When it becomes personal......
I recently wrote a post on LinkedIn about a candidate who had told me in no uncertain terms to “go @*&%” myself”. Let me set the scene. I have a client who I have worked really hard with over the last 9 months, brand new industry for me working on a number of roles, ranging from graduate roles through to 6 figure salaries. And working together has been great, to the point where I work with them exclusively now. I am hugely proud of this and I work really hard for them, representing their business as well as my own. So, when a candidate applies for a job at the top end of the scale, yes, I do ask a lot of questions. And when someone has worked overseas for 5 years as a consultant, I do need to know more information. And when someone can’t elaborate on this, I push for more detail. And when they tell me I’m a typical recruiter who doesn’t know what they’re doing and why won’t they tell me who the client is……there’s a few reasons. I don’t tell candidates who the client is until we’re engaging in a good conversation, I’ve got to know them, they start to trust me and then I discuss the company and the role. Blame Michael Page for that training if you like but I like it and I think it works. I also don’t tell candidates straight away who the client is as I’ve been burnt. One candidate who wasn’t right, went straight to the client after I rejected her, but she made the mistake of underestimating the relationship I have my client and they told me. She got rejected from the process from the client as well while she went on to accuse me of discrimination, see separate blog! (I’m also still trying to work out how you discriminate against someone if they don’t have ANY of the experience required).
Each time someone has a pop at me, I usually get upset, that’s just me and I have toughened up, I maybe need to toughen up more but as I sit here on Bank Holiday Monday working, just to try and catch up on everything, I’ve received another email saying “You don’t know what you’re doing” in reply to me rejecting a candidate. Oh sunshine, I know exactly what I’m doing. You are well known on LinkedIn (before you were banned) and Twitter for being racist and sexist. Last time we spoke, you were vile to me and vowed to never contact me again. You unsubscribed from my mailing list and yet you still apply for jobs that I’m recruiting. You are applying for a job where you need experience of buying in restaurant chains and have experience of working with franchises. You have none of that. So, don’t tell me I don’t know what I’m doing. What I am doing is trying to get back to every person who applies to be for a job. And I do this because I know what candidates invest in applying for a job. It is hard work finding a job and it can be soul destroying applying and never hearing back. So, I pay money for a system that sends automated responses so that everybody feels acknowledged. And my responses vary, job filled, tried calling & couldn’t leave a message, unsuccessful but good luck, unsuccessful but please check out our website and sign up to the newsletter (really must do a newsletter as it’s been a while). And I’ve spoken to so many candidates today who I haven’t got jobs for, and the CV’s I need to send to clients for candidates I have got jobs for are stacking up.
So, I should be cracking on with that and not typing this I hear you say? I work for myself and there’s only me in my business and on a bank holiday when families & friends are together, I internalise things and wonder why people get so personal. And why do I take things so personally? And am I in the wrong job by taking these horrid comments to heart? Do I need to toughen up? Get therapy? Get a PA to deal with hundreds of emails and LinkedIn messages I get every week as I’m conscious some slip through the net? Do I stop engaging with the people I can’t help? Do I stop replying to every CV that is submitted to me? That way, I avoid being spoken to like I’m a piece of shit.
Or do I look at the list of clients and candidates that I work with, have placed and continue to place, look at my LinkedIn recommendations, read some of the lovely emails I’ve received over the years, go to my website and read the page on what people say about me and get the hell on with it? As dealing with people is personal, and emotional, and tough. But it’s also hugely rewarding. So, for the people that say things to me that are just horrid or vile, we all say things in the heat of the moment, and I get that. And if you say it in the wrong moment, you immediately apologise or don’t expect me to represent you. Simple as that. When I submit a CV to a client, hand on heart, I recommend and represent that candidate. And when someone applies for a job on how to deliver Communication, Sales and Leadership Training with a mega big salary, and their idea of communication is as per the opening line of this blog, hell will freeze over before I put my reputation on the line and submit that CV to any of my clients. So yes, let’s get personal as recruitment is all about people and personalities in as equal measures as skillset. But let’s get personal in the right way. Let us see good in each other, let’s find the right company for you to work in and let us appreciate that not everybody has to get on with everybody, but everybody SHOULD respect everybody.
Contact:jo@winhurstrecruitment.co.uk
http://www.winhurstrecruitment.co.uk/news-blogs-2/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/5140403/
@winhurstrec
Tel: 0115 972 6513