Inconsiderate Recruiter.

In My Humble Opinion
1

A few months ago, I went to a job fair hosted by a company I’d really like to work for. Actually, I wasn’t ready to work for them at the time, because the job would require a lot of traveling, so I told the recruiter that during the interview. She told me I should give her a call when I’m ready to join the company, because she thought I would be well suited to the position.

I’ve been in touch with her since then, and every time I emailed her, she responded promptly with answers to all my questions. So last week, I emailed her and said “If you’re still interested in me, I’m ready.” We had an email conversation Tuesday night where she explained some of the next steps to me, and told me she looked forward to my joining the company.

Then she wrote “I’d like to talk to you about some things over the phone, is it okay if I call around 3PM tomorrow?” I responded that 3PM would be fine, and she wrote “Great, I’ll call you tomorrow.”

So Wednesday, 3PM came and went, and I didn’t hear from her. I didn’t hear from her Thursday either. So Thursday evening, around 7PM, I sent a short, polite email saying “I hope we get to talk soon, I’m available tonight and all day tomorrow.”

Well, Friday came and went, and I still didn’t hear from her. I waited until Monday morning about 9:30, then called and left a message on her voicemail, politely reminding her that she said she wanted to talk to me about some things, and if she still wanted to do that to give me a call, but if we don’t need to talk on the phone right now, to let me know, maybe by shooting me a quick email. I even acknowledged that she was probably really busy, so no rush or anything.

And once again, I didn’t hear from her. And I’m getting really frustrated. After all, she was the one who said she wanted to talk to me. I don’t know about anybody else, but when someone tells me “I will call you at 3PM tomorrow,” I treat it like an appointment. And when you blow off an appointment with somebody, you ought to at least send an email saying “Sorry I missed our appointment, I’ll get in touch with you to reschedule.”

Am I crazy, or is this really unprofessional behavior on her part? I’m now at the point where I’m obsessing over it, wondering if she’s purposely avoiding me. But she’d have no reason to do that, so I just don’t understand. Also, I don’t want to give up trying to get in touch with her, but how often is too often to call and/or email. I don’t want to stalk the woman, I just want to know if she’s going to offer me a job.

2

Ugh, I know the feeling. I’m actually getting a complex about whether my email actually sends or not because so many jobsearch-related people either never respond or drop off the face of the earth after I send them my resume. And this was just for a damn summer job. :rolleyes:

3

Not answering in the first place would have been normal. This isn’t: she’s been working on you as much as you’ve been working on her, now she’s dissapeared? Sounds to me like something’s happened and she’s unable to respond. Phone HR at her company.

4

I agree with Nava, it sounds like something happened that has prevented the recruiter from getting in touch. S/he might be out sick, or went on vacation and forgot or got fired. Do you have another point of contact at the company?

5

I smell “Bull***”. If you’re dead-set on a job with this company, try once more. Otherwise, leave, quickly.

6

Umm - I don’t know what kind of company this is, but no recruiter can offer you a job. They can just present your resume to the hiring manager. It’s possible that once you said you were interested she circulated it, and got no interest. I hope that isn’t true, but it seems plausible to me. No recruiter would circulate the resume of someone who wasn’t ready to work for the company yet.

7

I asked very specific questions about the hiring process, and this recruiter definitely presented herself as someone with the authority to make conditional offers of employment (conditional upon my passing a drug screen and background check, and completing training). She explicitly told me the decision was up to her. So unless she was lying, I don’t think it’s a case of not having interest from a hiring manager.

I did think about the possibility that she’s been fired. Or sick, or in an accident, or in jail. And unfortunately, she was my only point of contact at the company, so there’s no way for me to discreetly find out. If I don’t manage to track her down, I’ll have to start all over again if I want to work for this company.

8

Call the main number at the company, and speak to a person. That person would tell you if she were going to be out for a while, even if he or she didn’t tell you why she was out for a while.

