Recently there has been an article on news.com.au that draws on the views (allegedly at least) of an anonymous ex-recruiter. Assuming his suggested biography was even real, he seems to have worked for 3 different recruitment agencies in a fairly short period of time and clearly failed to be successful at any of them. Fair enough, abject failure can happen to the best of us but that experience is hardly likely to ensure he will provide an objective character witness for the recruitment industry.
The primary accusations in the article were:
- Recruiters will do anything to secure a placement and then rush to get paid before the totally inappropriate candidate leaves.
Ha ha ha , as if that is how it works. Firstly the company hires the candidate not me. If I could make employers hire whomever I wished them to hire, I would be writing this blog on a private beach in Tahiti, whilst a bevy of doting supermodels jostled for the right to waft a palm frond over my perspiring brow. Even if I did have brain-washing powers, what about guarantee periods, free replacements, refunds, ruined reputations…. need I go on.
- Recruiters are focused on money.
Yes I am. It is a business and if I don’t make a success of it, my family and I are out on the street. I work in the private sector where failure has a highly predictable and extremely worrying consequence.
- Recruiters simply ignore and/or delete hundreds of emails from candidates.
Yes that makes sense doesn’t it because the last thing I need is to be approached by the very people without which I cannot make any money !
- Recruiters get in the way of all these wonderful perfect candidates who would otherwise secure that job because they are perfect for it.
No you bloody aren’t perfect for the role ! As if (in the accuser’s words) money-grabbing recruiters are going to deliberately ignore perfect candidates that would be easy money earners for them. Not only is it factually incorrect, it is a completely contradictory idea.
- Recruiters post fake job ads.
I will happily confess I did this once….when I started Blade and I obviously did not yet have any jobs (sorry David and James who applied). Since then, I have real jobs to fill so don’t need to post fake ones. Unless every company you apply to is brand new like Blade was (back in Aug 2001), you are highly unlikely to be applying for a fake ad.
How about the next time someone trots out a feeble article, or comes out with some sample of one data, don’t get mad (which comes across as whiny and defensive), just laugh.
Yes we can refute the allegations if we want to (as I have tried to do above) but really we should just chuckle to ourselves, content in our own abilities and successes. Do we really need to explain “there are good and bad recruiters, just as there are good and bad doctors, accountants, check out chicks, mechanics, bank managers etc etc” which seems to be the stock response to the accusation whenever it is made.
Is that not beyond obvious ? By replying in that way, we (IMO) simply reinforce the accusations, as we seem to be scrambling to say “no, no I am not like that and I am so sorry about all those fellow recruiters who are as bad as you say.” Are we not secure enough to just roll our eyes and move on ?
Water off a duck’s back.
Now I will take my leave, as I have 500 emails to wipe casually from my in box, whilst setting light to a big pile of cash.