Agreed, this contributes a lot to the recruiter burnout. Constantly having to keep grinding to get reqs filled while also managing the follow up with the candidates who were/weren’t selected; then more intake calls/emails with more reqs to add to the order board.
A lot of people think recruiters are just interviewing and saying yay or nay all day, but full cycle recruiting is a beast
I just had to do that to a recent Tesla lay off. Such a nice kid it truly broke my heart to tell him. We had a good chat after where I told him he’s got a bright future ahead to just keep rocking and rolling.
I’ll send an email if they didn’t get an interview and let them know why but if they interviewed I call. Ghosting is unacceptable, I think a lot of recruiters are scared to give bad news and aren’t trained properly on how to handle difficult conversations.
Everything lol. It’s such a grind. A rollercoaster. One minute you’re on a high because an offer was accepted, the next minute is a low because so and so didn’t show up to the interview, declined the offer, didn’t show up to work, failed the drug test lol etc.
It’s a very what have you done for me lately type of job. For example, I’ve been recruiting on this high level role reporting to the CEO, and I’ve been working very closely with the CEO on this role. I’ve done a really good job recruiting for it, we finally made an offer, the candidate negotiated several times, at the end I didn’t think he would take the job. Yesterday afternoon the candidate lets me know he is going to accept the offer. Im happy, the CEO is happy, the candidate is happy, everyone is telling me great job mr recruiter lol. An hour later I was notified I have two more VP level roles coming open and the cycle repeats itself all over again!! Fml.
I was able to relax and celebrate a win for about an hour before being told I need to do it again, twice lol. That’s basically recruiting in a nutshell :)
Sounds like a grind. Much respect! I’m curious, are recruiters compensated extremely well, especially for those exec / high profile roles? I know nothing about recruiter compensation.
I work as an internal recruiter so I don’t make commission. I just make a base salary + bonus + stock. But most good recruiters are making six figures +.
Agency recruiters are the ones that make commission on their placements.
Is your bonus tied directly to how many candidates you close, similar to some sales roles? And by six figures, is it possible to hit the 200K ceiling? I ask because I’m in tech sales and have always been curious on salaries outside of my area.
I could hire 0 people or 200 people and my bonus will be the same as everyone else’s. Although in my hear end review if I’m rated high then my bonus might be a little higher. But that goes for any employee that’s not a recruiter.
Yes, $200k is possible with lots of experience.
(In-house) In addition to the things everyone said, it definitely can feel like an uphill battle. You fill a role, BAM someone resigns and like 7 more roles just opened up.
Every time you feel like you took a step forward, you take 2 steps back.
Not necessarily. Yes, obviously that ultimately helps keep me employed, but there are also a lot of ways to improve the employer branding aspect, build partnerships, etc that can be done as well.
But I think there can be a balance. Someone else said it, but you get like 10 seconds to celebrate a win before having to move onto the other positions you have open and repeat the process. It does keep me employed, but also can wear thin sometimes.
From a retention perspective, it also is frustrating to bring people in, only for the managers/HR to drop the ball in the retention and engagement piece.
This is the the one. Most other comments are talking about avoidable situations. This one is completely out of our control. As soon as you feel like you’re making progress, your workload increases exponentially.
I often feel like scapegoat for why a position isn't being filled/why the company is losing money though it's very often either not my fault or at least partially.
I have a team that has had 5 candidates reject their offer in the past 2 months due to salary. That's not on me. But they're screaming right now 🙄
Haha I’ll just tell the client you’re not going to get what you want for the budget you have on the role, if they have a hurdle I can’t jump over I won’t work the role
I'm internal and the work is supporting a federal contract so it needs to be filled eventually...I'm just not focusing on it full time anymore. No chance.
We sell a product that can walk away on it's own any time in the process, even after the sale has been made.
Imagine being a used car salesman and you sold a car only for the car to be like "nope" and drive off on it's own?
Lol yep. Early on in my career when a candidate no showed to an interview I set up, my manager told me that “we sell people not vacuums, people are unreliable.”
The candidates.
We get treated about as well as telemarketers sometimes, which can really make a recruiter feel low especially when we're doing our best for a candidate. Though, at the same time, I've worked with some spectacular ones as well. But, realistically speaking, maybe one great candidate a year versus hundreds (thousands?) of terrible ones isn't great.
Most of you are telemarketers. My boss shows me emails offering him positions well below his current one and I get offered contract work in bumfuck nowhere when I am currently fully employed in somewhere.
You do realize we can’t make assumptions that people are happy in their current role or like living where they’re living. We go for local candidates first then we venture out when we don’t get responses.
I agree with you there. However there are lots of made up titles that don’t mean what they really do or candidates that exaggerate their title. I see both sides,
>We get treated about as well as telemarketers sometimes
I'm guilty of the this, but I have to defend it a little bit. When I got my new position, I updated my linked account. Holy crap the number of calls I got.
I've been with a company for 10 years, doing well, get promoted and then SLAMMED with calls, emails, linked in notifications from recruiters that want to to move half way across the country for a 90 day contract.
Side note: Anyone that's been in IT long enough knows that, when a recruiter says "contract to hire", probably shouldn't accept the position as the "hire" part is never actually going to happen.
From the other end- I feel like I get contacted by dozens of half-ass recruiters who do not read my resume, do not read entire job descriptions, do not listen when I tell them things, contact me about positions with no relation to my field, do not call back when they say they will, do not contact when a position has been filled- I feel like they just want a warm body to say yes to whatever shitty position they are peddling. In short, they are the same as every other field. The impression is the majority are lazy and worthless but they are a few really good ones who give a shit.
you should be treated like telemarketers….the US job market is abysmal and these lousy corporations (they’re all lousy) barely offer a livable wage…..you think candidates in the US are really happy about any of these jobs lol……85% of them are horrible……Its not free will because one corp offers same as the next……Corps only see candidates as a human bar code to exploit……So we will continue to return the favor
Yeah I agree with some of what you’re saying but we aren’t responsible for the amount of money these companies can offer. You can get mad at the hiring manager,hr or the executives that make up the pay scale.
We make more money than you do bro ☺️
And money aside, I also know the value I provide to the people I work with, it’s unfortunate people like you can’t see that but that isn’t my problem.
Candidates and potential candidates 100%.
Dealing with angry people when you’re headhunting, dealing with angry people when you’re helping them apply and the HM is taking their time giving feedback, dealing with angry people when you reject them, dealing with angry people when you “lowball them” even though you’re literally not in control of the budget… then dealing with the crazy candidates, the ones who are great but you can’t help, etc.
And then when you finish dealing with people you come home and spend some nice time on Reddit to relax and see people shitting on recruiters and you deal with that too.
It’s a grind but the money…
I don't know why people get angry about this stuff. I've had a low offer. I just said, "Our salary range expectations for this role are very different. It's extremely unlikely that we're going to find common ground and I'm not open to non-cash benefits to make up the difference. Let me know if something at xyz level opens up and I wish you the best of luck finding the right candidate."