9

This happened to me a few months ago. I’d been through two interviews, one with the recruiter and one with my prospective boss. I went through the background check and the drug testing and passed. I kept in contact with the recruiter, and she was very helpful and professional. She called me one morning when I was waiting for an offere and left a voicemail saying, “Luna, I have some GREAT news for you! Give me a call.” I called her back and didn’t hear from her. Two days go by. Still nothing. I left another message as well as an email. I considered calling the person I’d done my second interview with, but that didn’t strike me as professional.
I ended up taking an offer from another company (for more money!) but it still struck me as odd that I never heard back from her. I can only assume she had a job offer in mind when she left the message, so I wonder what happened to cause her to stop responding…

10

Might I ask what kind of company this is? You said the job involves traveling, so it sounds like a reasonably good one. It’s kind of odd for a manager to totally abdicate hiring decisions to HR.

I agree that you should find the switchboard of this company and see if you can either ask about the recruiter, or be put in contact with someone else in HR.

11

The job is not a highly skilled position. It’s high-stress and high turnover, but I think it could lead to something good. And the fact that the turnover rate for a job like this is so high makes me think they should constantly be recruiting. In fact, there’s another recruiting event not far from where I live this Friday, and I’m thinking of going. I’ve looked high and low, and there is no other way to get in touch with this company’s HR department. At all. Apparently, they have to contact you.

So all I have is this recruiter’s business card. I emailed again about 10:00 this morning and said “Hey, just wanted to follow up on my phone call yesterday, if you get a chance, send me a quick email to let me know whether you still want to talk on the phone.” Nothing.

I’m starting to realize that I’ve been had. What I don’t understand is what the company or the recruiter get out of this. I didn’t give them any money, I know better than to pay anyone to find me a job. What possible reason could they have to operate this way? And email is free! What are they saving by refusing to acknowledge my emails?

12

When come back insert own email in BCC: field.

13

I deal with recruiting companies ever week. The turnover in recruiters is huge. In my experience as both a would-be employee and as a hiring employer it’s a very sloppy business.

The woman you were dealing with may well have quit or been fired. If so, it’ll be at least a couple of weeks before anybody else picks up her files & starts to renew contacts. And there’s no assurance they’ll do anything but a half-assed job of that, and may never contact you back at all.

My advice: call the company she works for and ask for her.

14

Actually, I think she works for the company itself. IOW, the company I want to join hires its own recruiters. She may have quit or been fired, and if so, what bad luck that she happened to do it at the exact time she was supposedly going to advance my application!

15

You want to be an…international spy?

16

It is possible she’s gone. But companies usually yank the account of someone who has gotten fired, or left, for obvious reasons - so if your email hasn’t bounced she should still be there. (Or they’re idiots - also possible.) If you can’t find HR, find someone to call. If the company is big enough that a random person wouldn’t know what happened to her, there should be some sort of online phone book. Companies downsizing often let the recruiters go first, but that doesn’t sound like the case here.

On the other hand, if the turnover in this position is so high that the manager tells a recruiter to hire whomever she wants, that might be a sign you should be looking elsewhere.

17

I’d be worried that she has had a death in the family or is sick. I second calling the operator at the company and asking if the recruiter has been out.

18

I’m sure you know this, but I’ll just ask anyway: You have been leaving your number with her voicemail every time you call, right?

I had a phone contact once who put me in her cell incorrectly. She thought she was leaving messages for me and that I was never calling her back, while at the same time I was getting annoyed with her for never calling me! Finally, I left a message saying something like, “I know you’re a great communicator and something technical must be going on here. Would you please check the phone number you have on file for me and make sure it’s the right one?” Sure enough, she called me apologizing three hours later.

19

Yes, and I also put it in emails I send her. Either something bad really has happened to her, or she’s just a flake, and at this point I’m giving up on her either way. I’m going to start all over again with this company, even though it’ll probably be a waste of time. You never know, though.

20

Why are you not calling the main company switchboard, getting an operator, and asking for her by name?