No matter how much you dislike talking to recruiters - give us a chance to help us get you where you need to go.

It just takes one constructive call to make a difference for you.

I've made about fifteen hours of candidate calls this week, talking to applicants, active job seekers and those that are happy in their roles but open to conversation.

Two applicants I spoke to got in the way of their own chances.

The first is running a business that has been scuppered by the pandemic. He has decided to move back into a traditionally employed role, but seems to have taken some bad advice on how to come across as an in-demand candidate:

“Can you tell me what your role involved” ‘Yes, it’s what you’d expect from an xxx”

“And what are you looking for” ‘I’m looking for what you’d expect from an xxx’

“Do you have experience in this, this and this” ‘All my skills are transferrable’

“How about salary expectations? It must be hard to assess a salary equivalent that meets your needs, having run a business” ‘I’m looking for what an xxx deserves’

Let's be clear, this xxx role is highly contextual and means different things in different arenas. Without answering any questions, and with ambiguous documentation, there's no way I can assess suitability - although I can assess attitude.

That's paraphrasing my side of the conversation, which was principally about him and his needs and gave me nothing at all.

A 2nd candidate simply refused to answer any questions straightforwardly and said instead “Listen don’t recruiters just send me a job description then I tell you if I can do the job”.

Yeah, maybe bad transactional ones, but not this one.

As an extension of the employer I'm partnering with, it's my job to make sure the fit is right all around, and indeed there's a benefit to candidates in getting disqualified early if it was never going to work.

Make of my approach what you will, but know this - I'm an excellent recruiter who represents vacancies that are excellent opportunities for the right people.

By not allowing me to do my job, I have to extrapolate their behaviour into how they would represent me, represent themselves at interview, and indeed fulfil a job.

On balance of risk, they ruled themselves out (although if you happen to be reading this, and remember our call, feel free to start afresh and give me a call).

So next time you pick up the phone and are exasperated it's yet another recruiter that's going to waste your time - why not give them a chance, and maybe you'll give yourself a chance too.