the people they place and eventually to me by unlocking the jobs that only recruiters are going to get. That being said, too often you are only interesting to them as long as the client is interested in you - those are not the recruiters with whom I am developing trust relationships. All I expect is mutual respect and there are a few professionals out there who deliver it and get it from me. The rest, well ..... I will still work with them, for now.

Maybe its just that the employment process involves communication between humans and this is hard enough just between two people trying to understand one another, never mind when a third party with a different set of interests gets involved, now throw in money and career progression; its sort of amazing that we ever come to terms.

As hiring managers we KNOW that the recruiter has a vested interest and that makes their recommendation suspect. The best of the retained recruiters see this as a very long term game, the newly placed executive will be an advocate for them in their new position, the poor ones are much like real estate agents and used car salesmen they are actually motivated by a quick hire, rather than the best long term hire.

This is a bit of a rant, but it is a great frustration for all who must deal with these people. I have found a few very good recruiters, people who I trust and will be honest. The others are not worth dealing with.

So What to Do?

So what do we do about this? Network, Network, Network. Dave Opton over at Six Figure Learnings speaks about this all the time, this is a good blog to read Networking and Root Canals.

I think it takes a little longer to find a job by networking, if you have not already established a network, but once your network is established and you are busily building relationships, then new opportunities will be easier to find. I got a call from a very good friend of mine the other day asking if I would be willing to "mentor" someone else in their new job search. They felt that my experience would be valuable to the person in the new search. I am really anxious to do this, I think I will get much more out of it than the mentee.