How to piss off your job recruiter/hiring manager

common sentiment with job recruiters

How to piss off your job recruiter

I should title this “How to keep your recruiter happy” and make it a positive piece. This is a passionate rant that all recruiters share. I am purposely titling this article and taking this specific angle to make a point.

With the internet and all of the information available, I am amazed by how many people have come to an interview with no knowledge of the company. If you want a surefire way to piss off a recruiter or hiring manager, arrive unprepared for an interview. The most insulting thing you can do to most recruiters is not being able to answer the question “Tell me what you know about our company” or “Tell me what you know about our industry.”  You know this question is coming.  How can you NOT ask some form of this question? 

The Triggers

1. If you REALLY want something or are remotely interested in something, it is human nature that you would do something about it. In the words of a good friend of mine, “Make a move, son!”  “No move” to me signals you are either LAZY or Uninterested. If you are going to buy a car, you will do some research. If you were going to buy a 300.00 TV at Target, you would probably do some research or price comparisons. At the least, when you get to Target, you are going to compare models. You aren’t going to pick up the first TV you lay your eyes on.
2. LinkedIn, Google, Yahoo Business Pages, Glassdoor.com, Facebook, Twitter, and company blogs. Within 15 minutes, you can have access to recent PR announcements, the management team, products, company philosophy/culture, and competition. You could do this on a mobile phone in the parking lot!  ARRRHHHHHGGG!  Did I go through 50 resumes for this?
3. If you are not going to do any proactive research that will benefit YOUR career, you are probably not going to be a proactive hire.  You signal no initiative and need to be told what to do along the way. We are running a business, not a daycare.

Example Given

If our CEO asks me to schedule a meeting with a candidate, and that meeting is in another city or out of the office:

1. I am going to research a place where the two can meet that is conducive to both.
2. It will be easy to find, reasonable in price, and provide a comfortable, relaxed environment.
3. I will provide directions to get to the place, a phone number for the place, and a picture of the place with landmarks so that our CEO can find it easily.  30 minutes before that meeting I am going to be available in case something happens to either party or someone gets lost or is running late.
4. I will text our CEO at meeting time to make sure he made it.
5. This is the attitude of research I am going to provide, and this is what we are looking for.  “Make a move, son!”

How much time should you invest?

How bad do you want the job? If you are not working, there is no excuse for not pouring your heart and soul into the research.  If you are working with kids and have a second job, there is no reason why you can’t stay up for a couple of hours or get up early and come prepared.

1. Talk with people who currently work with the company or who have worked at the company.  Pick their brains on what they liked, disliked, and why they left.
2. Talk with the company’s vendors or clients. These people can often introduce you to the people listed above.

Top things you SHOULD research about a company AND its industry

1. Read about the management team on the “About” page. At the very least, find out what their background is and then do a Google search on the CEO and the C-level executive of your discipline.
2. Recent PR:  Learn about new product offerings, money raised, etc.
3. Who are the competitors, and what are their products? What differentiates each of the players in your industry?
4. The big public company? Where is the stock?  Market Cap? What Alexa ranking do they hold?
5. Private company? Who was the VC?  How did they fund?
6. If you are talking with a recruiter, Google them.  If you are interviewing with a hiring manager or a member of the team, ask the recruiter who you will be meeting with.
7. Find a reason why you want to work there.  Give the recruiter a reason to believe why you would be interested in their company, whether it is personal or professional, but make a sincere connection.

Armed with this information, don’t be a passive fish. Get your information out there and show them that you took an interest in the opportunity. Just because they don’t ask you “What do you know about our company?” doesn’t mean they don’t care. Trust me, they care. “Make a move, Son!”

See you at the after party,
HRNasty

nasty: an unreal maneuver of incredible technique, something that is ridiculously good, tricky, and manipulative but with a result that can’t help but be admired, a phrase used to describe someone good at something. “He has a nasty forkball”.

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