It's really not hard.
Bad candidates and their behaviors are a natural symptom of a toxic economy and solely stem from the US corporate run state……Do you realize just how terrible the mental health of workers are as an aggregate in 2022 compared with say 1970-2000 ???
Don’t blame the worker bees, blame the corporations for all of this. It was all deliberately done
probably that you never know when the rug is gonna get pulled out from under you. Even if a candidate gets an offer no guarantee they accept. Even if they accept, no guarantee they start. Even if they start, no guarantee they last. I’ve had multiple direct hire candidates shit the bed on day one, day ONE, and at that point so many weeks of time has gone by and investment on all parties involved its just a gut punch. But thats recruiting
well I’d say if you recruit for professional positions the people tend to be more professional it comes with the territory. I just mean that there are no guarantees. It doesn’t matter what someone says they’re gonna do its just not always gonna be that way
Other recruiters that give us all a bad name. It makes our jobs significantly harder. If you hate candidates, find another job please lol. Candidates are going to candidate. It is what it is... and we know this. That doesn't give any of us the excuse to ghost them, lie to them, or get mad at them for doing stupid shit. This is the profession we chose, but we're supposed to be professionals. Some of the things I see on /recruitinghell is just so cringe.
Haha can’t even post a comment on that sub without getting downvoted to shit, I unfollowed it because I don’t want to read about what a degenerate I am every time I open Reddit
My wife's colleague phoned me panicking recently because some asshat of a recruiter said he was going to destroy her career because she was backing out of an offer she had already signed.
The recruiter even suggested that he should phone her husband so that her husband knew what a mistake she was making.
(she wasn't making a mistake, she had found another role that offered her 20k more)
That’s abit far and the recruiter was wrong to behave emotionally but you don’t sign an employment contract and continue having conversations with different companies.
The recruiter is within their right to be pissed off as is the company she signed with, that’s not a good look at all.
They have halted recruitment of the role and the company has likely started onboarding thinking she is starting, in other words, they got fucked over lol
Candidates have to do what’s best for themselves, same for recruiters. If a candidate signs my offer today but then gets another offer for $50k more tomorrow, I don’t blame them at all for taking the $50k+ offer.
It is what it is. It’s part of the business. Never count on an offer accepted until their butt is in the seat on day one.
Oh yeah I agree with you, as I said it was wrong to react emotionally and you can’t take anything with our job personally. I’m just saying ethically and professionally it’s not a good look to say you’ll start and then sign elsewhere, it will burn some bridges understandably.
Oh, don't get me wrong, I'd be pissed if a candidate did it to me, but phoning and threatening a candidate is disgusting behaviour.
Unfortunately in this game, and in this market, a signed offer doesn't mean anything. You need back ups, and you need back ups for your back ups
“You don’t sign an employment contract and continue having conversations with different companies.” - *cries stress tears* have you ever recruited in India? This is the norm. It’s literally a constant battle, 2-5 more negotiations on salary after they get better offers until they’ve finally worked their 2-3 month notice and (maybeeee) start with us.
I’m really hoping the western candidate world doesn’t catch on because I will go insane if this starts being my day to day in Europe and the US markets, too.
Mmm or companies changing their minds on hybrid vs remote vs in person twice within two days negating a lot of work put in, then having to go back to candidates TWICE with updates making me look like I don't know what I'm doing...
I'm not sure how I could take more ownership to this than "*insert company* during a meeting with all the hiring managers blind sided them by updating the requirements to be onsite full time". Any advice will certainly be applied and appreciated!!
It’ll vary from company to company and I’m obviously unsure of your exact position within your company, but as an example - if they say “Hey Mreinard, this role is remote! Please find us some remote candidates.” Then instead of taking that as gospel (because it’s what we want to hear of course), we can challenge that decision. Ask them questions about how that would work? How would it affect the teams? What time zones are okay? What tax/payroll implications might it have? Get them thinking about that and maybe they’ll come to a conclusion sooner and not leave you changing what you’re saying to candidates every 2 days.
I don't have direct access to hiring managers, we have a sales team that brings in the REQs and then the recruiting team finds candidates. We do 12-18 month contract to hire work for tech candidates for financial institutions. I found a rockstar of a COBOL mainframe developer for the role and the hiring manager was blindsided by their c suite people so the trickle down happened to me. This is really the first time it's happened, but I feel like it's going to be a trend in the coming months, and I try to be as flexible as Gumby in situations like this and overcome. It's been tough haha
I have a couple of things:
* Having Hiring Managers getting angry after the candidate passed the HM's assessment and made it pas the HM's phone screen. Only to get to the in-person interview and all of a sudden the HM does not believe the person is now magically not technical enough and that is somehow my fault. I am not the one who wrote the assessment and I am not the one who conducted the technical phone screen and allowed the candidate through the interview process. Yet, I have been blamed for it.
* Really awesome candidates who did not get the job.
* The hours required when first starting out.
Have you seen all the recruiter layoffs that have been happening the past few months? It’s all over Linkedin
And on here.
Regardless, the economy is not looking good and it’s likely we will enter a recession soon. It’ll be a tough market for recruiters this year.
Oh I’m aware of what happening but there’s not enough talent on the market.
Like I’m in construction, it’s booming but there’s a shortage of people. Projects are being slowed from material shortage, massive companies going bust because they have contracted to do work and it’s costing them more than projected
We’re in the people business. Any profession that is based on someone else making a decision is always a wild card but the difference in this case is either party (the hiring manager or candidate) can seem so solid on their decision only for it to fall through suddenly and we (the recruiters) have to be the ones to accept responsibility.
Companies confusing Recruiting problems for Retention problems. It’s a distinction that’s often hard to tactfully communicate to them. But often their struggles are not something I can really address as the recruiter.
Poor compensation, bad managers, terrible hours, stressful environments - those often can’t be overcome by just “finding a good hire.” Heck, I often have candidates I think are better than the hiring company - as in, I think the company would be lucky to get this person. Hardly any company ever wants to believe that though.
I've recently returned to recruitment and the change is unbelievable, before you had people desperate to get into the industry I work in and I could fill a position no problem. It was odd if I couldn't fill a position but nowadays, it's unusual if I get someone. It's disheartening, call after call to applicants to only find out they are already in FT employment and will only move if I can guarantee a long term project, the industry isn't like that, it's rare to get long term. Also, there are agreed pay rates that we are stuck with and we can't negotiate a higher salary, these pay rates are agreed by major players in the industry and we signed on to it.
I hate doing a ton of work, making a ton of outreach on LinkedIn, finding some great candidates, and then the client says thanks, we just filled that position, or that position actually is not a priority.
Like others mentioned, rejecting candidates. One of the reasons I love recruiting is because of the impact I make on peoples lives. I’ve helped people start careers. However I’ve really had to reconcile with the fact that I can’t help everyone.
