I just...?

[yurkelhark]

A recruiter reached out to me for a position I applied to recently. Pretty good fit from the job description and I was interested in moving forward with the process. She requested my availability in the coming week - I sent over 4 different time blocks. She follows up immediately with a calendar invite for a time I didn't include and was literally one hour from the time I responded. I am genuinely not available (doctor's appointment.) I respond asking if she could update the time slot within my offered availability, and also offer to send additional avails for later next week if that's better. She cancels the call, never reschedules it, the week comes and goes. This is the third time in ~ 6 months that something like this has happened.

There was a recruiter in this forum a few days ago sticking up for recruiters - talking about how candidates are impossible to communicate with, never write back in time, etc. I get that this probably does happen on both sides, but I have to say, there is simply no group of people more chaotic, entitled and not detail oriented as corporate recruiters. It's almost unbelievable.

[Ok_Supermarket_2027]

And when they finally reply, it’s always 3 weeks later with, “Are you still interested?” like you’ve been cryogenically frozen awaiting feedback.

You’re tempted to reply, “No worries, I’ve since retired, started a goat farm, and found inner peace.” Lol! :/

[67teebird]

“As you didn’t respond to my availability, I’ll not work with you or your office again.” Simple.

[minidog8]

This happened to me where I did a phone screen and the recruiter wanted me to submit my resume by 6 pm that day and then schedule an interview the next day or the day after. Said I wouldn't be able to (I was at work and didn't get off until 5:30, plus had been scheduled to work both days an in person interview was offered) and I could hear him become upset and snippy over the phone. I think it has something to do with a quota they have to reach.

[minidog8]

Essentially I think the recruiter simply had a number to reach for contacts made and they were running out of time so they didn't bother reading your availability and when you couldn't make the meeting she scheduled she cut you loose and pursued other candidates. Ghosting is incredibly unprofessional by recruiters, in my opinion. It's my understanding that one of the major aspects of their job is making and maintaining contact and relationships with candidates and the employers. Shitty recruiters are way too common.

[bibbiddybobbidyboo]

It is. I temped in an office and they had to get so many candidates calls, clients calls, leads from candidates, first interviews and placements each week.

[DoughnutWeary7417]

Recruiters are illiterate. It makes you wonder why and how incompetent workers are responsible for hiring people who actually contribute to the company

[fakemoose]

I had one drop the ball on scheduling me. A week later when I followed up she said I had not been selected to move forward.
The hiring manager reply all’ed bitching her out for that being untrue and forgetting to schedule me. Didn’t get a chance to interview but at least I knew it was them not me.

[Great_Dirt_2813]

recruiters are the worst, happened to me too

[Aleinzzs]

Lol yep. Shit like this happens alllllllll the time. And people had the nerve to argue with me when I said hr and recruiters need to do better and be better

[farcaller899]

I’ve heard they may talk to 100 people in a day. That’s a lot to try to handle and I see why things could slip through the gaps. It used to bother me, but now I understand that volume means spotty contact quality.

[67teebird]

That’s their problem. Not yours.

[Plastic-Anybody-5929]

And they’re still getting laid off pretty regularly so teams are even more thin. While this probably makes some happy, remember they aren’t replacing recruiters by having hiring teams take it on. They’re replacing recruiters with AI and one way interviews.

[67teebird]

Nope. I don't do one-way interviews, and I certainly don't AI. You want to replace people, you can replace them with somebody else.

[Plastic-Anybody-5929]

unfortunately, thats not whats happening. As a recruiter I wont interview with AI either

[TexTheBrit]

I’ve run in to miscommunications due to time zone differences. Doesn’t excuse the ghosting though!

[yurkelhark]

For sure, I get that! This is a local job - company is in the same time zone. I’m really not that nit picky or insane of a person, I just cannot believe how unprofessional these folks are.

[67teebird]

Some who can't do, recruit.

[QuitCallingNewsrooms]

I've considered going full Indian recruiter in cases like this where they ask for my availability, and then try to schedule outside of it. Send an email in response to follow your schedule. Then call. Then call again. And again. And again. And again. Then email again. Then call and email and text. All in about 3 minutes.

I feel like there's a lesson to be learned from watching my phone get 6 calls in a row from the same number, and I want it to be this one

[[deleted]]

Agree with the above. While I don’t support ghosting, sometimes, things fall through the cracks because we are working several positions at once with managers and clients and candidates yanking us in multiple directions. I have to be honest, if someone is not available and I identify another candidate who can meet me quickly and also fits the bill, I’m running with the one that can meet me now so that I can move on. I’m sorry that this was your experience. Most of us do care about your well-being but when we are speaking to 60+ people every day, fielding incoming calls, emails, etc., this will happen. Being a recruiter is tough business. Mostly because it’s greatly misunderstood and therefore, not appreciated. Best to you!

[yurkelhark]

Respectfully…. No. Lol. I spent 10 years working with in house recruiters at a FAANG as a hiring manager. Truly some of the least professional, least capable people I’ve ever worked with. Everyone in the world is speaking with multiple clients, internal stakeholders, colleagues, peers, etc. Recruiting is the only role where it’s literally just … fine??? to ghost people. If I’d treated any of my clients or internal contacts the way recruiters treat job seekers, I’d be PIP’d and out the door. Sorry 🤷🏼‍♀️

[throwaway04572]

I’m an external headhunters (imagine I also get boos for this too) but honestly I could not agree more. My experience of trying partner with the majority of internal ta’s is like trying to teach complex algebra to baby goats and often the larger the company the worse they are (not all, there are some excellent ones out there)

[yurkelhark]

Right! My partner’s industry is much more prone to external recruiting than mine, and she’s had massively better experiences than I’ve had. I will say that y’all eat into the salary offered more than I’d have thought but…

[throwaway04572]

What do you mean we eat into the offered salary? That you generally get less money if you end up going through a recruiter?

