Three Signs Your Job Order Sucks

A top rookie mistake is investing lots of time in a bad job order. Does your office have an evaluation process to prevent you from this major time waster?

1) Is.There.Urgency? If it's a "as soon as possible", or "we would always hire one of those", or "it's in the budget" are NOT urgency indicators. If they can clearly articulate that there is serious trouble if this is not hired in the next 8 weeks, or client deliverables will NOT be met without this person, or we will NOT hit our goals without this hire, THAT is urgency! The old "implication" questions will flesh this out. " What is the impact of NOT hiring in the next 8 weeks?" should be your new best friend for job orders in a recovering economy.

2) They have not previously paid recruiter fees. This is a deal breaker. You may want to ask them to put a foot in the boat and do a 5K engagement fee and invest three weeks into it, but then you are free to walk away.

3) You do not have rapport with the hiring authority directly making the hire. If they will not follow your process you are doomed before you begin. No prep calls, no debrief calls equals a needle in a haystack placement.

Do the work up front to prevent four weeks of pain and misery!

Comment by Jerry Albright on August 10, 2012 at 9:19am: I like it! Thanks Lauren.

I'll add just one thing I find important as well. You list urgency (gotta have it!) as well as rapport/cooperation. It's a must.

My third thing is - it must be a "reasonable" search. I look at their "expectation" with regard to a reasonable salary, a skillset not put together on some wishboard to finally fill in all the holes the team has and so forth.

They may be in a hurry and will return our call right away - and let us call all the shots.....but if they've got to have something that is not out there.....it will never happen.

Thanks again for the topic!

Comment by Judy Wilcox on August 10, 2012 at 10:30am: Bingo ... you Jerry, are absolutely correct. How often have we been given job orders that the specs are impossible totally unrealistic. You have to ask ... Do they really want to use an outside recruiter?

Comment by Amber on August 10, 2012 at 10:36am: @ Lauren - definitely great main points here, thanks!

@ Jerry - I relearned that "reasonable" piece again these last 2 weeks! Had calls with both clients this morning to let them know I was not going to work on the jobs any longer.

Comment by Zachary Sines on August 10, 2012 at 12:28pm: I agree with 1 and 3, but number 2 isn't a deal breaker for me. If it is direct hire, I will highly suggest they try contract to hire instead. I don't get afraid of a company who has never paid a fee...I actually admire that. They obviously haven't had to before because they are either successful at finding people, have a name that sells itself, or they have a good internal recruiter. And if they are willing to entertain it now, I will show them how good the process can work and will actually work harder to secure the business than companies who pay fees...as long as 1 and 3 are there, then I will do that all day long. Making a believer proves for a stronger relationship in the future. Just my experience.

Good read though :).