A while ago I got asked the following question: "Why is it a
good number of your peers are seedy? I'd place most recruitment agent's
morals pretty close to used car salesmen." I haven't worked out if the question
was really a hint. But I thought I would give my answer here so anyone else could let me know their thoughts too.
- There are a lot of recruiters out there - some of them are trouble. There are always some bad apples in any bunch.
- There
are also a lot of recruiters who are not particularly experienced and
often upset candidates and clients without even knowing it. I have done
that, but in my own and their defence, you don't get experience without
having experiences.
- There are even more candidates out
there who get turned down for positions than there are recruiters. And
there is no doubt that rejection is hard to take. No matter how
experienced and how thick skinned we may be. Those candidates spread
bad stories around about recruiters in online forums and to their
friends.
- There are a lot of candidates who can't understand what recruiters do and get upset when they don' t seem to act in the way they think they should. For example, they won't tell them who their clients are before they know them, or they can't seem to get feedback on issues that are important to them. I could write a whole other post on this.
So, there are four reasons. But
really, I have one more which I truly believe. Most of my peers aren't
seedy. In fact, I have met some of the most intelligent and caring
people since I joined the recruitment industry. People who make a
difference and who make an effort to go out of their way to help
others. So that is my real answer. I feel sorry for my friend who has
had a bad experience with whoever he met, but he was wrong to think
that the entire industry is full of the same kind of people.
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