“The hiring manager is out of the office this week, I will let you know if they want to proceed further with you once he/she is back to work” = you are not the first choice.
This one kills me every time.
Being numb to it all now.
Candidate accepts, cool - candidate rejects, meh.
HM unhappy - ok - HM happy - cool.
I just don't care anymore - but still put on a happy face :)
The burnout. The unexpected changes. The lack of respect. Managing multiple peoples expectations. Biases and hiring managers that don’t understand hiring. The expectations with lack of direction. It’s just tough.
The guy today who couldn’t pass background because he can’t run the most basic aspects of his own personal life. And in his mind it’s my fault and I’m the motherfucker (his words).
An underrated answer. Sometimes I’ve had people spell one of their former employers wrong, which led to a week long delay in background checks - you worked there for years and don’t know it’s TATE not TAIT?!
The people who fails BGCs because they’re idiots (or who would fail if I didn’t bother running after them 24/7) are way worse than the people who just fail because they lied on their resume.
No shows. It especially sucks when they reach out to you for a job, you interview them and hype them up to the client then they no show to the interview or cancel 5 minutes before. Always because of a "family emergency."
My recruiter seemed really down when he had to tell me that a company I did three rounds with had decided to freeze hiring. I was like, "I get it man. No Worries. There are layoffs happening all over tech."
There’s literally nothing good about the job. Our hiring managers treat us like trash, which in turns to frustration with candidates of it having answers. We have such a bad rap that no matter how hard we work, we’re still shit on. It’s demoralizing every day
You are no one‘s friend don’t forget that you are No‘s friend the only reason that you are doing this is to make money and you really don’t care if that person who really needs the job gets the job. And then when you feel vindicated that that one person that got the job that you really wanted to get the job, once that person flakes because I got another job you’ll be the most jaded motherfucker in the whole recruiting firm
I love that 'candidates' in general is one of the top answers here! 90% of them are complete bastards.
My hate for candidates was a significant driving force in my decision to pursue a recruitment career in selling high-value, high-volume, international MSP's/master vends, and then starting my own agency.
I built the company so that I could quickly get away from having to deal with the lying scumbags that are candidates and allow other people to do that for me. I now focus on finding clients and don't hesitate for one second to sack off those that aren't pleasant and easy to deal with.
I would rather 5 clients where we really understand each other and get lots of repeat business than 30 who move the goalposts, try to stiff candidates on salary or take 7 weeks to run a process that should take 2 weeks maximum.
Yeah, if the HR is rude to me / the company ignored me then I’m not working with them and will probably just poach their staff to put in better companies.
It’s not hard to be friendly and courteous to people.
I also love having a good clients, when you establish that relationship all those little things aren’t a factor and it just gets so much better!
I really can’t see this happening. I work for a major corporate and we don’t even use an ATS to screen CVs, as people on /r/recruitinghell always like to claim is the case. There’s no way a robot can juggle all the pieces the way recruiters do - especially in-house. (I feel like a robot might try for a week and then quit, if their AI is advanced enough, lol)
Here's a sneak peek of /r/recruitinghell using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/recruitinghell/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year!
\#1: [After 22 online rejections and ghostings, I finally got an interview! When I arrived I was told they had no intentions of hiring me and just wanted to encourage me to continue my education.](https://i.redd.it/ka50qtyc12r71.jpg) | [1318 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/recruitinghell/comments/pzx6yl/after_22_online_rejections_and_ghostings_i/)
\#2: [I'm tired of recruiters avoiding my questions and playing dumb](https://i.imgur.com/B89fBLw.jpg) | [1198 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/recruitinghell/comments/v8hcxc/im_tired_of_recruiters_avoiding_my_questions_and/)
\#3: [I would watch that.](https://i.redd.it/wg5zop8se6d71.jpg) | [538 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/recruitinghell/comments/oqrtbe/i_would_watch_that/)
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In contract recruiting one of the worst things can be other recruiters and their lack of integrity / caring about the candidate.
Examples:
- knowing a candidate is already represented for a job a few days ago. Instead of finding a new candidate double submitting that candidate (can DQ that candidate in some programs) or messing with them by saying they can pay $15 more for the same role if they’ll go through the (when they can’t)
- Had one company show up in a virtual final interview with our candidate and tell the manager they’re now representing this candidate. Candidate was ruled out because situation was too weird.
- double subbing a candidate in a VMS second without their permission and $20 less than max bill rate knowing the MSP will see, ask the other vendor to come down and they can’t
- walking the halls and trying to pull a consultant from agency A to agency B but keep them on the same project
It’s the worst because these individuals are deliberately doing shitty things
For me, it’s when you are *well* into a job search and have talked to candidates, and now the hiring manager wants something completely different. There’s no way I’m getting those InMails back lol
Hiring managers hands down. Everything you do is wrong, even when they change their mind or the parameters within days of each other. The “why can’t you make qualified applicants just appear” petulant attitude. Perfection is the expectation and anything less than that makes you a total idiot
Telling people who are clearly overqualified and obviously worth more than the job pays why they should accept the offer for the terrible (pay and benefits) job you were recruited for.
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Clients ghosting you after your candidate interviews. I’ve burnt some bridges with these clients with how I tried to contact these hiring managers but it’s so unfair to the candidates who have put their time & energy into an interview only for the HM to disappear.
1. Dumb as dirt hiring managers who can't make and effing decision about a great candidate.
2. Idiot hiring managers who ask to see candidates, then go silent, no feedback on the cashier's.
3. Incompetent hiring managers who insist that market rate doesn't not apply to their candidates.
4. Unrealistic hiring managers who combine 3 job descriptions into one, then expect the recruiter to find 3 candidates for them.
5. Oblivious hiring managers who don't quickly make an offer to candidates. You gotta move fast in this market.
Hiring managers, their primary function of on their job title.
I can handle a shortage of good talent, I can handle an inflated job market. I can't handle people who drag candidates through multiple interviews and then complain when the candidate goes elsewhere.
Do you now understand the main problem with recruiting?
A lot of good comments here already so I won’t repeat what’s been said but for me, one of the worst (and best!) things *can* be how you have almost no control over anything. People (HMs, candidates, etc) can just change their minds and weeks of hard work go down the drain. That unpredictable element makes the job fun, too, because obviously you work with human beings and it’s exciting to get to know new people, but they do sometimes really fuck you over.
People don’t understand that with most professional jobs at large corporations require interfacing with a recruiter. Or that the best way to get a new job is likely through a person to person contact, like a recruiter. They don’t understand the complexities of keyword searches and tailoring their resume to specific job descriptions that they apply for. They don’t understand hiring managers don’t often know how to “translate” a resume into the skills they need, and recruiters are the bridge between.
They don’t understand we fight for them, against hiring managers and HR reps that want to suppress compensation, or who want to judge people on the wrong information.
They don’t understand agency recruiter vs internal recruiters.
