Why would a recruiter no longer return my phone calls and emails?

Rollis Fontenot III

Rollis Fontenot 3

We help employers recruit for the hardest to make full positions using a unique proprietary video strategy. I honey to create, serve, explore and…

Published November 16, 2016

The purpose of this commodity is to only explicate what ofttimes happens behind the scenes unbeknownst to the candidate, non to justify the beliefs or do of recruiters not returning calls or emails.

I personally feel is a bad practice for a recruiter not to return a phone call. I have ever strived to care for candidates with respect, render phone calls, too equally give updates to candidates even when they are non going. I have besides trained recruiters to do the aforementioned.

However, I was recently asked this question and wanted to share my thoughts here on Linkedin in the attempt to provide candidates with some insight on the matter. Keep in mind that nearly of my experience is as a healthcare recruiter by specialty, so your manufacture may differ somewhat. However 80%-95% of this may still apply.

Unfortunately, today it is a common practice for recruiters not to return phone calls and emails when they don't have a positive answer for the candidate after the interview. How do I know this? Because candidates have shared this with me over 12 years and counting.

Please remember that recruiters want you to get the job too!

Every recruiter I take e'er worked with would love to get their candidates hired, and so in that location is about a 99.99% chance that it is not the recruiter that is continuing in the way of yous getting hired. This is because once the candidate is hired, the recruiter's mission is consummate, it is most always due to some other influence at work in the situation. So please give your recruiters the benefit of the doubt first.

Allow's paint the scene, you have spoken with the recruiter, you have interviewed with your prospective employer at to the lowest degree in one case, and now both the employer and the recruiter have become unresponsive.

Although I do not condone, this beliefs, let's talk about the possible reasons why you haven't got the call nevertheless (I say yet, considering you may however get that phone call). Hopefully these scenarios will either help you to wait patiently knowing the possible mitigating factors at play, or it may help you to finish "watching the paint dry" and go on your mind open to other possibilities.

"Build keen rapport with your recruiter and be accessible when they reach you in order to increment the likelihood of a return call"

One of the challenges in receiving timely feedback is that, oftentimes, recruiters are not able to effectively handle all the reqs they are assigned to work on since they are overloaded with endless meetings, interviews, events, and phone calls in their pipeline. Non-hire related calls can easily become a lower priority for them, and for understandable reasons.

Another obstacle is that recruiters, in full general, like to exist the bearer of good news / progress (nowadays visitor included). So any calls that exercise not involve advancement to the next step of the process tend to be put off, or sometimes not washed at all. I don't enjoy those calls because they tin be quite awkward, peculiarly after building great rapport and enjoying several very positive conversations with candidates. The feedback I take received, however, is that information technology is appreciated past candidates to render calls and supply updates, even if the reply is that in that location are no updates. I have also plant that my anticipation of the call is always more than negative than the actual experience. In many cases, it turned out to yield positive results in the end.

Whether you take developed an initial human relationship with a recruiter, or if you have gone deep into the recruiting process (one or more interviews with a hiring manager), I'm going to supply several reasons below as to why the recruiter may no longer exist returning your phone calls and emails.

"The one-time maxim that, "You can attract more bees with beloved" applies when getting feedback from recruiters."

It is of import to preface that in that location are two chief types of 'recruiters' we will refer to:

  • Agency Recruiters: Talent Acquisition Consultants or Recruiters who work for a 3rd political party (staffing agency, contingency recruitment firm, retained search firm, etc.). They by and large are paid a fee once you are hired and kickoff working for the employer and accept several employers as clients.
  • Corporate Recruiters: Talent Acquisition Consultants or Recruiters who work exclusively for the company yous applied for. In some cases they are contract recruiters or RPO consultants, however well-nigh are employed by the organization.

