I’m not recruited very often - indeed I get a little jealous of my friends who seem to be getting approached every other day by some exciting company or another. However, across my apparently desirable friends their recruiting experience is always the same - complete shit. I’d like to say that at Microsoft we do a fabulous job, but my experience on both sides of hiring decisions hasn’t been at all stellar.
In an environment where talent is in such demand, companies can’t afford to hire this core task out to clueless recruiting agencies.
Common complaints:
- Dropped correspondance
- Phone screen / interview out of step with expectations, wasting everyone’s time
- Candidates speak with one department on Monday and get cold called from another on Wednesday
- Conflicting answers to questions
Some fairly basic tips for recruiters:
- Use some fucking CRM software. Remember when someone says they’re only interested in jobs in NYC and don’t do front-end web development.
- Do what you say you say you’re going to - call on time and bring back the answers to questions you said you would.
- Have one point of contact.
- Be responsive.
- Don’t lie.
- Have a clue about the company and position you’re hiring for.
There is some hope though! Like travel agents before them, online tools are starting to replace incompetence and misaligned incentives with self-service. See whitetruffle, LinkedIn jobs, StackOverflow careers etc.