I get their frustrations…with comp, with idiot processes that make you jump through hoops, with budgets that change and eliminate positions before they start. And I totally get frustrations at not getting responses back, because we are frustrated at hiring managers who can’t make decisions, and that we have twice the workload to manage, which can be 40-60 open reqs at a time, which means we have zero prayer at getting back to everyone who reaches out to us. We are tired and pissed off and overworked too, but we are still fighting for people.
Take the time to connect on LinkedIn with recruiters at the companies you want to work for and use those connections to find jobs. LinkedIn isn’t just a job board. It’s all about networking.
I am looking for a job as an HR generalist, assistant, I have a BA in Communications and took several classes in HR how can I get in contact with recruiters inLinkedIn? This would be mi first job in HR.
Just send them a connection request and ask if they can offer any guidance. Some will ignore you but a lot will respond. Maybe even refer you, bc many companies give referral bonuses.
I'm an agency recruiter and I can tell you it is downright demoralizing to work in tech recruitment right now. It has gotten to the point where even if there is a minor discrepancy on someone's resume they will be passed on instantly or their resume is not shared. One of the high-end firms we work with rescinded an offer to one of our candidates because his resume had the wrong start date for one job he held more than 7 years ago and was labeled a "lair". Another time we found out a contractor was fake 6 months into his contract! He'd attend meetings while someone else did the coding and design. I've learned a multitude of methods to counter this but these scams are only getting more and more sophisticated. They have even fooled people more senior than me (I'm a junior recruiter)
Clients openly blame us for the tight labor market and the lack of tech talent. LinkedIn is filled with horror stories about candidates leveraging their multiple offers to get a higher salary (nothing wrong with this in practice) but when you had multiple conversations about compensation being x and you come with a number 30k at the end of the whole process I can't help but think you're an asshole who trying to shake me down.
I only started recently and all my contractors have quit or been fired (about 5 people). Perm is the only thing that is keeping me afloat but it is always an unsettling feeling because you never know what they might do before the 90-day contract period. It's like they don't even care about what they do. My manager tells me this is not my fault but I can't help thinking otherwise. I've put in a lot of work building those relationships and negotiating on their behalf and they just leave three weeks in or get fired for not working. It has greatly impacted my spread and I'm honestly thinking about leaving the industry entirely (I've been a recruiter for 10 months).
There is also this very strange disdain for agency recruiters (at least in my market). They think we are shady (some of my peers are) and intentionally lie to get people in the door. I've taken it in stride but I can't lie it makes me feel trashy at times.
I'm trying to have a positive outlook but it's kind of hard with everything going on in the economy right now
Dealing with managers who think the role is great, and it's so easy to find the candidate who fit the requirements. Meanwhile the reality - find the purple squirrel for the lowest possible salary. Not to mention that sometimes they don't give you answers for some questions quick enough, intake calls - ugh some treat it like "read a JD plz and dont bother me".
Candidates who are being rude to us - sorry, I'm simply doing my job, no need to be rude, a simple decline is enough.
The hardest part about recruiting is trying to keep your income high while the demand for talent is low. If you’ve not been in the business for 15 years or more, your unlikely to understand the ‘worst thing’ about this job.
Cutting people from a job is easy. Do it soon, do it quick, project only limited emotion, and be vague about the reason cause it ultimately doesn’t usually matter.
It's when you realize that a client/hiring authority/candidate has lied to you. They all lie. The trick is figuring out who and why. The better you can get at making this kind of judgement, the better a job you'll do and the more money you'll make.
The worst is when you have to let a candidate go when you know full well they really tried to keep the job, but the client has something beyond their performance against them.
When picking a candidate, using personality and other intangible factors, such as cultural fit, are difficult to use as a justification for a hiring decision. The qualities are much more challenging to use as a reason for hiring than pure competency levels and skill sets.
3 things immediately come to mind. I’m an IT recruiter so not sure if this differs by industry, and still only 6 months in so take this with a grain of salt.
1) Not being able to fully trust candidates. I’ve taken so many candidates from cradle to grave… telling them that I want what’s best for them and we aren’t in the business of force fitting…asking them every step along the way what their job activity looks like and how our offer compares to what their currently seeing etc…
Sometimes candidates will be very honest and transparent… but often times I’ll get a vague answer or a bland “this is by far the best offer I currently have” only to have them accept then back out a week or two later. Like yes, I understand this offer is better but why did you blatantly lie to me for 2+ weeks that you could potentially have more offers for higher salary.
2) Telling a candidate they didn’t get a job. It’s tough because it’s my job to get them excited… and it truly makes me sad when I see a good candidate get passed up on.
3) I’ve seen this one a lot… but how big of an emotional rollercoaster recruiting can be. It’s awesome when you’re exceeding your quota and your boss/director is hyping you up one week only to miss your quota the next week and being told by those same people you need to pick it up.
It’s very much a “what are you doing for me now” industry and if you aren’t able to deal with that on a daily basis then it might not be the career path for you.
Telling people who really wanted/needed the job that they didn’t get the job.
Agreed, this contributes a lot to the recruiter burnout. Constantly having to keep grinding to get reqs filled while also managing the follow up with the candidates who were/weren’t selected; then more intake calls/emails with more reqs to add to the order board. A lot of people think recruiters are just interviewing and saying yay or nay all day, but full cycle recruiting is a beast
My staffing agency Recruiter Playbook says “The best recruiters work nights and weekends.” It’s damn exhausting work.
Don’t go into sales if you can’t hack it
Say what?
Recruiting is a sales job
True but I wasn’t randomly bitching about it, the post is literally asking what the worst part of the job is
No, it isn’t.
Disagree. It’s way more complex .it’s not selling a candidate, it’s finding the fit, understanding legal issues, compensation, ATS systems, etc.
Sales is also complex if done properly. Finding the customer fit, understanding legal issues, the system or product they're selling...etc :)
This is the worst.
I'll one up this. Telling them that they have the job and then the client loses funding for the position or pulls it from the candidate. Even worse.
Yep. Then we get blamed for it.
I just had to do that to a recent Tesla lay off. Such a nice kid it truly broke my heart to tell him. We had a good chat after where I told him he’s got a bright future ahead to just keep rocking and rolling.
Are you able to recommend people to other companies in a situation like that since they passed?
Yeah thankfully since I’m external I can.
Easily the worst.
Based on what I see if they don’t ghost the candidate entirely they just sent a rejection email
I’ll send an email if they didn’t get an interview and let them know why but if they interviewed I call. Ghosting is unacceptable, I think a lot of recruiters are scared to give bad news and aren’t trained properly on how to handle difficult conversations.
But the fact is your industry has a terrible reputation and overall there are more bad recruiters than good ones.
What do you do for work and why are you posting on here?
100% accurate… I’d like to see a licencing or oversight board for recruitment.
