Please, Do Not Abuse Your Recruiter...

Okay, so I realize that many recruiters are no better than used car salesmen, however, some of us are not quite that bad.

As a recruiter, I want people to know a couple of things:
1. I do not get paid unless a candidate is offered a job, takes it and keeps it.
2. My livelihood depends on my relationships with the companies/managers that I work with.
3. I do not want to waste a candidates’ time with managers/jobs that are not real or a managers’ time with candidates who are not real.

Candidates – Please do not screw over your recruiter by committing any of the following atrocities:
1. Do not cancel an interview, if you must, please allow minimally 24 hours notice or at least have the courtesy to call – emails in the middle of the night are not cool, especially when they are followed by a 24-48 hour disappearing act of which Houdini would be impressed. When you cancel an interview, we (meaning me) have to make explanations to managers. It doesn’t sound good for you or us when we say, “I don’ know, I read his e-mail when I got in this morning and haven’t been able to reach him since.” Can we reschedule, can we move it up or back at all? Who knows? You didn’t give us the basic respect of a phone call. When you are in the second or third interview phase, this means you have wasted your own time, my time, my managers’ time and now you and I both look like assholes. If a company has arranged for someone to fly in form another place, or to have someone stay outside of their normal working hours, DO NOT cancel for any reason short of extreme illness or death. (Please see items 1-3 above.)
2. Do not think that an e-mail replaces the need for a phone call, ever. If I urgently need to speak to you (or vice versa), the phone is the correct way to contact you. Would you send your mother an e-mail if you ended up in the hospital? (Actually, this goes for everyone and not just candidates – support more human interaction!)
3. If you have a job you are happy at, please do not play at looking for a new job. Decide to look or stay put, but please don’t waste my time or my managers’ time by going on interviews when you have no intention of leaving your current job.

Managers – Please be aware of the following:
1. The best candidates are those that already have jobs. As such, they cannot all interview in the middle of the day or even during the “normal” working hours. Please be prepared to come early, stay late, or otherwise accommodate these candidates if you are interested in them. We will do our best to make sure that time is worth it to you.
2. We are not god and we cannot control everything. I will make sure you are aware of a candidate’s schedule, other companies they have interviewed with and any other offers that have been made. What you do with that information is your own concern and I cannot necessarily convince someone who has an offer at $100k/yr to take your offer of $85k. When I can convince them to take it, I cannot always convince them to keep it (please see item 1 in the first section).
3. Yes, your job is the sexiest. No, I don’t know why anyone would want to work anywhere else. Yes, I understand that you have a budget to work with, but please believe me when I say that if I convince that candidate to take a $20k/yr pay cut to work for you (and I am that convincing – sometimes), you must treat them very well and resign yourself to the fact that if someone else offers them more $$ they will most likely leave (please see item 1 in the first section).

Okay, rant done. I think my head is going to explode.