Let’s get straight to the point. Recruitment has a bad reputation.
If you have a job, chances are that you’ve been involved in at least one recruitment process. What people go through during recruitment processes formulates their opinion on recruitment as a whole and on a company in particular. In recruitment lingo, this is called the Candidate Experience. If you feel you’ve been treated with fairness, you probably still have a good feeling attached to that company, even if you end up not being chosen for the job at that time.
If you’ve been in several tedious or sketchy processes, you might think recruitment is bullshit, a waste of time or even unfair. As a recruiter, who has structured some processes from the ground up and has been through a few himself, I get why recruitment has a bad rep.
Recruitment is a Sales job. Plain and simple. Sales people have to sell X products or services within a time-frame and recruiters have to recruit X people within a time-frame. Be it within a week, a quarter or a year. You’re only as good as your results. This is why some cut corners and focus on the ends, regardless of the means. That’s where the danger lurks.
I’m not talking about taking too much time to give you feedback here. I’m talking about recruiters being dishonest, selling fake dreams, messing with candidates’ aspirations and, to an extent, with their lives. We all have heard some horrible stories.
It takes strong character to be a great and honest recruiter. You also need to be in a company that supports that vision and they are (shockingly) few and far between.
To be clear, I don’t think I’m at great recruiter status. I still mess things up and to a creative person like me, the devil is in the details. Sometimes I get caught in them and other times I should’ve been more attentive to them. On a more positive note, I try my best to get better at what I do everyday and I see some progress. I refused recruiting for some companies and clients in the past because lying was a must. Part of the role. If a job is so bad that you have to lie to convince people to take it… just pick another recruiter. I’m not doing it. I refuse trade in my outrage over injustices, for a better end result.
Lying might get more people to accept whatever you might be selling, but as soon as the mask falls off, they will feel scammed, misled and angry. They won’t stick around long and will have a negative impact on the company and other employees.
To me, a job interview, in its most simplest form, is a matching game. I’m trying to see if the candidates’ needs and what the company looks for and has to offer match. If they do not, it’s a waste of time trying to convince the candidate otherwise. I’ve told candidates “I think this is not the best company for what you’re looking for” and people enjoy the honesty. A job interview doesn’t have to be a “this is the perfect project for you” sales pitch. I would even argue that it shouldn’t be.
A job will still be a job and there are no perfect places. Raise your eyebrows when someone tries to convince you otherwise. Sometimes you’ll love it, sometimes you’ll feel bored, and that’s perfectly fine. In my opinion, perfection does not exist, so find the place best suited for you and enjoy the experience.
With this said, being real about it helps everyone.
I follow a strict no bullshit approach to HR and I’m glad Runtime Revolution supports it. If you are interested in who we are and what we do, make sure to reach out. I’ll make sure you get a clear picture of our way of doing things.