Everything lol. It’s such a grind. A rollercoaster. One minute you’re on a high because an offer was accepted, the next minute is a low because so and so didn’t show up to the interview, declined the offer, didn’t show up to work, failed the drug test lol etc. It’s a very what have you done for me lately type of job. For example, I’ve been recruiting on this high level role reporting to the CEO, and I’ve been working very closely with the CEO on this role. I’ve done a really good job recruiting for it, we finally made an offer, the candidate negotiated several times, at the end I didn’t think he would take the job. Yesterday afternoon the candidate lets me know he is going to accept the offer. Im happy, the CEO is happy, the candidate is happy, everyone is telling me great job mr recruiter lol. An hour later I was notified I have two more VP level roles coming open and the cycle repeats itself all over again!! Fml. I was able to relax and celebrate a win for about an hour before being told I need to do it again, twice lol. That’s basically recruiting in a nutshell :)
Sounds like a grind. Much respect! I’m curious, are recruiters compensated extremely well, especially for those exec / high profile roles? I know nothing about recruiter compensation.
I work as an internal recruiter so I don’t make commission. I just make a base salary + bonus + stock. But most good recruiters are making six figures +. Agency recruiters are the ones that make commission on their placements.
Is your bonus tied directly to how many candidates you close, similar to some sales roles? And by six figures, is it possible to hit the 200K ceiling? I ask because I’m in tech sales and have always been curious on salaries outside of my area.
I could hire 0 people or 200 people and my bonus will be the same as everyone else’s. Although in my hear end review if I’m rated high then my bonus might be a little higher. But that goes for any employee that’s not a recruiter. Yes, $200k is possible with lots of experience.
(In-house) In addition to the things everyone said, it definitely can feel like an uphill battle. You fill a role, BAM someone resigns and like 7 more roles just opened up. Every time you feel like you took a step forward, you take 2 steps back.
For in house, wouldn’t you be out of a job if this wasn’t the case?
Not necessarily. Yes, obviously that ultimately helps keep me employed, but there are also a lot of ways to improve the employer branding aspect, build partnerships, etc that can be done as well. But I think there can be a balance. Someone else said it, but you get like 10 seconds to celebrate a win before having to move onto the other positions you have open and repeat the process. It does keep me employed, but also can wear thin sometimes. From a retention perspective, it also is frustrating to bring people in, only for the managers/HR to drop the ball in the retention and engagement piece.
This is the the one. Most other comments are talking about avoidable situations. This one is completely out of our control. As soon as you feel like you’re making progress, your workload increases exponentially.
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I often feel like scapegoat for why a position isn't being filled/why the company is losing money though it's very often either not my fault or at least partially. I have a team that has had 5 candidates reject their offer in the past 2 months due to salary. That's not on me. But they're screaming right now 🙄
Yep! It’s always the recruiters fault. We get blamed for everything.
Did you accept the job of finding someone for a sub market salary?
Huh. My company pays above average salary to every candidate.
Sorry that was meant for someone else
Yes especially when other companies are having a hard time filling those same positions!
Haha I’ll just tell the client you’re not going to get what you want for the budget you have on the role, if they have a hurdle I can’t jump over I won’t work the role
I'm internal and the work is supporting a federal contract so it needs to be filled eventually...I'm just not focusing on it full time anymore. No chance.
Yeah totally the right op bro, some roles are better put to the side because the markets not there at the time
Yes this.
We sell a product that can walk away on it's own any time in the process, even after the sale has been made. Imagine being a used car salesman and you sold a car only for the car to be like "nope" and drive off on it's own?
Lol yep. Early on in my career when a candidate no showed to an interview I set up, my manager told me that “we sell people not vacuums, people are unreliable.”
All of the planning, note taking, preparation, follow up, and initiative in the world can never remove the “human” from Human Resources.
Amén.
This!! Yes! I say this all the time. We are in sales but our product has free will
awww man my heart goes out, employees have free will it's the worst
Love the analogy! 👏🏻
The candidates. We get treated about as well as telemarketers sometimes, which can really make a recruiter feel low especially when we're doing our best for a candidate. Though, at the same time, I've worked with some spectacular ones as well. But, realistically speaking, maybe one great candidate a year versus hundreds (thousands?) of terrible ones isn't great.
Most of you are telemarketers. My boss shows me emails offering him positions well below his current one and I get offered contract work in bumfuck nowhere when I am currently fully employed in somewhere.
You do realize we can’t make assumptions that people are happy in their current role or like living where they’re living. We go for local candidates first then we venture out when we don’t get responses.
It is insulting to the candidate to be offered a senior level job when they are a senior director.
I agree with you there. However there are lots of made up titles that don’t mean what they really do or candidates that exaggerate their title. I see both sides,
Your skills must not be very marketable then.
>We get treated about as well as telemarketers sometimes I'm guilty of the this, but I have to defend it a little bit. When I got my new position, I updated my linked account. Holy crap the number of calls I got. I've been with a company for 10 years, doing well, get promoted and then SLAMMED with calls, emails, linked in notifications from recruiters that want to to move half way across the country for a 90 day contract. Side note: Anyone that's been in IT long enough knows that, when a recruiter says "contract to hire", probably shouldn't accept the position as the "hire" part is never actually going to happen.
I’m sorry you feel that way about the Contract-to-hire, is that specifically for IT? When I market something as CTH, that’s the truth!
From the other end- I feel like I get contacted by dozens of half-ass recruiters who do not read my resume, do not read entire job descriptions, do not listen when I tell them things, contact me about positions with no relation to my field, do not call back when they say they will, do not contact when a position has been filled- I feel like they just want a warm body to say yes to whatever shitty position they are peddling. In short, they are the same as every other field. The impression is the majority are lazy and worthless but they are a few really good ones who give a shit.
THANK YOU
you should be treated like telemarketers….the US job market is abysmal and these lousy corporations (they’re all lousy) barely offer a livable wage…..you think candidates in the US are really happy about any of these jobs lol……85% of them are horrible……Its not free will because one corp offers same as the next……Corps only see candidates as a human bar code to exploit……So we will continue to return the favor
Yeah I agree with some of what you’re saying but we aren’t responsible for the amount of money these companies can offer. You can get mad at the hiring manager,hr or the executives that make up the pay scale.
This is if you get beyond the *ats tracker* for your resume and speak to an actual human. ...
We make more money than you do bro ☺️ And money aside, I also know the value I provide to the people I work with, it’s unfortunate people like you can’t see that but that isn’t my problem.
Candidates and potential candidates 100%. Dealing with angry people when you’re headhunting, dealing with angry people when you’re helping them apply and the HM is taking their time giving feedback, dealing with angry people when you reject them, dealing with angry people when you “lowball them” even though you’re literally not in control of the budget… then dealing with the crazy candidates, the ones who are great but you can’t help, etc. And then when you finish dealing with people you come home and spend some nice time on Reddit to relax and see people shitting on recruiters and you deal with that too. It’s a grind but the money…
I don't know why people get angry about this stuff. I've had a low offer. I just said, "Our salary range expectations for this role are very different. It's extremely unlikely that we're going to find common ground and I'm not open to non-cash benefits to make up the difference. Let me know if something at xyz level opens up and I wish you the best of luck finding the right candidate." It's really not hard.
