A Good Recruiter

Just so you people don’t think I’m some kind of curmudgeon, allow me to tell you about my encounter with a true, professional recruiter.
I wrote recently about an interview I had wherein I was treated in an unprofessional, discourteous fashion by both a company’s in-house recruiter and a manager. The two of them were rather rude, unpleasant and left me wondering exactly why they wasted my time (as well as theirs) in bringing me in for an interview.
Not long after I interviewed for a recruiter position at a healthcare company. I was greeted warmly and the woman who interviewed me was upbeat, fully engaged in our conversation and interested in what I had to say. I left the interview feeling like the organization in question was a good one and that I had been treated with respect.
My philosophy as a recruiter is that even if the person being interviewed is not right for the opening at hand, they may be perfect for something down the line, so make the experience as positive as you can.
That, my friends, is what we call professional recruiting!

A Bad Recruiter

Last week I had a job interview. It was a complete and utter waste of time.
I first met with the company’s in-house recruiter. I can’t say I was overly impressed with her…she struck me as being of the very anal-retentive, process-oriented branch of the staffing tree. She brought in the manager that I would be working under were I to get the position.
The two of them proceeded to spend the next 20 minutes more-or-less telling me why I wasn’t qualified for the position.
Hmmm…that’s fine. I left their offices with a very sour taste in my mouth, so I certainly wasn’t upset I wasn’t going to be working there. But neither should that recruiter.
I was certainly qualified for the position based on the standards set forth in their job posting. So if I truly wasn’t qualified, someone surely didn’t write a very good ad. Also, if I truly wasn’t qualified, why did they interview me in the first place? This was a waste of my time, her time and that manager’s time.
One of the fundamental things a recruiter does is separate the wheat from the chaff…sort the qualified candidates from the unqualified. This should be done at every opportunity. Write an effective job post or ad, so prospective candidates know whether they're qualified or not. When resumes come in, only shepherd the strongest prospects through the process.
Etc.
The other side of that coin is this…if they did have some interest in bringing me onboard, the recruiter and the manager both did a world-class bad job of selling me on their company as a good place to work. Both came off in an unpleasant, unprofessional fashion. Having left one, shall we say, less-than-positive work environment I certainly don’t want to get into another.

Whatever the case may be, that recruiter did a lousy job.