Why lie? A recruiter, recruiting a recruiter story.....

Why lie? A recruiter, recruiting a recruiter story….

A friend of mine is a recruiter who this past week was recruited by a recruiter who has been retained to fill a recruiting management position for a client. First, how cool is that? I love when a client is smart enough to use a recruiter to find the best recruiter for the job!

During the qualifying interview the retained recruiter did great job qualifying my friend, (Super Recruiter) and then goes on to explain the process. They share that they are working on retained basis, (shiver me timbers) and that their client is very concerned about finding the right fit and that they will qualify candidates and present the best ONE to their client. ONE, they are very clear on this, only ONE.

I bet you all know where this is going. My friend (Super Recruiter) meets with the client, great company BTW, and asks at the end of the interview how do I compare to the other candidates you are interviewing? The client freely shares that they are impressed with him, and they go on to share that the candidate they interviewed the day before was a strong candidate and that they were looking forward to meeting a third candidate before the week ended.

It is always a mystery to me when I run into this in our profession. Why would this retained recruiter lie? Are there any times that you think it is important to lie to your candidates and or your clients?

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Permalink Reply by Thomas Patrick Chuna on May 3, 2011 at 7:18pm

Where is the lie?

"they will qualify candidates and present the best ONE to their client"

Sounds like they are still in the qualifying stage, not the presentation stage.

Maybe I am not understanding?

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Permalink Reply by Charlotte Byndas on May 3, 2011 at 7:28pm

The retained firm presented three candidates. The client where my friend interviewed told him there were two other candidates. You are right the retained firm said ONE, but they presented the best THREE. This is not the first time I have run into this and it just makes me wonder why recruiters lie.

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Permalink Reply by pam claughton on May 3, 2011 at 7:45pm

Maybe his misheard, and they said the best 'ones'. Can't imagine anyone would think they'd be the only person interviewing for a job. That doesn't make sense.

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Permalink Reply by Thomas Patrick Chuna on May 3, 2011 at 11:34pm

ok, I see what you are saying now.. it did not leap out that three were presented.

This just stands as a lesson for candidates to never take for granted they are the only ones interviewing, or in the "lead" or whatever.

As for the "why", maybe all three were / are found to be equally strong after the initial interview, and the retained guy didn't want to over - screen..better to let the client make the choice...or maybe there was more than one opening..could be anything.