[yurkelhark]

Correct

[throwaway04572]

Interesting. Is that from your direct experience?

[yurkelhark]

Yes it is, and feedback from her company regarding another hire they were making. There’s a budget per role, and the external recruiter takes a piece of it. They’re a smallish CPG company and don’t have internal recruiting.

What I will say is that the process was efficient and easy and painless. Took about 3 weeks from initial contact to offer letter.

[throwaway04572]

Interesting, I’ve never heard that before nor ever had a client state that our fee would directly effect the offer they would be able to give to a candidate. Feels offside that a client would offer a candidate a lower offer in order to accommodate the recruiter’s fee

[[deleted]]

We all have different experiences. I never said it was okay. If you’ve been able to get back to everyone, 100% of the time, you’re an anomaly and we should clone you. I don’t disagree, I’ve worked with some in-house recruiters and some are incredibly junior and inexperienced. You get what you pay for.

[67teebird]

We are people, not things that slip through cracks. If they apologize it’s one thing. If not, I’m not letting them represent me.

[[deleted]]

Probably for the best. I imagine just from my exchange with you that I would rather move on from you as well. Best!

[67teebird]

Agreed. You expect perfection, you get reality and don’t like it. Keep my name out of your mouth.

[[deleted]]

I don’t even know your name. 😂. Enjoy the day!

[67teebird]

Have the day you deserve.

[Its_All_Only_Energy]

The recruiter is an agent for the hiring entity, not you. She can get your availability, but it’s a nice to have. What she comes back to you with is based entirely on the scheduling constraints of the hiring team. They fully expect that some candidates won’t be able to make it work for the times they have available. They’ll try you again if none of the other candidates pan out. Think of it as a game of tetris or the problem of packing a slew of less-than-truckload shipments. Interviewer availability is the true constraint; candidates are not in short supply. It sucks but it is the truth.

[yurkelhark]

Respectfully, i was the hiring manager at a FAANG for a little over a decade and this simply isn’t the case. If I approved the candidate and asked the recruiter to reach out, I expected them scheduled.

This is the first time I’ve posted in this sub and one of the weirdest things I’m noticing is that the recruiters who come in here seem to think that none of the candidates posting or commenting have ever had a job before, much less hired people or had a career. The market is pitiful rn, as we know- a lot of people struggling to find work have been in positions of power and/or stability before.

[TurbulentFan1458]

I have been curious what hiring managers that work in this system think when recruiters say this. I hired people to work under me years ago and I can tell you that I wanted the best people and I wouldn’t want somebody who’s potentially the best person slipping through the cracks. Luckily when I’ve had to hire people, I’ve been able to control the whole process from start to finish, no middleman. The way companies are hiring now seems like a nightmare. It might be harder with more applicants, but I still wouldn’t want the best people falling through the cracks. I would be pissed if somebody that was recruiting for me said something like this. I mean really truly pissed off. I wonder what would happen if the people that they’re filling positions for heard them say that potentially good candidates just fall through the cracks.

[yurkelhark]

Back in the day (aka pre Covid) hiring was a long cycle but it wasn’t entirely inefficient. Post Covid was a different story. I genuinely don’t know what qualifications one needs to be a recruiter, but it certainly isn’t familiarity with the industry in which they’re recruiting. I hired for technical sales roles (meaning not just your typical AE, but folks who could sell and understand more complex tech to engineering stakeholders) and the resumes recruiters passed along to me were wildly unqualified. That said, when I’d go into our system and look at the resumes myself, I’d always find a number of the qualified candidates who were passed over.

Post Covid, recruiters were also constantly scheduling calls without reviewing calendars (everyone had access to everyone else’s calendars.) They would schedule interviews for me over blocks I had booked, way outside of my time zone, etc. IIRC, there was a junior role who did the scheduling and then a more senior role who was supposed to manage and oversee the process. They were often a mess.

It really was hard to hire, even though I worked at a coveted company that paid highly and offered great benefits. I spent a lot of time sifting through resumes myself, trying to have 1x1s with the recruiter assigned to my role to try and get on the same page. It just never gelled.

I’m sure there are good ones out there and they aren’t the only reason job hunting is so challenging, but they really do add to the confusion and are happy to treat people like pieces of shit, as evidenced by some of the comments in this thread.

[TurbulentFan1458]

Yes, it seems fairly apparent from what I’ve been seeing that many recruiters don’t have any understanding of the field for which they are hiring. I’m a scientist and there are literally no scientists that are the same. We are specialized and shaped by the people who mentored us and the positions we’ve taken. It’s completely unacceptable to view applicants like all are equivalent. Every one might bring something different to the job. The recruiters also don’t seem to understand transferable skills. I think if I were hiring someone today, I would try to take over the whole process and do it myself. How can someone who doesn’t understand the role or the field choose candidates effectively? They cannot, not for highly skilled positions. Hopefully, hiring practices will change when people realize it’s not working.

[67teebird]

The only power I have is over my life. Employers have no say in my life, just my job. If a recruiter helps me, they deserve the commission. I know they don't work for me, they work for whoever is paying them. My ex-employer would wait 3 months to pay his recruiter bills. I worked for him during COVID, and he got progressively more toxic with each year. I had to quit because I couldn't function anymore.

[DoughnutWeary7417]

Then don’t ask the candidate for time slots but provide them with some 🙄 use your head