How do I know whether a recruiter is Good, Bad, or Ugly?

What I learned when a Big Company engaged 10+ recruiting agencies and then pulled the rug out

A "Big Company" posted a contract-to-hire role.? Recruiters from at least 10 agencies spent time and effort identifying candidates, vetting them, and submitting them to Big Company.? Almost 3 months later, the role was cancelled and nobody was rewarded for that work.? But I was one of hundreds contacted for that role, and I learned a lot about recruiters.

Late last year, 6 recruiters contacted me in 48 hours about the same job.? Lucky me? Most clearly searched for the two skills the company said were "most important" that match my profile.

This situation gifted me a unique opportunity to "comparison shop" recruiters, and I'm sharing what I learned:

• How to identify recruiters that are interested in me as a candidate
• How to vet the person who contacted me
• How much money recruiters can make off of me
• How to trust my gut about whether they're being honest

This advice is most relevant for agency recruiters, and especially when they contact you first. Remember this: If you're looking for a job, your candidacy is valuable to you and them. I hope this helps you to find the good ones, who will seek mutual benefit!

Is the recruiter matching candidates or building “inventory”??

I get it, a recruiting agency is a business that makes money from placing candidates. I saw in real time how some treated me like a widget to be counted, and not as a person who might work at their client. Productivity metrics include resumes and email addresses when entered into the Automated Tracking System (ATS). Some recruiters seemed focused only on those metrics versus vetting candidates (i.e., people).

I try to build a relationship with recruiters and establish mutual trust.? I did not trust recruiters who did things like this:

• Sent an InMessage about a “job” that omits basic details like skillset and duration. How can I decide whether I'm qualified or interested? The recruiter wastes time with poor fits and misaligned expectations.
• Wouldn't answer any questions without receiving a resume. Either the recruiter didn't review my LinkedIn profile, or isn't interested in building a relationship.
• Ignored my response when I expressed interest and referenced relevant skillsets, but asked clarifying questions. I took the time to respond to your inquiry, but now I'm not important enough for a reply?

This behavior says I'm “inventory”--a product to deliver to the client, or even worse, I'm just a metric of productivity. I remember the names of these people and their companies.

Here's how recruiters earned my trust:

• Demonstrated any familiarity with my profile, for example describing what matched on the job and my profile. I can see you read my profile, and didn't just rely upon some search tool to send me a generic message.
• Shared additional details about the job description when I asked. You care about me feeling comfortable about the fit. I'm OK receiving it via email, and if your ATS tracks that, we've both gotten something out of that interaction.
• Agreed to schedule a brief phone call. You're confident in your investment of time reaching out to me, so you'll invest more time when I respond to your outreach.

This behavior says the recruiter sees me as a valuable candidate for their job. She or he made time for me, and I trust the discussion is a good use of my time. When I trust the recruiter, I also feel more comfortable through the entire process, and I'm a better candidate. And if Big Company cancels the posting, we both have a relationship afterwards (as I now do with a recruiter).

Decision-maker or order-taker?

The "recruiter" who contacts you may be anyone from a lower-level staffer who's building a list for the TA person up to the account manager for the client. Sure, agencies have to make the economics work in a cyclical industry. In this case, my interactions gave me information about how they understood my value.

• One person kept referring my questions about the role to his "account manager", so either he didn't know the answers, or wasn't empowered to share details. This made me wonder: If he doesn't know enough to tell me about the role, am I confident he's sharing the right information about me?
• I was told "my account manager has some additional questions" that I knew were client questions because another recruiter told me straight out. This is probably sloppiness, not bad faith. Another recruiter asked these same questions as part of a conversation, sharing they were part of the employer's process. That conversation helped us to discuss other related experiences.
• One person couldn't answer my question about the staffing agency's health plan contributions--he just said "I don't have that information" and didn't offer to get the answer. I've directed call center agents to take accountability for getting an answer to a question, so I dropped this recruiter (because I could). He didn't understand or didn't care how a high health insurance contribution would impact net compensation--and the agency didn't coach him to care.

Junior staff can build trust, even when they have less authority to make decisions or speak to the employer. They are representatives of the agency and the employer. How they speak to and treat candidates is a reflection of the account manager and the agency, just like "front line" staff at any company.

What's the recruiter's cut?

Some agencies wanted to pocket a lot of profit at my expense. I estimate some recruiters took margins of at least 35%. I was offered a wide range of rates for what I knew to be the same job. Reasonable assumptions in this estimate include that Big Company gave every agency the same offer, and these companies offer comparable "industry standard" benefits for W2 employees.

Was the recruiter honest with me?

Judgment and instinct are your only guides--usually. In this unique situation, I had information to know when someone was not truthful.

• One recruiter told me "If anyone else contacts you about this role just tell them you have been 'submitted' already". I knew this was false and a shady tactic to get me off the market because I'd been told additional identifying information was needed for a recruiter to "submit" me (and have sole right of representation). We also hadn't agreed on a rate. When an agency says they've "submitted" your application, calmly ask what that means, and ask exactly what steps they've taken with the employer.
• Two recruiters said they had "no flexibility" to go up on the rate even though others had already offered me measurably higher rates. OK, it isn't "dishonest" for an agency to be "inflexible" about their 25% margin. In this case, I knew that Big Company made it possible to go higher because other agencies offered more.

While I won't have the information in the future, I now have more confidence in my gut instincts, since I'd gotten a bad feeling from these interactions.

I learned how to "trust, but verify"

Recruiters receive lots of deserved criticism, as I've shown here. Still, when a Big Company presents a role, recruiters have to deploy resources knowing Big Company might cancel the opportunity for everyone after their people have spent time working on it. An agency must budget for that, too.

Usually, candidates don't have this kind of insight about recruiters' ways of working. Through this experience, here's what I learned:

• In the first two messaging rounds, assess whether the recruiter values your time and your unique profile as a candidate. That person should be grateful that you--the candidate they contacted--want to help them find the right candidate.
• Ask clarifying questions, especially when the job description contains few details, like "When you say you're looking for a [job title], what are the key skill sets you need?" If you're unsatisfied with the response, you don't have to burn more time with them.
• Be transparent and gracious. I shared with recruiters that I was having conversations with other recruiters, but I was not committed to any one of them. Some ghosted me anyway. What's that say about how I'd be treated? Others got curious and stayed engaged. Those are your good people.
• Don't let an agency "submit" you until you're comfortable with the details. "Submit" is the magic word. Many larger employers will require some PII about the candidate before granting the agency credit for representing you, in part to adjudicate any disputes between agencies. Ask the agency what the process is.
• Trust your instincts, especially when the recruiter is slow to share details about what you'll be doing. Whether they don't know the answer, or they don't care enough to get you the information, it's not a good sign.

Job hunting is hard enough, so we don't want a human that behaves like an Automated Tracking System! As in life, find those recruiters who are trustworthy. Their relationship-building actions show they value your unique experiences and skills. That's a more fruitful and fulfilling way to land a new job! Good luck!

Candidates, what are your experiences with recruiters? Recruiters, can you add or clarify anything? Share your views in the comments.

Photo Credits:

• Alan Tang on Unsplash
• LinkedIn Sales Solutions; Petrebels on Unsplash
• Wonderlane on Unsplash; LinkedIn Sales Solutions