I have been dumped by a recruiter

Laurent Brouat January 22, 2010 Job Search 36 Comments

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DumpedA couple of months ago, I lost a big project with a client. I was really gutted and wanted to get some work quickly. The day after I received a phone call from a recruiter: a company is looking to recruit a recruitment manager. I thought it would be a good idea to have different income streams. So I went to the interview to see what it was about.

The company is in the gaming industry (called W) and they were offering very good compensations. So I decided to proceed and see what was going to happen. The 1st interview went really well and I got  called for a 2nd interview. The recruitment consultant (called L) explained to me that there were only 2 candidates left, so she would get a feedback really quickly.

This happened on the 23rd of November and she never came back to me. I sent her an email but she did not even bother to reply.

So I do understand what candidates can feel when it happens to them.

There are several conclusions to draw from this experience:

1) Some recruitment consultants really lack of courage and professionalism, and they tarnish the reputation of the other recruitment consultants

2) It is a minimum to let the person know when she goes to an interview what the outcome is

3) Being in that situation can leave you mentally affected and slow down your job search

4) You really can’t rely only on rec consultants so you can’t spend more than 15% of your time on sending CVs instead go outside networking and develop your reputation. Doing that is a long process but it will pay off in the long run

5) Recruiting should be left to emotionally mature people

I am really interested to hear your stories about a similar experience…

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36 Responses to “I have been dumped by a recruiter”

  1. Latif Islam said:

    Jan 22, 10 at 11:05 am

    I agree with you fully that the minimum Laura should have done was to call you back and tell you the outcome either way.

    Even if it was news she didn’t want to give… it wasn’t her decision so she should not be scared to call you and tell you.

    We recruiters are trained to be thick skinned… so being scared of a candidate does not make much sense.

    More likely is the fact she has loads on and is more motivated by money than decency. She may feel that she wont be able to place you from the feedback she got from the interview and there for spending her time calling people that will make her money.

    If she was an internal resource executive this may make more sense but still not professional.

    I empathises with you as I feel this does give the industry a bad name and does raise the issues you have discussed above.

    However it is an unfortunate truth in this day and age that Money makes the world go round and not decency.

  2. Veronica said:

    Jan 22, 10 at 12:02 pm

    I really undertand your feelings, but I also been in lot of enterviews in my life where no one call to said what was the outcome. That´s bussiness world I guess.

  3. Damir Zadravec said:

    Jan 22, 10 at 12:10 pm

    It is trough, and I faced another kind of problem. I faced real high difficulties in establish connections with potential employers.
    Currently I am locking for some international position related to drilling engineering on jack up drilling rigs in offshore oil and gas industry, with better financial and contractual conditions in comparing with my actual. I am educated and technically very experienced drilling professional. But from my experience, getting in contact with potential employer is not so easy, due to facing difficulties in screening on hr agencies first level. Unfortunately I never had an interview with employer’s technical staff. For me, it is really difficult to understand how, for example very young and inexperience recruiter can evaluate, determine and recommend some experienced technical person to potential employer? I don’t want to criticize, but it seams that only agencies economical benefit is criteria for screening on lowest level before passing someone personal data or CV to employer. I would like to hear from someone else is it trough or I just have had bad luck. Btw I am educated and experienced senior drilling engineer and OIM (offshore installation manager) with 10 years of offshore oil and gas drilling/completion operations experience (total 15 in oil and gas industry), worked in Adriatic sea (Croatia, Italy), Persian golf (Qatar), Sharjah UAE, GOM (USA) and Egypt. I would like to continue work in high quality and best possible working environment which means company with high technical, safety and hr standards but it look’s like that is almost impossible get in touch with employer through recruiters.

  4. Jason said:

    Jan 22, 10 at 1:28 pm

    I think you should understand that feedback from the job interview is a privilege and not a right. Were she not to be involved in the process, you may not have even gotten an interview to begin with.

    Her not responding should give you the answers you are looking for. It’s a tough lesson, but it’s part of growing up. Don’t let this keep you down, and good luck with your search.

  5. Tweets that mention A Job You Love» Blog Archive » I have been dumped by a recruiter -- Topsy.com said:

    Jan 22, 10 at 1:31 pm

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Laurent Brouat, John Lees. John Lees said: RT @laurentbrouat: Dumped by a recruiter? http://bit.ly/5LgHFn [...]

