[evil laughing] Candidate Blacklists

Apparently some people believe that recruiters maintain a blacklist of bad, damaged or just plain weird candidates. I think this is silly but I'm wondering where this sentiment was germinated. Have any ideas?

This brings to mind whether we should have a blacklist for "bad" recruiters; we have bad doctors who leave sponges inside patients, bad attorneys who couldn't argue themselves out of a paper bag, bad cops who take bribes, bad teachers...uh, forget bad teachers - can't fight tenure, eh?

A Recruiters Wall of Shame - huh, might have something here.

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Permalink Reply by M A on March 10, 2009 at 12:02pm

say what? can anyone please tell me how I can get into that secret society who has access to that list? Just want to make sure I am not hiring any blacklisted person :-)

When will people realize that "sometimes" you actually don't get the job because you're just not (yes, it's possible!!) qualified!

Give me a break!

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Permalink Reply by Steve Levy on March 10, 2009 at 12:11pm

When the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus go away. When honest politician isn't an oxymoron. When...

Maha Akiki said:

say what? can anyone please tell me how I can get into that secret society who has access to that list? Just want to make sure I am not hiring any blacklisted person :-)

When will people realize that "sometimes" you actually don't get the job because you're just not (yes, it's possible!!) qualified!

Give me a break!

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Permalink Reply by Gino Conti on March 10, 2009 at 1:24pm

This kind of thing gets me laughing every time. I've dealt with more than a few candidates who were convinced of some sort of blacklist, although nothing as elaborate as the linked article describes. Mostly these were candidates that had enormous egos and were completely incapable of admitting there was a job they couldn't do, thus feel as though they have a black mark by their name is some database. I usually suggested reading job descriptions more carefully to make sure they were capable of performing the requied tasks, thus increasing the chances of getting invited for an interview...

However, I did have one that topped them all.

This gentleman was a serial applicant who applied to, quite literally, every single job that was ever posted by my former employer. His candidate profile was longer than anybody else in the system because he had posted for well over 200 jobs. Keep in mind that this guy was a mechanic with a GED working for a local bump shop and these were all high level engineering or management roles. He eventually got so frustrated with this 'blacklisting' activity that he came into our lobby and demanded to speak with any manager/exec that was available to report the atrocity. Needless to say he didn't get very far, but it made for a pretty amusing afternoon.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Levy on March 10, 2009 at 1:27pm

Is he a member of the NRA?

Gino Conti said:

This kind of thing gets me laughing every time. I've dealt with more than a few candidates who were convinced of some sort of blacklist, although nothing as elaborate as the linked article describes. Mostly these were candidates that had enormous egos and were completely incapable of admitting there was a job they couldn't do, thus feel as though they have a black mark by their name is some database. I usually suggested reading job descriptions more carefully to make sure they were capable of performing the requied tasks, thus increasing the chances of getting invited for an interview...

However, I did have one that topped them all.

This gentleman was a serial applicant who applied to, quite literally, every single job that was ever posted by my former employer. His candidate profile was longer than anybody else in the system because he had posted for well over 200 jobs. Keep in mind that this guy was a mechanic with a GED working for a local bump shop and these were all high level engineering or management roles. He eventually got so frustrated with this 'blacklisting' activity that he came into our lobby and demanded to speak with any manager/exec that was available to report the atrocity. Needless to say he didn't get very far, but it made for a pretty amusing afternoon.

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Permalink Reply by Gino Conti on March 10, 2009 at 1:50pm

Not that I know of, but now that I think about it...

Steve Levy said:

Is he a member of the NRA?

Gino Conti said:
This kind of thing gets me laughing every time. I've dealt with more than a few candidates who were convinced of some sort of blacklist, although nothing as elaborate as the linked article describes. Mostly these were candidates that had enormous egos and were completely incapable of admitting there was a job they couldn't do, thus feel as though they have a black mark by their name is some database. I usually suggested reading job descriptions more carefully to make sure they were capable of performing the requied tasks, thus increasing the chances of getting invited for an interview...

However, I did have one that topped them all.

This gentleman was a serial applicant who applied to, quite literally, every single job that was ever posted by my former employer. His candidate profile was longer than anybody else in the system because he had posted for well over 200 jobs. Keep in mind that this guy was a mechanic with a GED working for a local bump shop and these were all high level engineering or management roles. He eventually got so frustrated with this 'blacklisting' activity that he came into our lobby and demanded to speak with any manager/exec that was available to report the atrocity. Needless to say he didn't get very far, but it made for a pretty amusing afternoon.