Inappropriate behavior of candidates - what does the recruiter think?

Inappropriate behavior of candidates - what does the recruiter think?

Many times we come across the thesis that it is the opinion of candidates about recruiters that is the most important. After all, it is the recruiter who comes first with the proposal (in most cases), so he is in the "lost" position from the start. So it should be careful with words and also sound as professional as possible. Of course, it's hard to disagree with this - the recruiter should respect the candidate's time and present the offer in an attractive and accessible way to make it interesting. But what if the candidate behaves unprofessionally and inappropriately? In this article, I will try to cite some of the most annoying behaviors of candidates and thoughts of recruiters related to them.

1. Fresh out of college

A very common phenomenon is when a candidate with very little commercial experience applies for a job demanding the highest rate from the "range" given by the recruiter. In his opinion, he does not take any risk - "what do I risk by giving a higher rate? Nothing. After all, I have a good job anyway, so in case of failure, I will not change it.” Good recruiters, however, remember this type of behavior and are reluctant to engage in conversations with such people. They believe that such people may be too demanding in everyday work, and their main motivator will be earnings. In addition, this is not only the opinion of recruiters, but also employers who also value their time and budgets. It also happens that in our work we come across candidates freshly graduated with very high financial expectations. Their argument for high expectations is the fact of creating student projects, e.g. in Java, where they worked on the project for over half a year, so it can be treated as a kind of commercial experience. Nothing could be more wrong. Academic work and work for a real subject with real problems are often two different poles. Studies are supposed to help you become a good specialist in the future, but they are not the core of experience.

2. The infallible candidate

During dozens of daily conversations with candidates, it also happens to come across people with a very high opinion of themselves. This opinion is about skill and reason for everything. Recently, during one of the recruitments, we came across a candidate who had a programming task to perform. He sent the task a week late, but due to the client's flexible approach, it was not a major problem. However, the task turned out to be poorly solved, because the code was of very low quality. The candidate assured both us and the client that the latter had no idea how much time and energy the candidate put into solving this task and that he believed that his code was very well written. In addition, he announced that he should issue an invoice for the mere fact of approaching the task. As for the code itself, of course, appropriate auditors could be appointed, but as for claims for payment, no one seems to have any illusions that the candidate has exaggerated (as a last resort, he should at least inform about the fact of payment before starting the task).

3. Inaccuracy

It might seem that candidates do not receive appropriate feedback after talking to the recruiter. Of course, this sometimes happens (in the case of poor quality services provided by various employment agencies). However, what if the candidate arranges a telephone interview or, even worse, a meeting and fails to inform about the fact that he is unable to appear at the previously agreed time? Such situations are rarely talked about, but they are the Achilles heel of recruiters because they put them in a bad light. The client evaluates the process holistically and drawing appropriate conclusions regarding the recruiter's work, he may think - "if the candidate did not inform that he could not attend the meeting, then perhaps the recruiter said something inappropriate and alienated the candidate?". Candidates who do not take the work of recruiters seriously should not expect a professional approach to themselves.

4. No contact

Another behavior that does not say anything positive about a given candidate is the moment when the contact breaks off (despite reading the message by the candidate, e.g. on Facebook or Linkedin). Let's take an example - a candidate is looking for a job, talks to the recruiter, answers his questions and expresses willingness to cooperate. At some point, for unknown reasons, he does not reply to messages, although he reads them. Of course, it can be assumed that the candidate found another, better proposal in his eyes. It is a pity, however, that he did not inform the recruiter about this fact or did not let him know that, for example, he did not like the offer. Fortunately, such behavior is quite rare, but it is worth talking about it, because it is a very irritating phenomenon in the recruiter's work. Replying to a message does not take much time, because you do not have to write a dissertation, just a short piece of information. For the candidate, this should not be a problem even in a situation where he has many recruiters to write back - the copy / paste method will work great here and will save everyone frustration.

Summary: This article was created to draw attention to the problem of recruiting and contacting candidates. Problems such as excessive financial expectations of candidates in relation to their experience, infallibility, inaccuracy and lack of contact are very problematic and irritating situations that do not make the recruiters' work easier, and give candidates the "patch" of the black sheep. In addition, such situations cause loss of time for both parties.

This article is also helpful for other people who may not have been aware of the problem before. If you know such people, please share this article with them. The more aware people in the industry, the easier and more pleasant it will be for us to work.