The Problem with Recruiters!

The problem with recruiters is that most of them are focused on “closing the deal”and all else is just details. They will do anything necessary to simply make a placement and invoice their customer. They don’t have their customer’s best interests at heart. His only concern is getting paid and getting past the guarantee period!

Sad, but true for many, if not most recruiters. Oh sure, they “care” about the outcome. But not more than they care about submitting an invoice. In most cases, they are not committed to the success of their clients. They are committed to doing whatever is necessary to obtain a fee for services. This is almost universally true of contingency recruiters and sadly even true for many in the retained camp. It’s a basic human flaw that people are “self” first and “others” second. It is rare to find a recruiter who will do the right thing when they must decide between telling the truth and remaining silent. There is a lot at stake for a recruiter in the short term, and it takes incredible character to do the right thing when there is a large sum of money at risk. There is a sacred trust in a relationship with a company and it’s recruiter. My belief is that very few of them make the right choices when facing this dilemma.

Here are some examples of What is Wrong with Recruiters:

A. Over-preparing candidates on how to appeal to all of the hiring managers’ “hot buttons”
B. Editing a resume to cover up “red flags”
C. Pressuring both candidates and hirers to make a decision that may not be in their best long-term interests
D. Not searching for the best candidates, but only skimming the “low hanging fruit” of the Internet
E. “Flinging” resumes of people they haven’t vetted nor received permission from
F. Presenting the same candidate to multiple companies in order to create greater urgency
G. Concealing obvious flaws of their candidates

These are some of the problems with recruiters and “just cause” for HR to suspect bad behavior from them. Considering these examples, is it any surprise the industry has a poor reputation?

There is much that can be done to positively impact this bad rap, but it must start with recruiters doing the right thing at every turn. It is simply the best way to build your practice and reputation. It requires seeing beyond the short term financial gain and believing that by doing what is right for your client, you are building a business with honor and integrity, and by doing it this way, you will get repeat business. As i said, it is the right way to build both your business and reputation. If you can’t stay in business doing it right, you really should get out. There are far easier ways to make a living. Besides, you’re bringing down an entire industry!

Bad behavior isn’t right no matter how many placements you make! Do us all a favor and go do something else!

For more blogs from the author visit www.druedeangelis.wordpress.com

Comment by Luke Collard on February 9, 2012 at 12:58am: Should we all bow and lie prostrate at your feet.....you are obviously the self confessed God of recruitment !

Comment by Caitlin Carruthers on February 9, 2012 at 1:02am: I'm going to take a wild guess that you won't be entering the 'Why I Love Recruitment' blog contest...

While I agree that there are plenty of recruiters like this, I think it's unfair to say 'most' recruiters fall into this category. As others have said before me, the 'in it for a quick buck' recruiter doesn't last long. In my experience, most agencies are actively preventing this type of recruiting now.

Comment by Drue De Angelis on February 9, 2012 at 1:06am: Dean, You are right in that I don't know anyone on this site, because I am new to it. You sure are a sensitive bunch. ;-) This IS called RecruiterBlogs right? If you are not like the recruiters I call out, then great, move on. If there is something that can be taken from the post to encourage you, even better. If this site is merely for you to all tell each other how great you all are, and pat yourselves on the back, then I'll move on as I don't have time for it. I think we all should be willing to be challenged to greater things in our work. Like it or not, recruiters have a very dubious reputation in the real world. All the recruiters I have worked with to date have had the courage to be introspective and appreciate candor. If that isn't "sharing," "interacting" and "collaborating," I don't know what is...

Comment by John Comyn on February 9, 2012 at 2:07am: I dont agree entirely with what you have to say. How do you make money? Closing deals and invoicing is a large part of what we do. As it is in any sales role. There is no need to sacrifice ethos in the process. How can you possibly over prepare your candidates? If the best thing about a candidates CV is the coffee stain on a page then I advise them to redo it if I think the candidate is good. Hell I even give them a template to use. Playing one client off against another, in my opinion, is a fundemental to being a good recruiter. Clients who cant make decisions need to realise that good candidates do not hang about waiting for them to make a decision.

Comment by Zachary Sines on February 9, 2012 at 9:35am: Caitlin, that is the funniest thing I have read so far.

Drue, The problem is that you stated most recruiters. That is not going to go over well. I am a successful recruiter and I felt offended by it that I could, ofr one second, be lumped into the same catagory as some of these "bottom feeders".

I appreciate candor, you should do the same :).

Comment by Joe Madden on February 9, 2012 at 9:43am: We've all seen this article before Drue. Everyone knows why you wrote it, and it's not to educate us. The next time you want to write a propaganda piece to send to your clients as to why you're better than the rest, use a different test audience. You've wasted too much of my time already.

Comment by Scott Corwin on February 9, 2012 at 11:29am: I totally agree with Joe. Try selling your perceptions to those who can be manipulated by such thoughts and suggestions. Individuals on this site come to share and learn from one another. Your efforts did nothing more than piss people off at you. Way to make friends and influence people. This is a classic example of NOT to do.

Comment by Scott Corwin on February 9, 2012 at 11:38am: Collectively - we accept you offer to MOVE ON. Your article did not share ANY introspective. In fact, all it did was help the perpetuation of a negative stereo type. Clearly you DO NOT know what it is to share or collaborate.

Collaboration is working together to achieve a goal.^[1] It is a recursive^[2] process where two or more people or organizations work together to realize shared goals, (this is more than the intersection of common goals seen in co-operative ventures, but a deep, collective, determination to reach an identical objective) — for example, an intriguing endeavor^[3][4] that is creative in nature^[5]—by sharing knowledge, learning and building consensus. Most collaboration requires leadership, although the form of leadership can be social within a decentralized and egalitarian group.^[6] In particular, teams that work collaboratively can obtain greater resources, recognition and reward when facing competition for finite resources.^[7] Collaboration is also present in opposing goals exhibiting the notion of adversarial collaboration, though this is not a common case for using the word.

Structured methods of collaboration encourage introspection of behavior and communication.^[6] These methods specifically aim to increase the success of teams as they engage in collaborative problem solving. Forms, rubrics, charts and graphs are useful in these situations to objectively document personal traits with the goal of improving performance in current and future projects.

REST Assured we will NOT be collaborating.

Comment by Terra on February 9, 2012 at 11:42am: Psychology 101 – Often people see the world through their own eyes – and it looks like you may be doing just that, so I suggest you look to yourself not to others. Based on your theory that would mean everyone who was accused of a crime and defended themselves was guilty. The “culprits” are the ones who are not responding, are not offended, and probably not even reading this blog because they just don’t care enough. So I am not sure, even you believed you were helping anyone (at least I will give you the benefit of the doubt that you are not that naive) but just venting, so good luck with that.

Comment by Brandi Cooper on February 9, 2012 at 11:47am: ..And there lies the reason, Joe! It's obvious by the self righteous & narrow-minded insults he makes of his own trade and peer group.

Drue- Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but, you will always be dialing for dollars....