The Recruiter Asked “Where Have You Been on Interviews?”
By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
Is the recruiter being honest or trying to scam me? How do I answer?
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I’m Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter. I’m the head coach for JobSearch.Community. That’s the site where I have curated information that you can watch, listen to, or read. It’s going to help you find work more quickly, and then you also discount one-on-one coaching if you become a member of the site. So again, that’s job search coaching hq.com. Now, someone messaged me in dismay, asking or commenting that a recruiter had asked her where she’d been on interviews so far, and she was uncomfortable answering the question. What should she have done? Yeah.
I’ve got two ways of addressing this, and one is your guard being up when an agency recruiter is calling you is a good thing. Yeah. I simply say part of the reason is some of them are actually being forthright: they want to know if you’ve met with their client, and they are reluctant to say who their client is for fear that you’re going to take that information and go directly to their client to apply for a job. I understand that. I got screwed multiple times until I got it through my thick head that not every person I was talking with was considerate of me or honest with my services—I’m just with my services—so I stopped being willing to tell people who my client was. Conversely, for you as the job hunter, you certainly don’t want to waste time talking to a recruiter who’s already, you know, when you’ve already been presented to their client. So there’s kind of a bind here. I’ll answer the question; I’ll answer the bind. Actually, let me just answer the bind some more right now, and that is not every recruiter is honest. And like I gave the example of some job hunters would take my information and apply directly, well, there are some recruiters who will take that information and try and get the job to work on and try and fill so that they can earn a commission.
Hence, the bind. What do… how do you address this kind of situation? The answer is, “No disrespect intended, but I don’t know you from a hole in the wall, and I’m uncomfortable telling you who my client is”. “Well, I only represent you”. What could be an idea of what industry they’re in and what town they’re in? They’re in banking in New York. Now, obviously, in New York there’s a lot of banks in New York, so I’m trying to give you a way that you can kind of break this down. They’ll understand if you’re a junior individual, you’re more likely to be in a commoditized job. By that, I mean a job where a firm has lots of people who do what you do. On the other hand, if you’re more senior, you’ll start to recognize the job description, and you might just simply say, “Is this a position with so-and-so? If so, someone is already spoken with me about this role”. And they’ll respect you for handling it in that way, because they can then turn around and say, “It’s not that job,” or “Yes, I have that job. I have one very similar to it”. Notice how to play this: you know, once you know the industry and the city, you can then say, if you are senior, “Is it the position with such-and-such where they’re looking for a management of whatever?”. Now, if this is a large firm, it’s hard for an agency to get on the vendor list to be able to get paid if they steal the lead. If it’s a smaller firm, it’s different. They might be able to do it, but I digress for a second. Let me go back to the less experienced person losing the role for which the organization has lots of people, whether that’s a developer job, an accounting job, an admin job, whatever it is. There are just lots of them in the organization, and we’ve now got a bank in New York. Okay.
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“Could you give me the first letter of the bank’s name?”. They say, “B”. For the sake of argument, “Could you give me a couple of choices of banks beginning with B, and I’ll tell you which ones I’ve spoken with or know I’ve been presented to?”. Now, what you’re trying to do is narrow the scope from them where they’re offering up choices, and the idea becomes they have to ultimately open up and then get to match you. At that point, you’re playing the guessing game with them where you’re asking them to do this kind of stuff: be honest. If that confirms that you’ve been presented to or a recruiter spoken with you about, why? This is probably a contingency recruiter. As such, they’re only paid if they refer you and you get hired. If you’ve already been presented, the likelihood is that they won’t be able to get the interview for you anyway. It’s a waste of their time and effort; it’s pointless.
There’s no benefit to you. All you do is screwing them out of time, which is the only thing that they have—the time to work on these job leads. So the way to play it is, if you’re senior, you identify where you’ve been presented after you’ve narrowed the scope of possibility. For the junior individual, just from looking at it from the standpoint of, “Okay, we’ve got the industry and the city,” and I use the New York example. “First initial of the firm: B”. “Okay, Bank of what? Give me the next part of it, the next letter in that title,” at which point they could say, “No, it’s not Bank of whatever it is. It’s the first letter is a B of this organization”. “Right. I haven’t been presented to any firms in that with banks that begin with a B”. And thus, you’ve been able to respect one another as uncomfortable as the dance is, but you’ve also avoided risking the potential of being cheated.
So, I’m Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter. I hope you found this helpful. If you did, regarding my coaching, you reach out to me. Do it through LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/thebiggamehunter. Mention that you saw this video because I just like knowing that I’m able to help people. And once we’re connected, if you’re interested in my coaching, send me a message through the site and let’s figure out a time to speak. Hope you have a great day. Take care.
A Hidden Trap in Your Executive Job Offer
ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
People hire Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter to provide No BS Career Advice globally because he makes many things in peoples’ careers easier. Those things can involve job search, hiring more effectively, managing and leading better, career transition, as well as advice about resolving workplace issues. He was the host and now produces “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with over 3000 episodes.
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