GUEST COMMENT: I hate it when recruiters cold call pretending to have great jobs and then milk you for information

12 September 2011

2 minute read

GUEST COMMENT: I hate it when recruiters cold call pretending to have great jobs and then milk you for information

I hate cold calls from recruiters. My most recent experience went like this (names changed).

Me: "X Bank, Joe speaking. How can I help you?"

Recruiter: "Is Peter there please?"

Me: "Sorry, there's no such person. Perhaps I can help?"

R: "Actually I'm a recruiter and you're also on my list of contacts Joe. What's your surname so that we can update our files please?"

Me: "Uh, sorry, who did you say you were?"

R: "I have job openings in your area with top-tier companies willing to pay good money for the right candidates. We also have candidates in your area and can help with your hiring needs. Why don't you tell me about your team? We have a 'John' listed as well, is he still working there?"

Me: "Sorry, I didn't catch your name or company?"

R: "Oh, my name is Annie from Top Recruiters."

Me: "OK Annie, thanks, but I'm not interested."

R: "I understand this might not be a good time to talk. Why don't you leave your number or email address so we can speak later?"

Me: "I'm really not interested."

R: "You mean you don't want to keep abreast of developments in the market and potential opportunities?"

Me: "I don't need your services, thanks."

R: "It's important for you to keep yourself up to date and know when opportunities arise..."

Me: "Thanks, but no thanks." *hang up*

Usually armed with outdated contact details, recruiters call looking for the previous listed user of your office telephone and then pretend they know you as well. But it's downright insulting to try to suck me in with the lure of great jobs and then squeeze me for information about my team.

Tip for these cold callers: Don't waste my time and yours. To be fair, most recruiters are usually more professional and courteous than this caller, who was amateurish and borderline offensive.

In any case though, surely this must be a low percentage play for recruiters? How many successful placements are made, or useful information solicited, from this approach?

I'm no psychic, but my next cold call from a recruiter will go something like this:

R: ""I have some great jobs that you might be interested in...."

Me: "*hang up* *beep* *beep* *beep*

AUTHORAnonymous

Insider Comment

30 comments

An
Anna
24 September 2011
Why are you all so dense? Do you think it's normal to call perfect strangers to milk info out of them? What are you even doing on a professional job board, if you don't know professional boundaries? Most recruiters are a bunch of slime balls with sketch recruiting tactics. I am unemployed and even in my worse dreams, i wouldn't answer the emails or calls of this wolf pack. They have no morals, no integrity: the only thing that matters to them is their commission. So yeah, hang up on them; maybe that will teach them how to be professional and decent while doing their jobs.
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BB
BBBBBBBBB
21 September 2011
otherwise slit your throat....chances are you will have more luck doing that finding work in this economy....sorry to be so blunt
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Ha
Harry Henderson
15 September 2011
More like 1 in a 1000........and I number myself in the 1.......000sssss ahahahhaaha
The other bad thing I have come across is where the organisation doesn't even have a job and tries to make out there is something wrong with your CV and says they can fix the CV using their oh so expert CV service which only costs 100. Thankfully I did not fall for this but I reckon there must have been some people out there that did as desperation can make people do stupid things.......though the flipside is more fool them if they could not see through such a rouse!
Anyway, my advice is if you have been out of work for a few months, think about really boosting your CV by going back to study. Banking = msc or phd, buyside = msc mba or phd. You'll ride out this current poo storm and by the time you finish you'll have options.....particularly if you have done an MBA somewhere decent (Top 3-5 bschool) and you might even find you want to take your career somewhere completely different. Well, it worked for me in 09-10 :)
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Im
Imogen
15 September 2011
The Banker- i agree, there are some, though very few that are in fact genuine. But the trick is to find one. It's a bit a needle in a haystack!.................................good luck searching........................found one yet??
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Pi
Pixie
15 September 2011
Brightup@ i admire your guts to do that as i've tried that route but often get no where (good luck). Do you not find that they prefer to use useless agencies as it saves them time in verifying you etc??? common sense would say that they save a fee if you deal with them direct.
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