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This has happened to me a couple times last year and once this year.

Overall this is what happens:

  • Recruiter find my resume/profile on Monster.

  • Finds one or more position for me.

  • I go through phone screenings (more than 1) followed by an in-person interview. Until this point, I have active communication with the recruiter. emails every couple of days or phone calls.

  • Company says no thank you and they move on to other candidates. Now there is hardly any correspondence from the recruiter.

Now I am not super attached to the recruiting company for a job. But does this mean that my chances with this recruiter are over? Is this a common practice of "moving away quietly" so that the candidate will get the message?

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  • Are you still reaching out to them to check in and see if they have any new jobs?
    – JasonJ
    Jul 7, 2016 at 19:18
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    You must bear in mind that recruitment agencies get there money not from you but from employers. So you need to be proactice with them
    – Ed Heal
    Jul 7, 2016 at 19:20
  • You had an active communication with recruiter because it was his job to ask you questions and to answer your questions. It is hard to understand what kind of a correspondence to you expect from a recruiter now that you were rejected? Do you expect him to send you questions about how your day was or whether you watched a last basketball match? Look at it from another point of view: you wanted to work for a company, send them messages every day, found that they pay 1$ per hour which you do not like. Should a company be curious why out of a sudden you stopped to send mails?
    – Salvador Dali
    Jul 8, 2016 at 5:39
  • @SalvadorDali The OP is trying to ask if the recruiter will offer him other jobs out there since this failed. What the OP doesn't understand is that the recruiter doesn't work for him but for the employer(s). A recruiter gets a slice of the pay so a recruiter will want anyone, not just one particular person. It's easier to develop a new lead for positions he - the recruiter - has than to work with a individual who may not fit any of the positions available. Basically the OP would be out of a job for a long time, or he best hope that eventually a random recruiter will be able to use him.
    – Dan
    Jul 8, 2016 at 13:28
  • @SalvadorDali I do understand that a recruiter has no incentive to spend their resources on one candidate for a particular employer. What I am trying to understand is that although I went all the way to the end with a certain company and failed at the end, does the recruiter now sees me and my candidacy with a certain bias or prejudice?
    – M. Marsov
    Jul 8, 2016 at 17:36

5 Answers 5

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You don't mention what country you're in.

In the US, I've seen this happen a lot. Remember, the recruiting company is working for the employer (not you). They (the recruiting company) are looking to fill a particular position with that employer. As soon as you've been eliminated from consideration, they no longer have a reason to talk to you.

If the recruiting company happens to discover that you're a possible fit for another opening, they'll be glad to submit you for it. However, don't expect them to hang onto your resume and try very hard to find that other opening. It's far easier for them to just find you on Monster again.

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  • 11
    In most cases it's a myth that recruiters want to establish a relationship with you.
    – Amy Blankenship
    Jul 7, 2016 at 20:10
  • In the US, external recruiting companies are actually working for themselves. They are trying to find a match between employer and candidate so they can collect their fee. They will very quickly drop contacts on either side if things aren't working
    – cdkMoose
    Jul 7, 2016 at 21:09
  • Recruiters are there to make money. If your profile is not strong, they'll just work with the stronger profiles first.
    – Nelson
    Jul 8, 2016 at 4:17
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    +1 agreed. Recruiters get paid to fill jobs, not to get YOU a job. You are just a tool they use to get paid. I often get calls from the same recruiter about different positions and I can honestly say he doesnt remember who I am each time he has called over the years.
    – Keltari
    Jul 12, 2016 at 5:38
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This is common in both North America and the UK at most levels, up to senior management (both from in-house and external recruiters).

As long as you are a prospect they will keep you in the loop, as soon as you are no longer in contention it's common for them to drop you, often not even letting you know you are out the game (let alone why).

As an example I went through many weeks of stages for an American company in the UK for a highly paid senior role, including interviews, technical/logic assessments and personality tests, culminating in them flying me at their expense across the country for a final day of face to face meetings. Of those all went well, aside from one (peer) who could only meet me for 10 mins, and proceeded to ask me esoteric c++ questions (a low down skill and not one required for the job). Got home, did I ever get a response from them even when I (nicely) chased? Nope.

So grow a thick skin if you are in the job market, this won't be the last silent treatment you get, just count each interview as a no-hire until you hear otherwise, and move on, you'll get there.

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Every recruiter I ever used did this to me. He would claim to have a job, ask me for a updated resume, then for whatever reason never seem to apply to the job or ask about a "new" job that is geographically far. Several times recruiters post fake jobs then immediately contact me two minutes after applying asking about a unrelated job.

I have made it a rule to just not use a recruiter and assume they are spamming people to build leads. After a while you start to know who the recruiters are and spamming the site and you can avoid them.

Advice: Make a effort to get in contact with the actual company and not a recruiter. As others said, they work for the employer developing leads and they make their money by filling the position with whoever they can find. My experience tells me you'll be out of a job longer if you rely on recruiters.

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  • Not true. The unscrupulous recruiters use REFERENCES to try to get new customers. Collecting resumes is no better than going through the Yellow Pages (are the still around) as far as building leads is concerned. I've used recruiters for over 20 years - we have to take the good ones with the bad ones. A good measure is how long the company's been around.
    – Xavier J
    Jul 9, 2016 at 2:23
  • I've experienced your experience, but it's not all cases as well. Unfortunately there are more bad recruiters than good ones. I have good experience with some recruiters that even IF i see a job I like, I contact one of the few recruiters that I trust first, and see if he/she can represent me. They sell me better than I sell me, I also don't have to do the leg work of finding out who the hiring manager is and guessing their emails, etc. The recruiter, if the company accepts to work with them, get commission, if the company does not agree, I can still apply directly.
    – CleverNode
    Jul 11, 2016 at 15:03
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Your mileage will ALWAYS vary. I've used recruiters on and off for 20-some-odd years, mostly for contract gigs. Some disappear after your interview. Some will make a follow-up call if nothing positive ensues. You may end up, at times, feeling like an a** -- even if you felt the interview went super well -- due to the treatment you receive. Let it roll off your shoulders.

But then again, HR departments don't necessarily treat you any better!

The benchmark I've learned, with recruiters, is how long the company has been in business, and WHO they do placements for. Companies that deal poorly with their candidates don't last very long because the word starts to get around to both candidates AND potential new clients.

Lastly, I hate to mention this, but it's worthwhile. Watch out for companies that offer contract gigs and that push hard the fact that they can offer H1-B status to foreign employees. Often, but not always, these are people that have been in the States only a few years and they do a lot of dirty business, even to their "own". Watch out for these guys, EVEN if you're only looking for full-time.

Best of luck.

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First and foremost, recruiters foster relationships with companies, not recruits. They get paid by these companies to fill jobs requests. Their time and effort is spent doing two things:

  1. Finding companies with positions to fill
  2. Finding people to fill those positions

Now, as a recruit, you do not meet the requirements of #1.

If, for whatever reason, you do not meet the requirements of #2, then you are no longer of use to the recruiter. Continued communication with you is keeping them from doing these two primary tasks; and that costs them time and money.

Take everything a recruiter says with a grain of salt. Recruiters say they dont get paid till you get a job, but in reality its that they dont get paid till they fill a job. You are not their priority, you are just a tool that they use.

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