Responding to Flaking Recruiter? (Dealing with them in general)

burfect

Looking for opinions on this situation in general, as this is not the first time this has occured...

I receive a call from an anonymous phone number EARLY on a SATURDAY morning. Leaves message on voicemail saying he is an IT recruiter from NY who has a position that looks like it would be a good fit for me in Boston. Very eccentric. Follows this up by leaving me an email that same day.

Now, because we were hit with a 2+ feet of snow nor'easter that day, I will summarize by saying I was a bit pre-occupied and didn't get around to returning his call.

Monday morning, I get another call that I was unable to reach due to being at work. Followed up by leaving me ANOTHER email that same day. I respond to his email and explain I will get back to him at lunch. He responds almost instantly.

Upon calling this super over-the-top energetic recruiter, I get a thousand thanks for returning his call etc. You know the drill. The position he has actually seems like a good one, so I express interest. He confirms by asking if I 100% want to move forward, my answer is yes. He says he is writing me an email as we speak with a detailed job descripition and needs me to respond with 2 professional references.

An hour goes by, no email? Maybe he has my wrong email address, or it was sent incorrectly (uh-huh) so I follow up by sending him an email confirming that I am still waiting for a more detailed descripition. Nothing. No immediate reply like before, no I will get back to, just no response.

Now normally I never take this sort of thing personally, business is business no biggie. A lot of you will tell me to do nothing and forget about it. However this time I feel a bit different. I feel some sort of witty reply or response is warranted in this case if I hear nothing by weeks end, especially considering I was contacted multiple times on a Saturday during a blizzard, and his once immediate responses dissapeared over the course of a single day. Any suggestions?

danstar

Hey, if it's yours, it will be yours.. but if it's not then pass on it. I am sure there are other recruiters out there... don't worry, stay positive - you'll find a job soon.

networker050184

Maybe he got busy. A meeting, another position needing more urgent attention. You are right, I say forget about it and do nothing. Maybe follow up in a couple days if you still haven't heard anything.

MiikeB

Could have found someone else, however normally recruiters still keep in contact since maintaining relationships is how they succeed.

Essendon

I reckon he doesnt have a job at all, he's likely just added your name to the list of people that he'll call if he had a job. I hope I'm wrong though and he does follow up.

I've had the same thing happen to me. There's this recruitment agency that calls me every 6-8 months or so and the guy goes - I have a job with ABC company and they're looking to hire. If I ask for the job description, he says he doesnt have one yet and is working with the client to get one. Two days later I call him and he says the client is sitting on the description and there isnt anything yet. Other times he says that his client has rescinded the job. I dont answer his call anymore. These pricks dont actually have anything going, they are merely padding their to-call list.

Chitownjedi

This use to happen to me... sometimes there are other agencies recruiting as well, and its possible that they were able to place someone, or he may not just have any updated information and would feel like crap speaking with you without much information. He could suck as a recruiter! But basically all I can tell you is that its probably not you... not all recruiters are organized and good at communication. I've had some top notch ones, and some flaky ones... it comes and goes... you could always call his staffing agency and ask for someone else, and give them your resume, and tell them to keep you in mind, but say you prefer working with a different rep....

N2IT

Can't live with them | Can't live without them

undomiel

I would disagree with N2IT on that. There are plenty of positions out there at all levels where you can talk directly to the hiring manager rather than some third party recruiter.

N2IT

Interesting article how recruiting agencies are being leveraged to infuse talent into organizations.

Temporary Hiring Expected to Reach a Six-Year High | The Hiring Site

I find this article on par with my thoughts. Some of these jobs lead to FTE, but almost all of the IT jobs now a days start off temp to perm or in some sort of capacity like this. Corporations and other forms of business "try before they buy" it removes a lot of risk from the hire. 90 day temp to perm can be a great strategy for companies to hire by removing risk of resources who can't deliver at a certain level. In fact some of the agencies assume this first month cost to sell their services to these companies. This is a great benefit for a buyer if you have high levels of succession or the organization has a large resource base.

ChooseLife

My choice:

N2IT wrote: »

Can't live with them

recruiters > /dev/null