By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
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Why do people say they were tricked by a recruiter or recruiters aren’t honest?
Um, I worked as a recruiter for a lot of years. So if you want to take this as someone defending my former profession, you know, I don’t think it is, but you’ll hear me and make your own decision. Not every recruiter is honest. However, the big thing is employers aren’t honest too. And most of the time, the good recruiters are parroting the deceptions that corporate hiring managers and corporate recruiters are giving them, and they’re communicating it to you. So the real thing isn’t about the recruiter, because if you don’t want to trust them, you don’t have to trust them. It’s about why you listen to the employer and what they’re telling you without questioning them more deeply.
You see, when they do behavioral interview questions, don’t they deep dive further and want to find out more about what you did? Of course. Same thing needs to happen for you when they talk with you about the role, responsibilities, and what you’re expected to accomplish during your tenure. One thing you can always ask is, “What happened to the person who sat at the desk you’re going to assign me to? Why did they leave?” “Oh, they left for a better opportunity.” “What made it a better opportunity? Why couldn’t they get that opportunity here?” “I needed them to do this and they wanted to do something different, and thus they left for a different organization.” What they’re indirectly telling you is once you start working for them, they’re not going to really upwardly promote you all that often. So you got to start thinking beyond simply the script that hiring managers will give you to persuade you to come to work there.
Remember, you as a job hunter embellish the truth a little bit to finesse situations, right? Well, so do they. They want to fill that job. So they’re going to say all sorts of wonders: “We’ve got a terrific opportunity. We’re a great team of people here. Did I mention we’re like family?” Yeah, family like in the Christmas movies that are at one another’s throats! They don’t mention that part of it. Nor do they talk with you about why people leave or how much turnover rate there is, and you don’t ask about it. You’re afraid that if you ask questions like this, they’re going to be turned off, and I understand, but you have to look out for you. If you join a viper’s nest, if you join a high turnover environment, and an agency recruiter is saying all sorts of complimentary things, you’re listening to the agency recruiter who’s just parroting what they’ve been told.
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