Why People Hate Third Party Recruiters

By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter

I was a third-party recruiter for more than 40 years. People now hire me for no BS job search coaching and career advice globally because I make finding work and succeeding in it much easier.

I remember recruiting for an IT project manager position in Texas and receiving a call from another third-party recruiter with a follow-up on a resume he’d sent to me. The resume was for a non-technical product manager who lived nowhere near my client and obviously, I wasn’t interested in the referral.

“Hi! Did you look at the resume I sent?”

“Yes, and I wasn’t interested.”

“But he’s a product manager who wants to work in a project manager role in that town,” I was told.

“Am I supposed to care? I don’t see why that makes a difference. Their experience doesn’t fit what my client wants and, beyond that, everything you are saying is irrelevant.”

“But . . . “

That was the last word I heard because I hung up.

I’ve heard tales of woe from many job hunters who talk about being bludgeoned by a recruiter to go on an interview for a job they are neither qualified for nor interested in.