Ghosted by recruiters you've had multiple meetings with?

[Wonderbug81]

I work in a senior role. I've now had two recruiters approach me about new roles that they were struggling to fill and required a very specific/unique set of skills.

In one case I had a phone call, in another I had a phone call AND then a Teams meeting!

They've both ghosted me.

It was bad early last year when I was last job hunting but not like this - I mean, we've actually spoken! Is this the new norm?

In my experience recruiters are an absolute waste of time. The don't get back to you, they don't actually understand the requirements of the jobs they are trying to fill, and the misrepresent everyone.

Could well be (got my last job through regular Linkedin application) but this is a situation where one was an in-house recruiter.

I just think it's terrible behaviour when they approached me in the first place.

Recruiters are a ‘special’ sort of person! They raise your hopes, get very enthusiastic, ask loads of questions that lead you to think you are someone they genuinely get, think your perfect for the role, then drop you like a stone when you’re not the one chosen for interview or you get an interview but no offer and they’ve already moved on to recruiting for another role and you become a mere afterthought.

Very common sadly OP!

It's horrible, but completely normal.

ive been ghosted after a final stage interview, so yep, seems this is the norm these days

It’s very common now.

Also depending on how long it’s been they may just be taking forever. DS1 had a recruiter woman get really shitty with him in July when she called to arrange a start date for a job. He’d interviewed, and been told he’d hear in a day or two, at the beginning of March. She was incredibly surprised, and quite rude, that he’d found something else in the meantime.

That's absolutely awful! Hope you could see it as a lucky escape.

Wow! And the idea that your DS should have just been waiting around...

From the other side, I have had very trying experiences of dealing with recruiters when looking to fill positions in the company and to be honest the majority are pretty poor. I had more luck going straight to LinkedIn in and using my team to filter applications and do selection tests.

The majority of recruiters are over priced, have a small selection of actually suitable candidates and don't really understand the roles you are recruiting for. When you find a good one it's like gold dust and can make your life easy. But you have to wade through a lot of rubbish ones to get there.

I gave a senior role to one recruiter to fill and they produced absolutely nothing of value and were trying to charge a fortune. They swore blind they had experience recruiting at senior level but it was clear they were bluffing. So I pulled the role from them and went internal. A day later she phoned me up in tears shouting down the phone at me being very aggressive because I'd pulled the job from them! Saying I had embarrassed her in front of her boss (she'd clearly over promised and under delivered in the company). It was a master class in self entitlement. Anyway I gave her short shrift for being unprofessional and never used that company again. I heard she'd be let go not long later which wasn't a surprise.

Don't bother with recruiters, go straight to LinkedIn. That's my advice.