  6. Laurent Brouat said:

    Jan 22, 10 at 1:38 pm

    Jason, thanks for the comment but I fully disagree. Feedback is professionalism. And to be honest with you, I am a career consultant, and many Clients I am coaching have some issues like that. Giving feedback is the least any person deserves.
    What are the consequences of this kind of behavior on clients/candidates? Ask them and you will see the answer!

  7. Chris Walton said:

    Jan 22, 10 at 6:05 pm

    Recruitment is a SERVICE industry, and whilst it is underpinned by sales, recruiters have to realise that long term you are remembered for your service levels.

    Jason, you sound like a typical old school, rip your face of sales man. Fine, but go and sell hardware, you are dealing with people here. It is a recruiter’s responsibility and common decency to let a candidate know where they are in the process, even to give negative feedback if they aren’t right for a role. Toughen up and grow up – give the bad news. A candidate will respect you and use you in the future if you simply let them know where they stand. I have made placements on people who weren’t right for one client but where then perfect for another and only called me back as they knew they could trust me from previous experiences.

    Long term business in the recruitment industry is built on relationships – today’s candidate is tomorrow’s client. Do the right thing and let your candidates know where they stand, you’ll find they can handle rejection, it’s not hearing anything which leaves a sour taste.

  8. René van der Veer said:

    Jan 22, 10 at 6:10 pm

    Laurent, what I noticed over the last years is that the new generation of recruiters/head hunters/executive search specialists are not used to have normal communication skills anymore. They went completely virtual behind their notebooks and just copy – past CVs in corperate templates and send it out to too many. Giving feedback or better keep you posted about progress is not in the dictionary of many…. Good news there are exceptions but they are getting less and less….

    René

  9. Karl Lusbec said:

    Jan 22, 10 at 7:38 pm

    Laurent, a similar experience happened to me. Let me share it with you.
    It was back in July. I had a phone interview with a big brand in the entertainment industry. The interview with the HR manager (Kate) went really well, and I asked her when I could expect a feedack. She told me that I will hear from her in a week. A week went past, 2 weeks, 2.5 weeks…nothing. I decided to email her , but my mail(s) remained unanswered. My phone calls were not returned either. I was quite upset to be honest. By coincidence, I was travelling to London where the company is based and I dropped Kate an email telling her that I will be in london and how about meeting up about the interview? Guess what? She replied 5 mn after this mail telling me that the position was filled. This is after 3 months!!
    I was NOT upset but HAPPY. Yes, happy that I did not end up in this company, because if HR is that unprofessional, it is an environment I certainly do not want to work in.
    To me, Human Resources are the window of the company as they are in direct contact with potential employees. They show unprofessionalism, no one would want to join such a company.

  10. Russell said:

    Jan 22, 10 at 10:10 pm

    Laurent, Many thanks for this posting.
    I am an IT Recruiter with over 11 years experience, and this has subject has always troubled newer recruiters, how to give bad news. Good news is always easy to deliver, “well done you have the job,” they cannot say “I’m sorry, you have not been successful.”
    I was taught this is valuable, not only for the candidate, but also you. You can learn from the mistakes made, and fine tune your processes to be more successful in the future, and the same applies to the candidate, let them know why they were not, and how they can improve.
    Jason states that it’s a privilege, far from it, it is pure human decency and professionalism, those that don’t are a blight on the industry.
    Chris has it right, recruitment is a service industry, and is built upon relationships. I have relationships with clients and candidates that I have maintained over 14 years, only experienced recruiters can manage that. Those candidates who you are honest with will repay you. Some of my business has come from those candidates that I was honest with, why? Because they appreciated candour, I know I do.

