WWYD? - Recruiter misbehaving

[MaryPoppins]

I would ask myself why I believed a word a recruiter said, chalk it up as a lesson learned, and move on.

[jayn200]

... is this your first bad experience with a recruiter? Consider yourself extremely lucky then.

Just move on. Get over yourself. Don't message the client and complain to them.

[Aloha1]

get over it . linkin request to the guy who interviewed you. might offrer you a contract in future ?

[Epiphone]

Leave it and move on. You're not going to "win" and will waste time and energy.

You had the info pre interview but went ahead. You had the info after the interview but did another.

Should have been very clear in the first interview about your arrangements and they could have said there and then if you were suitable Covid or not.

[fullyautomatix]

This is standard behaviour of a recruitment agent. In fact I think they probably have some crash course when they join the agency which teaches them on all these sneaky techniques. From agent point of view, he just wants a win and his fees. If you or company are not aligned with each other it is not his problem. He is banking on you accepting this gig in desperation if there is nothing else. Don’t be surprised if he asks you if it’s possible for you to sell your new born so you can take up this role.

[perplexed]

Reading that, seems only problem was agent not getting back to you?

What is the expectation - recruiter speaks to client, client realises you're so great that they'll change their minds on travel?

There was an opportunity, unfortunately your requirements and client expectations didn't meet. I doubt very much anything the agent said would change that. I'd worry about more things tbh like ghosting,.

[fiisch]

Thanks all - I did send a message simply thanking the interviewer per some of the advice on here and received a connection request, so now time to move on.

I've been around a bit and played the game with recruiters, but I queried travel requirements immediately on seeing the job spec and what I received, as it turns out, was a blatant lie rather than the usual "sexing up" of a vacancy:

In regards to the travel that’s no longer the case that was their old way of working, things will be remote from now on and I just forgot to remove that from the JD.
As discussed it will only 1/2 days a week on client site (if even that) which is all expensed.

Seems to have resulted in a lot of wasted time all round. I'm not too butthurt now the dust has settled - everything happens for a reason, maybe I'm meant to stay as a contractor.

[Lance]

This is standard behaviour of a recruitment agent. In fact I think they probably have some crash course when they join the agency which teaches them on all these sneaky techniques

Personally I'd put it more down to incompetence or greed than malevolence.

[Stevie Wonder Boy]

Treading cautiously on this board, but thought I'd canvas opinion on what to do about a recruiter that I think may have misrepresented my application for a permie role.

I've recently been flirting with permie roles knowing that a). My contract is likely to expire at year end and b). A new baby has made me rethink work/life balance and longer term career goals and c). The market woes.

I was approached by a recruiter for a Business Consultancy role. All seemed well, until I was sent the job description, which referred: "Ordinarily you would be working on client site as a member of a delivery team and should be comfortable with living away from home, Monday to Friday, for engagements which are not commutable. When not assigned to a client site, you will normally be based from home."

I responded, saying thank you for opportunity, but due to current circumstances with new baby etc., this would not be suitable. Recruiter responded with updated job spec, deleting this paragraph and stating this was "pre-Covid" working, and now it would be max 1-2 days per week on site.

First interview went well, however when I asked the interviewer about working location, the response, albeit a bit woolly due to Covid, was that successful candidate had to be open to travel and staying away. I fed back to recruiter that this was not doable, and that job probably not for me. They told me to stick with it, and they'd pick up with the company and call me back. They didn't, and second interview arrived, and went pretty much the same way.

Feedback from second interview was very good and they were keen to progress to final stage, but asked what was my stance on travel. Gave the same response as I had before - some flexibility, happy for occasional overnight/longer stay, but regular week-in week-out 3 night stays away were not doable due to young family. Subsequently been told application not progressed due to wanting someone more flexible.

I am thoroughly ****ed off that I've gone through the rigmarole of two interviews only for something that I raised at the outset to be the reason for not getting the job. I said as much to the recruiter (a colleague as original guy was on leave), and he apologised but didn't offer up any reasoning.

So, what would you do? Would you shrug it off and put it down to experience, or would you stick it to the recruiter and forward the emails re.: working location to the original interviewer (HR) directly via LinkedIn?

Only because I speak from experience. I would have walked the minute the job description did not work, there would not have been a first interview. Recruiters are known liars and chancers. They will waste your time without a seconds thought.

[edison]

For perm roles, whether contingent or retained search, it's always wise to remember who the agent is representing. It's really the client as they are paying the agent. Once a role is down to the interview shortlist stage, the agent doesn't particularly care which of their candidates gets the job so long as one of them does.

I've had dealings with one recruiter this year at a boutique search firm who place people all the way up to £1m plus packages and he's still a sneaky s**t.