What's the typical recruiter like?

Because I've spent over a decade in management and executive roles, I have a wealth of experience from "the other side of the desk." I've interviewed and hired dozens of people. I'd had to fire people. I've had to layoff people. I've promoted people. I've coached people. I've managed people. Through all of these experiences, I've worked with many recruiters across the country, and almost without exception, they all work more or less the same way:

* They bombard their clients with worthless resumes without any apparent effort to screen candidates.
* They submit those resumes without any input--they attach the resume to an email and leave all the work to the HR manager or the hiring manager.
* They send as many resumes as they possibly can--whether the candidate is a good fit for the job or not.
* They give no thought to personality fit--they just send every resume they have and hope that one of them sticks.
* They harass the hiring manager and the HR manager constantly for updates on the status of the job.

I've also been through the job search from "the other side of the desk." I've worked with recruiters when my company was going through uncertain times, and asked recruiters to help me find something new when I needed a new challenge. In these situations I experienced first-hand the frustrations that most candidates voice about the recruiters they are working with, because I was one of them:

* Contacting candidates about terrible jobs that you'd have to be begging for food in order to consider.
* Contacting candidates about jobs that would require relocation or a commute that the candidate has clearly stated they will not consider.
* Making candidates come in to the recruiter's office when there are no jobs to discuss, basically wasting the candidate's time.
* Taking no interest in what the person really wants, just trying to find what keywords they can put on the candidate's profile.
* Sending the candidate's resume to every company in town, especially without the permission of the candidate.
* Telling the candidate about an opening and sending in the resume, and then never communicating with the candidate about the status of the job. Usually when the candidate finally calls, they find out the job has been filled.

All of these frustrations and more, from both the client (company) side and the candidate side are perpetuated by the majority of the recruiters and recruiting firms out there every day. Consequently, recruiters share real estate near the bottom of the ladder with used car salesmen when it comes to how much people like to deal with them, and this is especially true in the case of most HR managers in companies everywhere.

The unfortunate truth is that these recruiters, despite their poor communication skills and lack of perspective, still do a terrific amount of business, because companies and candidates have either come to expect it, or are unaware of what is really going on. I want you to know that I am very different from those "other guys."