  11. Michel said:

    Jan 23, 10 at 7:19 am

    Worse than your experience. I contacted a HR representative of a french company (the first mobile operator in france) for a job ad that looked interesting.
    I got a reply after 1 week or so, saying that they received applications that suit more the position, but my profile is very interesting to them, and asking if I am ok with her forwarding my CV to other managers within the group O. Up to now, nothing to complain about.
    Of course i replied that I agreed with that. but I haven’t received any emails after that, neither from her to follow-up, nor from any other managers, although the few emails I sent her back.
    All i received after 2 to 3 months is some offers for an internship, and furthermore that do not match my profile at all (I am not student anymore), and now being on the mailing list for promotions for mobile phone contracts. Great!
    i.e. I received those advertisements in my email box.
    Well, that is from the company that often make the frontpage of the news these days for their way to manage “human ressources” which resulted in 10s of suicides.

  12. Debra Van den Bleeken said:

    Jan 25, 10 at 9:19 am

    I agree with Chris. You have to give feedback to your candidates, positive or negative that doesn’t matter.

    I always try to give as much information as I have to the candidate. In this way the candidate can learn from his interviews. It’s not because a candidate is not accepted that it’s a bad candidate. That’s why feedback is so important! If you never get feedback from recruiters/eadhunters it’s normal that your motivation and confidence will go down a bit and that is absolutely not the intention.

    I empathises with you as I feel this does give the industry a bad name. I can only hope that most of the recruiters/headhunters still have the decency to give adequate feedback.

  13. Bushra said:

    Jan 25, 10 at 12:02 pm

    The whole HR department should be carefully setup. Simply because it deals with the Human elements, I strongly recommend recruitment of the HR team be carefully done selecting Empathetic Humane personnel, so that the base is good. I dont see a point in making HR just like another ad-hoc department.

    Compensation askpects will fade out with time, as mental satisfation is what would keep you fine in the long run.

    Mushrooming of Recruitment Consultancies may be one fator which has made Recruitments purely a mechanical process.

    So Laurent, I fully agree with you. Feedback is important. The whole essence of communication improves with feedback. Thr Recruitment team should develop process flows and this should be applicable to every candidate who comes through. Thats what makes a firm worthy of working with.

    Cheers
    Bushra:-)

  14. Sonu said:

    Jan 25, 10 at 12:06 pm

    Hi Laurent Brouat,

    Agree with u that recruiter atleast reply u back or must give u a satisfactory response. But sometimes company never provide feedback. So, its also critical for a recruiter to tell the candidate about this situation that they r not getting feedback from clientside…
    Sometime candidate has to show his patience. Or sometimes clients r too slow they closed a position in a year (live example). Recruiter can’t force the client again n again.

  15. Elisabeth said said:

    Jan 25, 10 at 6:07 pm

    I completely agree with you Laurent.
    This has happened to me as well, and from some big name companies, not only small ones (that have fewer people working in the HR department).
    I think this always stinks! And companies should understand that they can ruin their image for a long time in your mind by doing so. They invest millions in advertising, but can ruin their brand for a very long time by not investing 1 minute to be respectful!
    Giving feedback personally takes time, yes, but sending a mass email to all the unhappy candidates takes very little time. So at least people should do that.
    Elisabeth

  16. Tom said:

    Jan 25, 10 at 7:26 pm

    I’ve had this happen, and ironically I’m also a recruiter. I’ve been under consideration for several contract assignments recently, and the internal recruiters I was dealing with seem to have been swallowed up by a black hole. I’ve left at least 3 voicemails, as well as e-mails, for each of them and have yet to receive a response. Following up with the candidates with whom one has spoken should be a given, something that happens as a matter of course. Since I’m also a recruiter, I would think that out of professional courtesy, if nothing else, I’d get a call back. It all goes back to what we call “the candidate experience”, i.e. – what it is like for a candidate as the process moves along, and what impressions of the company that candidate is left with at the end.

  17. Federico Arrighetti said:

    Jan 26, 10 at 4:08 pm

    In my career I really had a lot of interviews: in the past two years only the average has been two interviews every three months (including telephone interviews).
    My experience has been really, really, REALLY worse than those decribed here (and much more ridicolous, too): the fact that I received a feedback only in the 0.1% of cases (and of course I have never been told “why” I was unseccessful) is not the worst that happened.
    As a consequence:
    - I don’t trust at all recruiting agencies (the most part of them are sharks)
    - I don’t trust Human Resources departments (a few exceptions apply)
    - I never accept a face-to-face interview if I haven’t had a telephone interview before
    - I accept a face-to-face interview only if the travel expenses will be refund (if they don’t pay a train ticket, how will they pay my salary?)

