Is it accurate to judge a company based on the recruiter they used?

Question

I had a job offer which I decided to turn down. This was not an easy decision as it was for a full time, permanent position which is what I want. I wrote a list of pros and cons. Several of the cons were related to the recruiter.

I think the company hired a free lance recruiter. She acted differently than most recruiters I've dealt with, in the sense she did not try to sell the job or sugar coat it in any way.

There were several questions I asked her which she said she would get back to me on but never did. I had a second round interview with two people from the company. I realized I had no clue what their job title/position was (I checked the bottom of their emails but it didn't include this). I thought it more polite to ask the recruiter instead of asking them directly. The recruiter ignored my phone call and email. Also during the second interview they never said their names until I asked; I knew both their names from email but not sure who was which.

Is it accurate to judge the company based on the recruiters unresponsiveness? Was it the recruiters responsibility to tell me the positions of the people who I was interviewing with next?

Answer 1

I don't think "fair" enters into it. You get to make the decision and you don't need to be fair about it. You could turn the whole thing down because you stepped in a dog turd on the way to the interview and feel it was a failure on their part not to clean it up.

A better question is: is it wise?

If most of your cons are based on the recruiter, then remember this very important thing: Once you sign the contract, you will never talk with this recruiter again.

Dropping a job that seems like a good fit because you don't like the recruiter seems like a really poor choice to me. If you don't like the recruiter, but you like the job, take the job and blacklist the recruiter so you don't have to work with them again in the future.

Answer 2

Is it accurate to judge the company based on the recruiters unresponsiveness?

Not in my mind.

For me, unless it is the CEO or the hiring manager, it doesn't make sense to judge an entire company on one employee or contractor.

Unless my role involved a lot of hiring, the quality of one freelance recruiter wouldn't weigh heavily (if at all) on my assessment of the job or company.

Was it the recruiters responsibility to tell me the positions of the people who I was interviewing with next?

Probably.

But it seems that it's not a huge deal. You could always ask their positions once the interview begins.

Am I being too sensitive in general, for example how they forgot to say their names?

Probably.

But you get to judge the company and their people by any measure you feel is appropriate. If you'd rather work for a company where interviewers always say their names and where recruiters are always completely responsive, you can just put this potential job behind you and move on.