These days, finding your next challenge is no easy task. As we saw last month in Purple#12, some candidates can have excessive behaviours (you will find the article HERE). But sometimes, the recruitment consultants can also complicate matters for them, and risk getting on candidates' nerves! Below are some of the big mistakes that recruitment consultants make and candidates hate.

1-Calling me about a job that bears no relation to my profile

This does happen and it is always difficult to understand what leads recruitment consultants to call candidates who do not have the experience, motivation or even the potential for a position. A lack of suitable candidates, perhaps? Keywords from my CV that miraculously popped up during a search? Whatever the reason, what will stick in my mind is the motive of the recruitment consultant who tried to push the process through, sometimes even suggesting an interview ‘to discuss the post directly’!

2-Asking me stupid questions at the interview

We could write an entire article on this topic. Asking me what I feel my weaknesses are in an interview, for example, amounts to ensuring that I have prepared an answer to that notorious question. If I have, then I will reel off my prepared response; if not, then I will spend ten seconds trying to think of qualities that I can dress up as weaknesses and end up saying that I am a perfectionist. Before asking a question at an interview, it is helpful to think about what you are trying to assess to avoid any pitfalls!

3-Getting someone who speaks poor English to test my level of… English

In truth, it can be quite amusing to have to repeat my answer to a question in English because the recruitment consultant has not understood. However, it is also a bit irksome when you realise that you are being assessed by someone who does not have the language proficiency to do so, even if this does result in some funny situations!

4-Always offering me the same job, rather than a career

It’s as though I’ve been condemned to do the same thing forever. The more experience I gain in a particular field, the more calls I get offering me the same thing elsewhere. It’s the opposite of career development and it can give the impression that the recruitment consultant isn’t evaluating my potential or thinking about how my skills could transfer to other roles. Help me to develop my career!

Help me to develop my career!

5-Not following up on our initial discussion

There’s nothing worse than not hearing anything from a recruitment consultant for weeks after your first meeting with them. Of course, things don’t always progress as quickly as we might like and we know that, in business, it isn’t all about my current position. However, a quick telephone call now and again to let me know how my job search is progressing will help me to stay patient and motivated!

6-Mentioning quotas

“Hello, I’m calling because today I have to schedule as many interviews with candidates as possible.” Yes, this has actually happened! When I’m looking for a job, I expect at the very least a personal approach and professionalism, so that I don’t end up feeling like a statistic or CV in a sea of candidates. I’m happy to help recruitment consultants hit their targets if this helps me to find a new challenge, but if they are only meeting me for the sake of fulfilling their targets or completing their database, then no thanks!

7-Sending my CV to other people without my consent

Finding out that my CV is being passed around without my consent and beyond my control, to companies that I have not selected or to people who might know my current employer is perhaps the worst thing that could happen. Despite being illegal as well as insensitive, this practice is still commonplace today!

We could also speak about the lack of preparation of the recruitment consultant before an interview and so on, but you understood the purpose. To summarise, aside from the – sometimes foolish – mistakes made by recruitment consultants, candidates should expect a degree of attentiveness, meaningful contacts and above all professionalism from those who, at a given time, will be representing them to companies. This is the ‘candidate experience’ that we have been talking about for some time now – making everyone who sends us their CV feel that they are being treated as an individual whom we respect, even if we don’t have anything to offer them today.

Don’t forget that the professionals who entrust us with their CVs today will go on to become our clients of tomorrow – what impression do you want to leave them with?