  18. Sandhya said:

    Jan 27, 10 at 10:13 am

    hi,

    I guess its not a good picture or experiance that many of the comments above show.

    I am a recruiter myself.

    And i agree that candidates do feel lost or left middway when we dont return the feedbacks.

    I definitely pass on the feedback to the candidates whenever we receive it back from client.

    But i would also like to put it a few situations where one does not respond back with the same.

    if its for a project being outsourced, feedback totally depends on the end client.Many a times we as recruiters have to rigoursly follow up with the tech panel/interview panel to update us on the interview results.
    but its occasionaly observed that we hardly get any response, either cos the project goes on hold or the candidate is rejected. so we may not be able to give definite answer thus put them under the “feedback pending” category.

    so returning a definite feedback may not be possible,thus if such situations do occur, it is recommended that , the candidates wait for max 1 week and if till no progress move on for other job hunts.

    Sometimes we get feedback after 15-20 days and by then we assume the profiles to be inactive. MAny recruiters do not touch such profiles again for same company until next six months, but i feel being transparent with teh candidates on the interview status, gives them clear choice on the next course of action and this is considered to be ideal.

    i have maintained continuous correspondence with my candidates,even if they are through or not the interview process and this has definitely reduced my efforts for headhunting as i get references thereby increasing your reach especially for niche skills and positions.

    So just dont worry when one recruiter dumps you, cos there are plenty of opportunities, so you need to grab the suitable ones.
    All the best!!!

    Regards
    SAndhya

  19. Gavin said:

    Jan 27, 10 at 2:56 pm

    Laurent, yours is not the first story like this and I’m sure won’t be the last I’ve heard. Unfortunately, entry to the recruitment industry is completely unregulated, and as a result you do get Companies and Consultants who operate at levels I would to be well below best practice.

    My advice to you going forward is to (as you would when choosing any other service) research the type of companies that you would like to represent you, and find out what they do and how they do it – after all, they are the custodians of your details and, to a certain extent, your career.

    I am a recruiter myself, and it’s instances like this which subject our industry (rightly or wrongly) to seeping generalisation. In the short to medium term, buying in to this school of thought will only be of determent to you, as you’ll never really make the time, or have the inclination or seek out and engage with the best.

  20. Malcolm Watt said:

    Jan 27, 10 at 6:21 pm

    Hi Laurent

    Recruitment is a service industry.
    The company with the vacancy is in the Gaming industry, is this not a service industry too?
    What is of paramount importance in service industries? Customer Service? Spot on!
    If you have a complaint to make about customer service, where do you expect to get a fantastic response? The top man. Take it to the top. A nicely worded letter (on paper, not an email which is too easy to delete) to the CEO, Chairman or whoever is at the top of the recruitment firm and the Gaming company, pointing out their lack of quality in this department should move things along or, at the very least, gain a reply.
    If it does neither, you know who you will not be giving any business to in the future!

  21. Jörgen Sundberg said:

    Jan 27, 10 at 7:40 pm

    Hi Laurent, sorry to hear about your bad experience with this recruiter. Do you know if she is still there? Recruitment jobs are easy to get and easy to lose! Sometimes people get fired on the day and there is no time for handovers etc so maybe that could explain it?

  22. Laurent Brouat said:

    Jan 27, 10 at 8:02 pm

    Hi Jörgen, it happens when you work on assignments, but as an ex rec consultant, I never thought it would happen to me :) . Now I can really understand what people can feel and after seeing all the comments, it is good to see that people are reacting. For the recruitment industry, feedback should be, after an interview, compulsory whatever the outcome. We must be able to say “I am ringing you to let you know that my client never gave me any feedback, sorry for that…” or “I am ringing you to let you know that my client decided to take the other cadidate because he is not sure about your motivation on this projetc”.
    That’s it!
    Thanks to everyone for sharing your experience, and feel free to put more, we are all interested in getting more stories!

