Dear Platinum Recruiting,

How do you recommend a candidate communicate with their recruiter? It can be tricky to determine. I don’t want to check in too often but I haven’t heard from them in a while.

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Hi Jane,

Thank you for asking. One of the biggest complaints about recruiters is lack of feedback or lack of response. We will drop everything to call with good news: job offer, set up an interview, positive feedback from an interview.

Not so good news? Well, recruiters have a reputation for being not so prompt with communication: you didn’t get the job, the interview didn’t go well, they don’t want to interview you.

At Platinum Recruiting, communication and timely feedback is a top priority. Keeping in touch with people and being responsive is about more than just what we might be working on together at a given moment. When you’ve been recruiting for a long time and want to keep doing it for a long time, you take a long-term view on conversations and relationships. Reputation is everything in this business. That said, even the best recruiter is guilty of this from time to time. Recruiters must find talent for their client companies and invest significant time and resources doing so.

How Can Communication Be Improved? SET EXPECTATIONS!

1. How often should we communicate? Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly?
2. Method of communication? Call, email, text?
3. Stick to The Plan!

That’s it! Easier said than done but it really is that simple. Discuss and set expectations during initial conversations. After doing so, communicating should be a two-way street. Both sides should be as prompt as possible returning messages. If you haven’t heard from your recruiter in a while but haven’t reached out yourself, send them an email to check in.

Have you experienced a situation where you weren’t hearing back from your recruiter? Why in the world does it happen? Below are the 5 main reasons:

1. They don’t currently have an opportunity that matches your interests and qualifications.
2. The recruiter doesn’t have any news, feedback or update from the client company.
3. They have bad news. Recruiting is like baseball: In baseball, you can hit .300 or .400 and have a great career. However, that means you’re getting out 6 or 7 of 10 at bats. In recruiting, when we fill a job, that means 1 person gets the job but a lot of people don’t! For every good news phone call we have multiple bad news calls to make. Additionally, good news calls usually come first.
4. Your recruiter, especially if he or she is good, is busy. Busy finding people for their current job orders and looking for new job orders. Busy looking for new jobs that could be a fit for you as well.
5. Business Model: In auditing, when there is an issue, they say “follow the money”. It’s not a big secret that client companies pay recruiting firms if/when they hire someone from that recruiting firm. So where do recruiters spend a lot of their time? Finding talent for their client companies. Is this a good reason to communicate poorly? Or course not. While finding talent for our clients is always a top priority, recruiters have to find time for other activities: keep in touch, respond to people that have reached out, get organized, list goes on.

These are not justifications. We started Platinum Unplugged to have candid conversations. To provide a peak behind the curtain. A realistic peak, not just sunshine and rainbows. 

Social Media is actually helping us stay in touch. Those that follow me on twitter or ‘like’ our business Facebook Page are kept in the loop on a regular basis. Social Media allows us to keep more people informed than 1 on 1 communications would allow. It also allows people to stay informed without phone calls or emails interrupting their day.

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This type of topic is exactly why we started Platinum Unplugged. We want to discuss topics important to our audience. Specific topics presented to us. We’ve asked to be challenged. We want to push the limits and be willing to discuss topics that other recruiters won’t openly discuss. I’ll admit when there’s something recruiters can do better. Conversely, I hope providing insight into what we do will build awareness and help create better relationships.

Personally speaking I know our team puts ourselves in your shoes and treats others like we would want to be treated. Occasionally, we fall victim to being tunnel visioned on providing successful outcomes for our client companies. It should be an exception, not the norm. I work hard at this but will pledge to keep doing better.

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Until next time. Cheers.