My apology to job seekers everywhere..

It wasn’t until I started looking for a new job that I fully realized how much a recruiter’s job matters.  When you are looking for a new job, every e-mail that comes back regarding your application, every call that you get regarding your status is huge.  It’s almost like dating a new person.  When you first give your number out to someone, you wait nervously for that first call back.  Then you meticulously pick out the perfect wardrobe for that first date, making sure you show up on-time and after the date, if things went well, you eagerly await a call back.  Come to think of it, dating is probably the perfect analogy for job seeking. 

As recruiters, we interact with hundreds of candidates a week and juggle many concurrent internal stakeholders at one time.  It’s easy for recruiters to lose sight of the fact that the candidats they deal with on the other end are real people with real feelings.  In fact, the person, who I just sent an e-mail “Thanks but no thanks” letter to might’ve been someone who’d been looking forward to working at my company for the past 6 months. 

I know as a job seeker, when I am waiting for a phone interview, I am always get to a quiet place 5 minutes early and when the clock hits the appointed time, I am literally standing there waiting nervously for that phone interview.  So many times, I am 5 or 10 minutes late and I don’t give it a second thought, but little do I realize how much little mistakes like that matter. 

I just wanted to take this post out to apologize to everyone that I take for granted.  Candidates are my lifeblood.  Without you, I have no job.  I do my best to be perfectly on-time for every call I make and I always appreciate when you pick up on the other line.  I also do my best to make sure you have a great interviewing experience because I know that if I was on your end, I would demand perfection.  I realize that how I treat you in the interview process is your first taste of how you will be treated as an employee. 

But even with all this knowledge, the busy-ness of the days will still get to me.  I’ll forget to check in sometimes.  I’ll forget to follow up.  I’ll forget to confirm this or that interview.  It’ll happen.  I’m human.  But no matter how insignificant the interview is, even if it’s an informal chat, I realize that for the candidates out there, every conversation they have with a recruiter or a hiring manager might be the biggest call they have that month, that year, or maybe even ever.  I’ll continue to do my best, that you can count on..