  23. Edward N. Woycenko said:

    Jan 27, 10 at 8:37 pm

    I agree that there appears to be a lack of professionalism in the industry. Realtionships are the key to long term success in the industry and they are built by communication. If you were truly dealing with a professional in the industry, you should have received immediate feedback. If this “recruiter” was doing the job properly, the following should have happened;
    Feedback from the hiring manager should have occurred. Questioning should have determined how you ranked in relation to the other people seen, what your demeanor was during the interview, what skills you were lacking that eliminated you as a candidate, and what you could have done better in preparing for the interview and during the actual interview itself. These are just a few of the things that come to mind during a normal debrief with the company. After receiving this information, you should have been contacted with meaningful information as to what you did right and wrong. With this information, you and the recruiter could have worked on taking corrective action that would have resulted in later success, providing you and the recruiter were willing to work together toward being successful on your next interview. This type of information is critical to the success in developing skills in candidates and to establishing long term business relaitionships with the people you work with. Anything short of this is unprofessional. Remember, interviewing is a sales presentation with one unique twist, you have two parties selling-a company selling opportunity and an individual selling capability. If either party fails to properly prepare and execute, nothing happens.

  24. Bill Morgan said:

    Jan 28, 10 at 6:04 am

    I agree with Russell above. I think many recruiters don’t have the ‘guts’ to call about the bad news, especially newer, less experienced who don’t think about the long term relationship with candidates.
    As an IT Recruiter I try to get back to every candidate that I speak to and submit for an interview, being common courtesy alone.
    It speaks of you and our organization when you get back to people, in and out of recruiting.

    Bill Morgan
    The Job Swami Speaks.. The Career Blog

  25. Sabrina Munns said:

    Jan 28, 10 at 10:28 am

    Hi Laurent,

    I am sorry to hear about your bad experience. I think you are completely right about careless and unprofessional consultants giving others a bad name. In this case, there could of been a number of things that happened, to prevent you getting feedback:-

    1) The role was put on hold
    2) The agent had a excessive amount of applications
    3) He/She was worried about giving you negative feedback
    4) There was no feedback to give

    Personally, I do not feel any of the above reasons give the agent the right to not communicate with you about something you have invested time and effort into, however from speaking to a number of candidates this is a problem that comes up time and time again. I have worked as a recruitment agent and feel it is vital to not only communicate regularly but to be honest and upfront with the applicant to ensure they not only have a good perception of the agency but so they can use any negative feedback to boost there job search going forward.

    I think it is also important for candidates to be pro active, as although you have done your but by applying for the role, there is nothing wrong with chasing things up. I always respect candidates that have the drive and self efficiency to do this.

    Good luck in your job hunt,

    Sabrina

  26. Rayna said:

    Jan 29, 10 at 3:42 am

    Hi Laurent,
    Unfortunately this sort of story isn’t just restricted to the Northern Hemisphere. After moving back to Perth, Australia last year from the Channel Islands – UK, I went to a few interviews with Recruitment Agencies. One in particular was a very thorough and positive meeting. I agreed to take numerous tests (including one which was 2 hours long) which I completed that evening. After 1 week I hadn’t heard anything so left a message and sent an email. After leaving 2 more messages I accepted another role with a great company.
    It is very unfortunate that recruiters (especially if they are the owner of the business) behave in such dismissive, disrespectful ways to candidates, especially after undertaking hours and hours of testing.
    The positive result these recruiters create is that candidates and clients won’t stay with them long. I have had great pleasure in offering advice & all feedback to those who use my services instead.
    4 months later & I still haven’t heard anything back from them.

  27. Neeraj said:

    Jan 29, 10 at 5:42 am

    I am recruiteer and get stuck in these kind of situation many times. Its very difficult to explain candidate why he or she has not been shortlisted. I normally give contact no so that which ever candidate need feedback can call me back.

  28. Michel said:

    Jan 29, 10 at 9:35 am

    I think Mr Federico Arrighetti has very well summarized the thing !

    I think the same way actually.

    From my experience, there is one thing that matters is to build strong relationships, based on trust, with people around you.
    You will then get a job with your connections.
    Sorry to say that, but in that case, that’s what candidates around the world experience, a recruiting agency is not that useful.
    And I believe linkedin is mostly profitable to establish connections with people in your industry in order to do business together, and it is not a job search platform.
    I often check at the job offers in my industry, and for having contacted many of them, I can tell the biggest part of them are fake.

