Linked In Recruiter Bashing

It seems the new sport on Linked In, apart from bemoaning about people that seem to treat the site like Facebook, is recruiter bashing so I thought I would share a few thoughts from my side of the fence. I have been in recruitment for about 12 years and have been using Linked In for about the same period.

The job of a recruiter is to help companies grow, by finding them appropriate employees and the largest recruitment tool of the moment is undoubtedly Linked In. So it is no surprise that about half of the people using the service, are in the recruitment industry.

Now a small story - I once went to a client meeting and was told (albeit slightly in jest) that recruiters are slightly above real estate agents / realtors in the job hierarchy. Now I have some good friends who are estate agents so I was not especially insulted but that was the way it was intended. Traffic wardens are probably considered fairly low down the hierarchy but one fact remains in this – we are just our jobs! If you have parked illegally, why blame a traffic warden for giving you a ticket? Do you blame the speed camera for catching you speeding? You were speeding in the first place!

Now I understand there are ways to treat people and conduct themselves but on a base level, recruiters are contacting you because they feel you are right for a job, that they have been tasked with finding someone for. It is their job, to find you.

Networking website?

I was a pretty early adopter of Linked In and the premise for the website has not changed that much over the years – it is a networking website. At the risk of being drawn into the pedantics of the definition of networking - when recruiters are contacting you, they are simply networking. It is pretty simple, in that if you do not wish to network with them, you can clearly choose to ignore the approach. I know that in certain industries you get bombarded with link requests daily, which would get annoying. This brings me onto my next point -

Settings

It is fairly simple to adjust your setting so you make clear that you are not interested in a new job. Adding this fact to your job title, is something I have seen quite a lot recently and personally am a big supporter of as it saves me wasting my time contacting you, when clearly you do not want my contact. You can also change the settings so the tag of ‘open to career opportunities’ is not shown but I would think this is probably ignored by the less diligent recruiters out there.

Connected then sold something

I have seen recently people annoyed that they take a connection request then immediately get sold something. I get contacted all the time and I know that if an advertising executive tries to contact me, it is not because they like my picture, they are selling something. So if a recruiters asks for your connection, it is not out of fun that they have done this, it is because they think you would add value to their clients company. So if you take the request, be prepared for the fact that they will ask you about a new role they have to fill.

There are countless people that I have contacted with a simple Linked In request that have subsequently moved country, changed jobs, become my friend and live happy little lives. Having said this I appreciate that there are many more that have looked at my request, sworn under their breath and ignored the contact.

So maybe we could all stop wasting our time moaning about recruiters and maybe take it as a compliment, that they feel you have some skills or experience that someone else would find desirable?

Oh and I got a parking ticket today – I hate traffic wardens!