“Who’s the company? What’s the pay?” – The recruiter’s perspective

Hot job off the press, but you might not have an amazing candidate in your back pocket. You make some calls to your network, but nothing comes of it. So, you need to start sourcing for the role. And you find some amazing candidates, and start reaching out right away…

“I’m working on an incredible role with an amazing client for a dream manager…yada yada yada…can we set up a time to talk?”

As your making your calls, sending out messages – some start getting returned. “No thanks.” “Sounds great – I’m available…” “Interested.” Then finally:

“Who’s the company? What’s the pay”?

Stay calm. Take a look at the profile of who sent the message. They’re awesome. They check every box. It’s going to be imperative you chat with this candidate because they could be the one. But, because of your years of training, you CAN’T possibly tell them those things. They could turn you down. Or they could backdoor you! But, if you tell them “I can tell you over a call”, or “I can’t right now – let’s talk!”, you could very well never hear back from them.

***My backdoor tangent. As the previous posted, “backdooring” is when the candidate finds out who the company is, they can network through people they know at the company or work with another recruiter on the same position.

I’ve been backdoored before. It’s not the greatest. And a few of the times I got backdoored, the candidate got the job. However, the time I’ve been backdoored had nothing to do with giving away information to soon. They were all after the fact. So, the “backdoor” thing can happen at any point.

And what I’ve come to find out about getting backdoored – whether successfully or not – is one of two things:

1. In 1 or 2 cases, I failed to build the rapport. That’s on me, the recruiter. They thought they had a better route to network in rather then working with me.

2. In most cases, the potential candidates chose to go this route. Because chances are, they’ve been burned by a crap recruiter. And, to put it bluntly - these candidates are probably going to be nightmare to work with. They will be incredibly difficult to schedule pre/post interview calls with. They are going to do what they want to do, when they want to do it, and you are better off finding a candidate that you can work with cooperatively.

***End rant.

I made the choice to answer these questions head on. And send the job description along with it. I just decided to cut the crap. And maybe, this will help build rapport with the candidate upfront. Below are real answers below:

• “Thanks for sending the requirements over. I’m interested in hearing more.”

• “Thanks, but I don’t think the job description is as great a match for my background. Let’s stay in touch.”

• “I’m going to decline. The industry doesn’t align with what I’m looking for. Thank you for being so transparent!”

• “Thanks – I’m making considerably more right now. I don’t want to go backwards.”

• “I’m available to chat at (dates/times) – look forward to connecting!”

• “I’m not interested right now – but try (REFERAL). They would be great for this role. Hope it works out!”

• “Hi – I actually know the owner of this company from my days at (previous company). I might see if I can gain traction speaking with them directly.” – Told me he was going around me. They did NOT get an interview.

Let’s look at these. We’ve got your straight up NO’s. There are some who put reasons behind it, which, are leaving the door open. Industry doesn’t align – what industry are you looking for? Not a great match for my background – what would be a better match? Referrals – awesome!

These responses go on and on, but I have found that there is way more good to great coming out the transparency then not. The no’s were probably not going to chat regardless. And those on the fence left a door open, and those who wanted to chat? They were psyched to talk!

Thanks for reading!