Nick Corcodilos, recruiting professional, recently published an article in the Ask The Headhunter newsletter. The article begins with a reader’s reservations in regards to recruiters. Stereotypically, they are the ones that will tell you just about anything to get you to join the team. If the job they want you for isn’t the most appealing, they’ll only tell you the good parts and possibly exaggerate a little. At least, that’s how the many jobseekers view them according to Louis Borg, QA/Testing Recruitment Consultant. “Many see us as pushy, dishonest and unethical salesmen with little regard for whether or not the role we’re discussing is really right for you.”

The Ask The Headhunter reader says to Corcodilos:

“I am a 46-year-old woman who has been rendered 100% unemployable in the New Economy. I’d just like some help in understanding what’s going on. My experience with recruiters has been terrible, and as a recruiter I thought you could maybe offer some insight into why they have become so useless. I’ve spoken with lots of other “permanently unemployable” professionals over the age of 40 and their experience with recruiters is identical to mine. Are recruiters truly incapable of providing real feedback? Why do recruiters suck so bad?”

Problem Number 1: Recruiters shouldn’t be Autobots

Much of the issue with recruiters who – unfortunately – fit the stereotype is that they abuse the power of automation. Just because an ATS has the ability to reach out to candidates, keep them updated, and send them rejection emails doesn’t mean the recruiter should be completely removed from the situation. An amazing 77% of candidates have no contact with a recruiter. It’s not a good habit to let the computer do all of the searching for you. In order to correctly determine a candidate’s personality and how they will mesh into the company culture, recruiters have to reach out and keep a connection with candidates beyond the data their digital files contain.

Problem Number 2: Every Tom, Dick, and Harry can be one

Everyone who’s anyone can be a recruiter, well, at least anyone with internet and a cellphone. At this point, the self-proclaimed recruiters take the profession as less than it is. It’s not about recruitment anymore; it’s about a numbers game. Big data is becoming the big hype in the world of HR technology; however, numbers aren’t people. Big data is a great tool for recruiters when used as a way to find potentially passive candidates. New York Times writers Gary Marcus and Ernest Davis agreed that big data is wonderful… if you know how to use it. “Is big data really all it’s cracked up to be? There is no doubt that big data is a valuable tool that has already had a critical impact in certain areas. For instance, almost every successful artificial intelligence computer program in the last 20 years, from Google’s search engine to the I.B.M. ‘Jeopardy!’ champion Watson, has involved the substantial crunching of large bodies of data. But precisely because of its newfound popularity and growing use, we need to be levelheaded about what big data can – and can’t – do.”

Problem Number 3: One shoe doesn’t fit everyone

Real recruiters, the ones who aren’t in it for the numbers, the ones who “don’t play games” are the ones who suffer. They try to fill jobs that fit the quality candidates they find rather than trying to fill a job for every candidate that walks in the door. Not all candidates are the same, nor are the jobs for them. That’s why you can’t solely rely on big data and corporate HR technology. As a recruiter, you have to find the balance between technology and anthropology to be successful. Yes, recruiters stereotypically will sell a job to candidates who aren’t really a good fit for the position. However, that’s not everyone. As with every stereotype, they aren’t true for a majority of the population that falls underneath them. There are problems in recruitment. Anyone and everyone who wants to be a recruiter can, and some abuse the power of big data and technology.

Bio: Raj Sheth, CEO/Partner

Raj Sheth is the co-founder of Recruiterbox, an online recruitment software and applicant tracking system designed especially for growing companies. Prior to Recruiterbox, he founded two other web startups -- a classifieds portal and an ecommerce site. He is a graduate of Babson College and spent the first three years of his career as a financial analyst with EMC Corporation in Boston. Learn more about Recruiterbox right now.

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