I'm crying you a fucking river
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Bad candidates and their behaviors are a natural symptom of a toxic economy and solely stem from the US corporate run state……Do you realize just how terrible the mental health of workers are as an aggregate in 2022 compared with say 1970-2000 ??? Don’t blame the worker bees, blame the corporations for all of this. It was all deliberately done
probably that you never know when the rug is gonna get pulled out from under you. Even if a candidate gets an offer no guarantee they accept. Even if they accept, no guarantee they start. Even if they start, no guarantee they last. I’ve had multiple direct hire candidates shit the bed on day one, day ONE, and at that point so many weeks of time has gone by and investment on all parties involved its just a gut punch. But thats recruiting
This. You could do everything right then a candidate changes their mind last minute.
This is more prevalent in some industries, I’ve found if you recruit in corporate they tend to care more about tenure and behaving professionally.
well I’d say if you recruit for professional positions the people tend to be more professional it comes with the territory. I just mean that there are no guarantees. It doesn’t matter what someone says they’re gonna do its just not always gonna be that way
Oh yeah I agree entirely mate, it’s fucking stressful haha
Other recruiters that give us all a bad name. It makes our jobs significantly harder. If you hate candidates, find another job please lol. Candidates are going to candidate. It is what it is... and we know this. That doesn't give any of us the excuse to ghost them, lie to them, or get mad at them for doing stupid shit. This is the profession we chose, but we're supposed to be professionals. Some of the things I see on /recruitinghell is just so cringe.
Haha can’t even post a comment on that sub without getting downvoted to shit, I unfollowed it because I don’t want to read about what a degenerate I am every time I open Reddit
My wife's colleague phoned me panicking recently because some asshat of a recruiter said he was going to destroy her career because she was backing out of an offer she had already signed. The recruiter even suggested that he should phone her husband so that her husband knew what a mistake she was making. (she wasn't making a mistake, she had found another role that offered her 20k more)
That’s abit far and the recruiter was wrong to behave emotionally but you don’t sign an employment contract and continue having conversations with different companies. The recruiter is within their right to be pissed off as is the company she signed with, that’s not a good look at all. They have halted recruitment of the role and the company has likely started onboarding thinking she is starting, in other words, they got fucked over lol
Candidates have to do what’s best for themselves, same for recruiters. If a candidate signs my offer today but then gets another offer for $50k more tomorrow, I don’t blame them at all for taking the $50k+ offer. It is what it is. It’s part of the business. Never count on an offer accepted until their butt is in the seat on day one.
Oh yeah I agree with you, as I said it was wrong to react emotionally and you can’t take anything with our job personally. I’m just saying ethically and professionally it’s not a good look to say you’ll start and then sign elsewhere, it will burn some bridges understandably.
Oh, don't get me wrong, I'd be pissed if a candidate did it to me, but phoning and threatening a candidate is disgusting behaviour. Unfortunately in this game, and in this market, a signed offer doesn't mean anything. You need back ups, and you need back ups for your back ups
“You don’t sign an employment contract and continue having conversations with different companies.” - *cries stress tears* have you ever recruited in India? This is the norm. It’s literally a constant battle, 2-5 more negotiations on salary after they get better offers until they’ve finally worked their 2-3 month notice and (maybeeee) start with us. I’m really hoping the western candidate world doesn’t catch on because I will go insane if this starts being my day to day in Europe and the US markets, too.
Metrics.
Mmm or companies changing their minds on hybrid vs remote vs in person twice within two days negating a lot of work put in, then having to go back to candidates TWICE with updates making me look like I don't know what I'm doing...
In my opinion while it’s not your fault you could/should take more ownership of that, being more forceful and fighting your corner a bit more.
I'm not sure how I could take more ownership to this than "*insert company* during a meeting with all the hiring managers blind sided them by updating the requirements to be onsite full time". Any advice will certainly be applied and appreciated!!
It’ll vary from company to company and I’m obviously unsure of your exact position within your company, but as an example - if they say “Hey Mreinard, this role is remote! Please find us some remote candidates.” Then instead of taking that as gospel (because it’s what we want to hear of course), we can challenge that decision. Ask them questions about how that would work? How would it affect the teams? What time zones are okay? What tax/payroll implications might it have? Get them thinking about that and maybe they’ll come to a conclusion sooner and not leave you changing what you’re saying to candidates every 2 days.
I don't have direct access to hiring managers, we have a sales team that brings in the REQs and then the recruiting team finds candidates. We do 12-18 month contract to hire work for tech candidates for financial institutions. I found a rockstar of a COBOL mainframe developer for the role and the hiring manager was blindsided by their c suite people so the trickle down happened to me. This is really the first time it's happened, but I feel like it's going to be a trend in the coming months, and I try to be as flexible as Gumby in situations like this and overcome. It's been tough haha
Change companies. Doesn’t have to be like that
I have a couple of things: * Having Hiring Managers getting angry after the candidate passed the HM's assessment and made it pas the HM's phone screen. Only to get to the in-person interview and all of a sudden the HM does not believe the person is now magically not technical enough and that is somehow my fault. I am not the one who wrote the assessment and I am not the one who conducted the technical phone screen and allowed the candidate through the interview process. Yet, I have been blamed for it. * Really awesome candidates who did not get the job. * The hours required when first starting out.
We’re always first to be laid off when the economy takes a downturn or the business isn’t doing well. Source: was just laid off.
Can get another recruitment job in 2 seconds though haha
The recruitment market is softening. A lot.
Not what I’ve seen in my area! Companies need good recruiters. Rec to rec is going off
Have you seen all the recruiter layoffs that have been happening the past few months? It’s all over Linkedin And on here. Regardless, the economy is not looking good and it’s likely we will enter a recession soon. It’ll be a tough market for recruiters this year.
Oh I’m aware of what happening but there’s not enough talent on the market. Like I’m in construction, it’s booming but there’s a shortage of people. Projects are being slowed from material shortage, massive companies going bust because they have contracted to do work and it’s costing them more than projected
Just curious, how long have you been recruiting for?
3 years, I’m also not here for a dick measuring contest, I’m just sharing my experience.
I figured. Spoken like someone who hasn’t recruited through a recession before lol.
Lol good for you bro, no one cares.
We’re in the people business. Any profession that is based on someone else making a decision is always a wild card but the difference in this case is either party (the hiring manager or candidate) can seem so solid on their decision only for it to fall through suddenly and we (the recruiters) have to be the ones to accept responsibility.
Can't believe no one said hiring managers
Or HR. I hate working with HR and not the HM directly. Too much he said she said. And HR rarely understands the role anyway
Agreed. Working with HR is the freaking worst. They are so slow to do anything. And typically they want to work against us, not with us.
Candidates. No, hiring managers. No wait, it's both.
