I know some of you recruiters out there have worked in the different venues of recruiting, ie. corporate versus contingency or agency. Have you ever noticed the less than friendly attitude you normally get as a third party vendor when you are working the contingency side and call into the corporate recruiter or HR?

I have worked the corporate side also where, yes, you get a few calls from recruiters trying to drum up work. I always try to treat them with respect, and it doesn’t take much time. There are some pretty cool folks out there, and it is always nice to network. Last month I met the coolest corporate recruiter, he didn’t give me any work, but has been awesome to network with. (Hello Scott, you know who you are.)

I am working in high tech, and talk to engineering types all day long. They are very matter-of-fact. I often try to get a chuckle or ask them how their day is going. They are very uncomfortable with conversation. (I just need someone to talk to, the angry recruiter at ABC Corp just told me to go away) Engineers are so smart, but they just want to be left alone to do their job. Find them a new job when they are ready to move, and they are grateful, but they don’t want to talk about it. It reminds me of Bill Gate’s comment, “Be nice to a nerd, you may end up working for one.” Why can’t we just be nice?”

Last year I sent a candidate into a corporate recruiter. She promptly told me, “we don’t use outside recruiters.” I told her fine, I didn’t want a fee, I just wanted to get this candidate a job. We had a nice conversation, she seemed excited to have his resume, and I assume worked with him direct. The thing that irked me about this is, I then sent her an invite to LinkedIn and she IDK’d me, but I noticed she is now Linked with my candidate. When I asked her about it, she said she doesn’t link with the competition. What the ?!@%!!

I guess the long and short of it is, recruiter’s need love too, be nice.