Strange Candidate Behavior
In the spirit of giving this Christmas season, I have a nice gold star sticker that awaits ANYONE who can explain to me the reasons for these candidate antics recently:
“Candidate No Show” and “Candidate Not There” As long as I work in this industry I will never understand how a person could be so interested in a career opportunity (and “in desperate need of finding employment”) to the point where they will subject themselves to a written pre-screening questionnaire, multiple phone screens, and a couple of phone/face-to-face interviews, not to mention several email exchanges (in other words, SEVERAL HOURS invested!) only to fail to show up or be available for their interview with the client that was scheduled 1-2 weeks in advance. Worse is when they responded to your confirmation phone call/email the day before the scheduled interview!
The “Do-Not Call-List Candidate” Here’s another incident we just experienced. A candidate who is conducting a job search puts his Resume out their for all to see. He even proactively sends it directly to us. The Resume contains all the relevant contact information needed to reach this individual in order to present some of the details regarding an opportunity. Mr. Recruiter calls Do-Not-Call-List Candidate, introduces himself and the company he works for and Do-Not-Call-List Candidate responds by saying, “Wait, what’s your name!?! Who the F%^!@* is this!?! Why are you calling me!?!” I commend Mr. Recruiter for not replying with, “As I said, my name is Mr. Recruiter and I’m with PRP. I was calling to tell you about a six figure job I think you’re a great fit for, but that’s ok. Good luck with your job search.”
The “Skeptical Candidate” These are my personal favorite! I understand that in today’s world you can never be too careful. Unfortunately, we live in a fallen world and to ignore the fact that there are very bad people out there who could do you serious harm is irresponsible. I also understand that there are many people who don’t even know that Recruiters (let alone the Recruiting industry) even exist. Still, there’s no reason to be so completely paranoid when we contact you to discuss a career opportunity - - especially when your information is out there telling us that you’re looking for a possible change. And when we suggest that we meet at a local coffee shop to discuss things face-to-face that doesn’t mean we’re going to kidnap you. The coffee shop is a very well-known establishment in town in a nice, high-traffic area. And no, we didn’t create a website, corporate blog and LinkedIn profile just so that we could trick people like you into believing that we are who we say we are.
With 2008 right around the corner, I was hoping that things might be different next year. However, as these cases illustrate, it seems as though it will be business as usual.