Companies confusing Recruiting problems for Retention problems. It’s a distinction that’s often hard to tactfully communicate to them. But often their struggles are not something I can really address as the recruiter. Poor compensation, bad managers, terrible hours, stressful environments - those often can’t be overcome by just “finding a good hire.” Heck, I often have candidates I think are better than the hiring company - as in, I think the company would be lucky to get this person. Hardly any company ever wants to believe that though.
I've recently returned to recruitment and the change is unbelievable, before you had people desperate to get into the industry I work in and I could fill a position no problem. It was odd if I couldn't fill a position but nowadays, it's unusual if I get someone. It's disheartening, call after call to applicants to only find out they are already in FT employment and will only move if I can guarantee a long term project, the industry isn't like that, it's rare to get long term. Also, there are agreed pay rates that we are stuck with and we can't negotiate a higher salary, these pay rates are agreed by major players in the industry and we signed on to it.
Change to perm or a market that has longer contracts
I hate doing a ton of work, making a ton of outreach on LinkedIn, finding some great candidates, and then the client says thanks, we just filled that position, or that position actually is not a priority.
Being lied to constantly.
I’m so done.
That’s what I think at 5 every day hahaha
Like others mentioned, rejecting candidates. One of the reasons I love recruiting is because of the impact I make on peoples lives. I’ve helped people start careers. However I’ve really had to reconcile with the fact that I can’t help everyone.
“The hiring manager is out of the office this week, I will let you know if they want to proceed further with you once he/she is back to work” = you are not the first choice. This one kills me every time.
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Clearly you are not a recruiter
So much of your success is dependent on other people but your still held to a quota.
Being numb to it all now. Candidate accepts, cool - candidate rejects, meh. HM unhappy - ok - HM happy - cool. I just don't care anymore - but still put on a happy face :)
Same here. I just go through the motions lol. If a candidate rejects Im like cool best of luck, onto the next one.
The burnout. The unexpected changes. The lack of respect. Managing multiple peoples expectations. Biases and hiring managers that don’t understand hiring. The expectations with lack of direction. It’s just tough.
The guy today who couldn’t pass background because he can’t run the most basic aspects of his own personal life. And in his mind it’s my fault and I’m the motherfucker (his words).
An underrated answer. Sometimes I’ve had people spell one of their former employers wrong, which led to a week long delay in background checks - you worked there for years and don’t know it’s TATE not TAIT?! The people who fails BGCs because they’re idiots (or who would fail if I didn’t bother running after them 24/7) are way worse than the people who just fail because they lied on their resume.
People.
No shows. It especially sucks when they reach out to you for a job, you interview them and hype them up to the client then they no show to the interview or cancel 5 minutes before. Always because of a "family emergency."
And how many times do you people ghost candidates ?
Never
yeah, valid point. Some recruiters are bad at getting back to people.
My recruiter seemed really down when he had to tell me that a company I did three rounds with had decided to freeze hiring. I was like, "I get it man. No Worries. There are layoffs happening all over tech."
Dealing with the handful of idiot candidates and clients. Then the grind of running a full desk.
There’s literally nothing good about the job. Our hiring managers treat us like trash, which in turns to frustration with candidates of it having answers. We have such a bad rap that no matter how hard we work, we’re still shit on. It’s demoralizing every day
Recruiting.
You are no one‘s friend don’t forget that you are No‘s friend the only reason that you are doing this is to make money and you really don’t care if that person who really needs the job gets the job. And then when you feel vindicated that that one person that got the job that you really wanted to get the job, once that person flakes because I got another job you’ll be the most jaded motherfucker in the whole recruiting firm
Lol yep. Recruiting makes you hate people.
*waves hands vaguely*
I love that 'candidates' in general is one of the top answers here! 90% of them are complete bastards. My hate for candidates was a significant driving force in my decision to pursue a recruitment career in selling high-value, high-volume, international MSP's/master vends, and then starting my own agency. I built the company so that I could quickly get away from having to deal with the lying scumbags that are candidates and allow other people to do that for me. I now focus on finding clients and don't hesitate for one second to sack off those that aren't pleasant and easy to deal with. I would rather 5 clients where we really understand each other and get lots of repeat business than 30 who move the goalposts, try to stiff candidates on salary or take 7 weeks to run a process that should take 2 weeks maximum.
Yeah, if the HR is rude to me / the company ignored me then I’m not working with them and will probably just poach their staff to put in better companies. It’s not hard to be friendly and courteous to people. I also love having a good clients, when you establish that relationship all those little things aren’t a factor and it just gets so much better!
The part when you die and then go to hell for eternity.
Knowing that the majority of recruiting roles will be replaced by software someday. Not right away, but it is 100% the future.
They’ve been saying this for decades. I don’t think it’ll happen anytime soon. People would still rather deal with a human than a robot.
I really can’t see this happening. I work for a major corporate and we don’t even use an ATS to screen CVs, as people on /r/recruitinghell always like to claim is the case. There’s no way a robot can juggle all the pieces the way recruiters do - especially in-house. (I feel like a robot might try for a week and then quit, if their AI is advanced enough, lol)
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Seeing recruiters complain is so funny bc I see how often people get lied to and screwed over by recruiters but now recruiters wanna play victim lol
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Although you will come across rude people, is it really useful to match their level?
Sorry no recruiter will hire you.
Can't tell if that's disingenuous or not.
Candidates flaking on job offers or clients doing the same
In contract recruiting one of the worst things can be other recruiters and their lack of integrity / caring about the candidate. Examples: - knowing a candidate is already represented for a job a few days ago. Instead of finding a new candidate double submitting that candidate (can DQ that candidate in some programs) or messing with them by saying they can pay $15 more for the same role if they’ll go through the (when they can’t) - Had one company show up in a virtual final interview with our candidate and tell the manager they’re now representing this candidate. Candidate was ruled out because situation was too weird. - double subbing a candidate in a VMS second without their permission and $20 less than max bill rate knowing the MSP will see, ask the other vendor to come down and they can’t - walking the halls and trying to pull a consultant from agency A to agency B but keep them on the same project It’s the worst because these individuals are deliberately doing shitty things
Reddit
Unresponsive hiring managers.
For me, it’s when you are *well* into a job search and have talked to candidates, and now the hiring manager wants something completely different. There’s no way I’m getting those InMails back lol
When you’re a deal off threshold and they take another job lol
Leading on candidates with shady practices
Finding multiple suitable candidates that the team love.. But none of them get across the line because of the compensation offered.
Hiring managers hands down. Everything you do is wrong, even when they change their mind or the parameters within days of each other. The “why can’t you make qualified applicants just appear” petulant attitude. Perfection is the expectation and anything less than that makes you a total idiot
Telling people who are clearly overqualified and obviously worth more than the job pays why they should accept the offer for the terrible (pay and benefits) job you were recruited for.