All of the reasons supplied below volition be with the assumption that you have been easy to piece of work with and fully qualify for the task yous accept applied for, because if you practice non check all the boxes, so to speak, that could be your first reason:

  1. Agency or Corporate Recruiters: They may non have an answer for you notwithstanding because they haven't heard dorsum from the hiring managing director/client every bit to whether they want to rent you or not. In most cases, the recruiter will opt to look before responding or accepting your call. I don't hold with this strategy, withal, it is a very common practice in the industry, so accept this as role of the game and do not get frustrated.
  2. Agency or Corporate Recruiters: Many recruiters feel that not calling you back with an update buys time for their client or hiring manager (your prospective employer) to continue interviewing internally or looking at other candidates earlier they brand a terminal decision and permit yous know. The reason the client is looking at other options is because you aren't a slam dunk as the winning candidate in the client'southward, hiring director's, or another hiring influencer'due south minds. However, the skillful news is that yous are still under consideration.
  3. Bureau or Corporate Recruiters: Sometimes hiring for the item position that you applied for is no longer a priority or perhaps it is no longer canonical or budgeted for past the company. In other cases the company may not exist authorized to pay a placement fee, which can sometimes kill the deal. Your recruiter may non exist at liberty to disclose this information, or may struggle with how to share this news with you lot.
  4. Bureau or Corporate Recruiters: The recruiter may no longer work in that capacity, or for the organization. Phone call the main number of the recruiting agency or arrangement to make sure the recruiter still works there. Agencies tend to have a high level of attrition, and changes happen at organizations all the time, so I would propose to phone call to make sure that they however work there in the recruitment capacity, and allow the person you speak with know that y'all were in the center of working on a item position together.
  5. Agency or Corporate Recruiters: Vacations may be a factor in the lack of feedback. I have worked with some clients where all recruiting progress stops during certain parts of the twelvemonth when different hiring managers/influencers are on holiday. Sometimes, it could exist as simple as one of the decision-makers is out on vacation; and earlier they come up back, some other decision-maker goes on vacation, and neither of them have an opportunity to confer or will they want to make the hire.
  6. Agency Recruiters: You may be considered unplaceable as a candidate for them because your resume has been submitted to all of their current clients and they will non be able to collect a fee based on the responses they take received. If they are a direct hire or permanent placement bureau recruiter that does not do staffing, and you have a lot of contract or temporary jobs on your resume, this type of recruiter will generally not be able to identify yous with their clients for a fee considering clients may deem your employment to have a high level of flight risk. Your recruiter may be struggling with a nice mode to share this with you, hence the hesitation in accepting and/or returning calls.
  7. Corporate Recruiters: If you're working with a corporate recruiter, you may not exist hirable considering there is a hiring manager or influential party in the company that does not think you volition be a good fit, and they may not want to disembalm that to you. As a physician recruiter, I had cases where the hiring manager, or someone influential to the hiring manager, used to work with the candidate or was in school with the candidate and had a very negative view of him/her based on the candidate's prior behavior or performance. This soured the client on the idea of hiring the candidate. I think it's unfortunate in that case considering many times the feedback was from several years prior, and people can alter, proceeds knowledge and experience over time and, therefore, should not exist judged too harshly by things that happened several years ago. However, it isn't the recruiter that makes the decision, so they are at the mercy of their employer/client who makes the terminal decision.

My stance on recruiters taking the approach of non responding to calls or emails while waiting for an answer is that this thinking is flawed. Based on feedback from many candidates over the years, it is far better for the recruiter to let their candidates know that they haven't heard back from the client/hiring manager instead of not responding at all. When an update is not bachelor, mayhap the recruiter can requite further insight as to what may be happening and set up another hereafter follow-up date with the candidate.

However, most recruiters feel that they exercise not take plenty time to do extra follow ups with candidates other than ones that move their candidates to the side by side step in the process. My proposition when sending emails or leaving messages is to give reasonable deadlines for feedback based on various tangible factors (i.e. other pending task offers and/or interviews at other firms). For example, "I thought that I would check in with y'all on the progress of my consideration for the xxxx position because I have some other offer pending and must supply a response to them past xxxxx. If I haven't heard from you past xx/twenty/xx, I will assume that I am no longer in consideration and plan to take the other offer." And, of course, only share things similar pending offers if they are truthful. If yous do not receive feedback inside the time menses given, move on. If yous are not comfortable walking away, and so remain patient and wait. I would advise to keep interviewing at other companies during this menses so that all your eggs are not in 1 basket.

Please share your thoughts, feedback or personal experiences. It is always appreciated.