Top Recruitment Annoyances

Since my first post-college job (many moons ago), I have been in customer-facing positions.  Through my years as a consumer affairs rep at a major department store chain to teaching in adult education, I find dealing with people to be fascinating.  Currently, I enjoy the day to day interactions with candidates that come with being an EDI and IT Recruiter.  That being said, it certainly comes with its challenges.

My favorite saying is ‘it’s all in the attitude’.  Well, some people certainly have attitude!  It seems to me that if you put your IT/EDI resume out on the various social job sites, you should expect to get calls from recruiters.  After all, it is our job to help you find the best position.  I recall one gentleman who kept asking me, “what is the first job on my resume, what is the second” and so on.  At first, I thought he was trying to determine which version of his resume I had but then I realized he was just giving me a hard time.  He quite rudely asked why in the world I thought he would be a match for the position in question.  I then listed off 5 or 6 of his skills and projects that exactly matched the job description and he quickly changed his attitude.   It was a little too late by then, though.

Another challenge with recruiting is trying to find the best candidate for a position which has a poorly defined job description.  Whether it is an EDI Analyst or Infrastructure Engineer position, searching for the best candidate without the specific languages, operating systems, translators, or years of experience required can be pretty frustrating.

As EDI and IT recruiters, we do our best to maintain good contact with candidates that we work with and get feedback in a timely manner.  That is where another source of annoyance can arise.  Sometimes there are many folks involved in the hiring process and the stack of resumes may get bottlenecked at one part of the process.   This makes it frustrating for candidates who are actively interviewing and interested in the company and position.  It is easy to lose good, qualified candidates when a company takes too long to move through the hiring process.

A final note on recruitment pet peeves are when candidates disappear.  Yes, it happens.  A candidate is excited about a position, checks in regularly for feedback, accepts and schedules an interview…..and then doesn’t show up!  Whether a phone screen or on-site interview, being a no-show is definitely a deal breaker.

It’s all worth it in the end when we’re able to match the right candidate to the perfect opportunity.