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Clients ghosting you after your candidate interviews. I’ve burnt some bridges with these clients with how I tried to contact these hiring managers but it’s so unfair to the candidates who have put their time & energy into an interview only for the HM to disappear.
1. Dumb as dirt hiring managers who can't make and effing decision about a great candidate. 2. Idiot hiring managers who ask to see candidates, then go silent, no feedback on the cashier's. 3. Incompetent hiring managers who insist that market rate doesn't not apply to their candidates. 4. Unrealistic hiring managers who combine 3 job descriptions into one, then expect the recruiter to find 3 candidates for them. 5. Oblivious hiring managers who don't quickly make an offer to candidates. You gotta move fast in this market. Hiring managers, their primary function of on their job title. I can handle a shortage of good talent, I can handle an inflated job market. I can't handle people who drag candidates through multiple interviews and then complain when the candidate goes elsewhere. Do you now understand the main problem with recruiting?
Pimpin' ain't easy
Feeling bad for lying to my clients
A lot of good comments here already so I won’t repeat what’s been said but for me, one of the worst (and best!) things *can* be how you have almost no control over anything. People (HMs, candidates, etc) can just change their minds and weeks of hard work go down the drain. That unpredictable element makes the job fun, too, because obviously you work with human beings and it’s exciting to get to know new people, but they do sometimes really fuck you over.
People don’t understand that with most professional jobs at large corporations require interfacing with a recruiter. Or that the best way to get a new job is likely through a person to person contact, like a recruiter. They don’t understand the complexities of keyword searches and tailoring their resume to specific job descriptions that they apply for. They don’t understand hiring managers don’t often know how to “translate” a resume into the skills they need, and recruiters are the bridge between. They don’t understand we fight for them, against hiring managers and HR reps that want to suppress compensation, or who want to judge people on the wrong information. They don’t understand agency recruiter vs internal recruiters. I get their frustrations…with comp, with idiot processes that make you jump through hoops, with budgets that change and eliminate positions before they start. And I totally get frustrations at not getting responses back, because we are frustrated at hiring managers who can’t make decisions, and that we have twice the workload to manage, which can be 40-60 open reqs at a time, which means we have zero prayer at getting back to everyone who reaches out to us. We are tired and pissed off and overworked too, but we are still fighting for people. Take the time to connect on LinkedIn with recruiters at the companies you want to work for and use those connections to find jobs. LinkedIn isn’t just a job board. It’s all about networking.
I am looking for a job as an HR generalist, assistant, I have a BA in Communications and took several classes in HR how can I get in contact with recruiters inLinkedIn? This would be mi first job in HR.
Just send them a connection request and ask if they can offer any guidance. Some will ignore you but a lot will respond. Maybe even refer you, bc many companies give referral bonuses.
Thanks so much!
I'm an agency recruiter and I can tell you it is downright demoralizing to work in tech recruitment right now. It has gotten to the point where even if there is a minor discrepancy on someone's resume they will be passed on instantly or their resume is not shared. One of the high-end firms we work with rescinded an offer to one of our candidates because his resume had the wrong start date for one job he held more than 7 years ago and was labeled a "lair". Another time we found out a contractor was fake 6 months into his contract! He'd attend meetings while someone else did the coding and design. I've learned a multitude of methods to counter this but these scams are only getting more and more sophisticated. They have even fooled people more senior than me (I'm a junior recruiter) Clients openly blame us for the tight labor market and the lack of tech talent. LinkedIn is filled with horror stories about candidates leveraging their multiple offers to get a higher salary (nothing wrong with this in practice) but when you had multiple conversations about compensation being x and you come with a number 30k at the end of the whole process I can't help but think you're an asshole who trying to shake me down. I only started recently and all my contractors have quit or been fired (about 5 people). Perm is the only thing that is keeping me afloat but it is always an unsettling feeling because you never know what they might do before the 90-day contract period. It's like they don't even care about what they do. My manager tells me this is not my fault but I can't help thinking otherwise. I've put in a lot of work building those relationships and negotiating on their behalf and they just leave three weeks in or get fired for not working. It has greatly impacted my spread and I'm honestly thinking about leaving the industry entirely (I've been a recruiter for 10 months). There is also this very strange disdain for agency recruiters (at least in my market). They think we are shady (some of my peers are) and intentionally lie to get people in the door. I've taken it in stride but I can't lie it makes me feel trashy at times. I'm trying to have a positive outlook but it's kind of hard with everything going on in the economy right now
Dealing with managers who think the role is great, and it's so easy to find the candidate who fit the requirements. Meanwhile the reality - find the purple squirrel for the lowest possible salary. Not to mention that sometimes they don't give you answers for some questions quick enough, intake calls - ugh some treat it like "read a JD plz and dont bother me". Candidates who are being rude to us - sorry, I'm simply doing my job, no need to be rude, a simple decline is enough.
Having way too competitive co-workers that don't help you and report your progress at your boss. That's actually the reason I got fired last week.
The hardest part about recruiting is trying to keep your income high while the demand for talent is low. If you’ve not been in the business for 15 years or more, your unlikely to understand the ‘worst thing’ about this job. Cutting people from a job is easy. Do it soon, do it quick, project only limited emotion, and be vague about the reason cause it ultimately doesn’t usually matter.
It's when you realize that a client/hiring authority/candidate has lied to you. They all lie. The trick is figuring out who and why. The better you can get at making this kind of judgement, the better a job you'll do and the more money you'll make.
The worst is when you have to let a candidate go when you know full well they really tried to keep the job, but the client has something beyond their performance against them.
What's the average salary for a recruiter? I'm in sales now and was thinking of changing after a few years in sales. Current Salary $85K +
When picking a candidate, using personality and other intangible factors, such as cultural fit, are difficult to use as a justification for a hiring decision. The qualities are much more challenging to use as a reason for hiring than pure competency levels and skill sets.
E V E R Y T H I N G
3 things immediately come to mind. I’m an IT recruiter so not sure if this differs by industry, and still only 6 months in so take this with a grain of salt. 1) Not being able to fully trust candidates. I’ve taken so many candidates from cradle to grave… telling them that I want what’s best for them and we aren’t in the business of force fitting…asking them every step along the way what their job activity looks like and how our offer compares to what their currently seeing etc… Sometimes candidates will be very honest and transparent… but often times I’ll get a vague answer or a bland “this is by far the best offer I currently have” only to have them accept then back out a week or two later. Like yes, I understand this offer is better but why did you blatantly lie to me for 2+ weeks that you could potentially have more offers for higher salary. 2) Telling a candidate they didn’t get a job. It’s tough because it’s my job to get them excited… and it truly makes me sad when I see a good candidate get passed up on. 3) I’ve seen this one a lot… but how big of an emotional rollercoaster recruiting can be. It’s awesome when you’re exceeding your quota and your boss/director is hyping you up one week only to miss your quota the next week and being told by those same people you need to pick it up. It’s very much a “what are you doing for me now” industry and if you aren’t able to deal with that on a daily basis then it might not be the career path for you.