  29. Gavin said:

    Jan 29, 10 at 11:04 am

    I’m a Recruiter based in London and I’ve been following this discussion. I even left what I felt was a productive suggestion, instead of subscribing to what seems to be going on here in most cases – Recruitment Consultant bashing.

    Come on guys, take responsibility you’re decisions. By choosing who you work with, you are intimately responsible for the consequences that succeed it.

    I’m not saying that her behaviour was acceptable, far from it. But, by failing to do proper research you chose to work with a Consultant/Agency that let you down. This could have been avoided and therefore, YOU made a bad decision.

    Instead of talking about all the negatives within the industry (we could be here a while and yet, I feel in some way that this discussion is deliberately controversial to drive traffic here), why not try and do each other a favour by recommending good Consultants/Consultancies you’ve worked with, at least that way people might actually take some value from this thread.

  30. Laurent Brouat said:

    Jan 29, 10 at 11:13 am

    Thanks Gavin, I think it is a brilliant idea. Now about the bad decision, you never know what you are going to find out so you can’t only blame the candidates for choosing “the wrong” consultant/agency. And if you read carefully the comments, a lot of people said that they always give feedbacks so it is far from being recruitment consultant bashing but most of the comments are lenghty and constructive!!!

  31. Gavin said:

    Jan 29, 10 at 11:57 am

    Good point well made Laurent. I do feel that as Recruiters, we are the custodians of our industry, and as such, should continuously champion best practice and advise people to put the appropriate amount of time, effort and resource into their search, whether that be a client, candidate or peer.

    We can’t wipe out all of the sub-standard practitioners in our industry but by encouraging everyone to take more responsibility, hopefully there will be few bad experiences.

    I do hope your own search results in a prosperous outcome.

  32. V. Shah said:

    Jan 30, 10 at 10:13 pm

    Hi Laurent,

    I think the worse experience beyond the one you experienced is that a recruiter will call you and ask you about a job and if you would like to apply and then never get back to you. If they get you an interview, it is on you to deliver on the interview to get the position. But if they can’t even market you to their own bosses and then not tell you and leave you in suspense about a “possible” interview (thats what they like to call it), thats more emotionally draining. And beyond that, I recieved an email from a recruiter in which they had a very harsh-sounding and demeaning tone. When I had first met with them, they told me to email them everyweek with an update of my job search..I sent thank you letters for considering me for a position and happy holiday emails at the appropriate times and then after a couple months, no responses at all from them, and one day a harsh email was sent to me by them making me look like a little kid with no direction.

    I’m 23 and have almost 10 years of retail service experience and 5 as a Manager and I know that type of response to someone, a customer, would result in disciplinary actions immediately…

  33. Bobbie Cratchit said:

    Feb 01, 10 at 3:33 am

    Unfortunately, as others have stated, the trend among recruiters and employers is not to provide any feedback–not even a boilerplate “Thanks, we have filled the position and you weren’t selected” email after wasting the candidate’s time with multiple interviews. One of the worst companies for this is Apple, but it is typical of many, and the trend is getting worse. Moral: Don’t even bother unless you really really want to work for the company!

  34. Rajkumar said:

    Feb 01, 10 at 1:15 pm

    Hi,
    Candidates has the right to get a feed back from the interviewer. This will not only convey the interview result but also gives an opportunity to correct their mistakes which the candidate has commited in his recent interview.

  35. Florence said:

    Feb 16, 10 at 11:56 am

    Hi Laurent,

    I totally agree with you. To the point where when I send my feedback my candidates actually thank me as if they were surprised. Giving feedback should be the rule and not the exception…

    Florence

  36. Jim said:

    Mar 24, 10 at 2:02 pm

    May I suggest that the issue here is not the recruiters poor follow up but the candidate’s failure to find out the result of the interview for himself.

    The last question to ask(or some related form) “Mr Employer, how do I compare to the other candidates you have interviewed” or “Mr Employer, is there anything we have missed that would prevent me from fitting the position?” or Mr. Employer, how do I match the position” or…. You get my point. Assume if you don’t hear from the recruiter usuall means you won’t be getting an offer. Life is tough, wear a cup

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