Hi Liz,

I am very tuned in to my local job market. I monitor my field and the
opportunities that are available. Over the last 4 years, I have seen a
trend where a position gets posted. It happens to be something interesting
and potentially a fit and I apply for it or sometimes I don’t because of a
variety of reasons. The job is posted for many months..still out there, it
comes up on my RSS feeds, my twitter feeds, etc. Then the recruiters start
emailing and calling, talking about some exclusive placement they just
received. It never hurts to listen and check it out. The recruiter tells
me I a good fit and asks if I am interested, sometimes they will tell me the
company, sometimes they won’t and I will be able to guess because of what I
mentioned above. Then I finally find out the company and it’s a listing I
have seen before.

I really am beginning to see this as a red flag [should I?] It signals to me
that there is something wrong with job, company or hiring manager/hr. The
trend I see is that the jobs that go to a recruiter are the ones that the HR
people internally cannot fill themselves. [Is this correct? Or am I too much
of a conspiracy theorist? Or just jaded and cynical?] I have an interview
coming up where the scenario was I applied for this job when it was posted.
No response, job was out there..long time..Then a recruiter from NYC [I am
in metro Boston] called, singing the tune above and now I am interviewing
for it and was told the person is “VERY” interested in me. Oh and of
course, after waiting a week for the phone interview, they call Friday and
have to see me Monday.

Thanks in advance.
Gloria Goldstein

Dear Gloria,

Big red flag. The job is posted, zillions of people apply, interviews take
place, no one gets hired, headhunters get the assignment and start making phone
calls into the local talent population. No trust, no leadership. I totally agree
with your assessment. These are employers to steer clear of.

Why couldn’t the employer fill the job quickly through its own best efforts? Is
the salary range vis-a-vis requirements delusional, are the ‘must-have’ bullets
straight from Mars, or is the manager turning off the candidates? Is the hiring
pipeline keeping the best people out? There’s no reason or excuse for this chain
of events. It means that somebody isn’t doing his or her job.

Let’s break it down.

If the job spec and accompanying salary range are in line with the market, and
the recruiting (a/k/a marketing) campaign makes sense, great candidates will
appear. If candidates don’t show up (people who fit the spec and are excited
about the opportunity at the designated salary range) the employer has screwed
up. We can’t wave that criticism away with the explanation “There aren’t lots of
people with the appropriate background.” That’s on you, Chica. We’re not
supposed to create job specs for imaginary candidates. It’s a hiring manager’s
job – and an HR manager’s job, if the hiring manager is out of touch — to see
that reality is threaded through the job spec (as fun as it is to dream up
fantasy candidates with super-powers, coincidentally and happily modest in their
salary requirements).

If the employer is turning to third-party recruiters after fruitlessly
interviewing (or just screening resumes) for weeks, what does that tell us? The
talent population gave the employer’s job spec a resounding thumbs-down. Great
people weren’t jumping at the chance to work for these people. So why the heck
would you?

Steer clear of jobs like this one, Gloria, and trust your gut. The DOYT*
employers in your city are the ones who post clear job specs that appeal to the
very people they’re looking to hire; make their ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ needs known;
respond reasonably quickly to job-seeker queries and deal forthrightly and in
straight-ahead fashion with job candidates to make a sound and unanimously
positive new hire in a few weeks’ time. That’s how things are supposed to
unfold. Be wary of employers who switch strategies (from direct ads to
third-party recruiters) in the middle of a selection pipeline and wallow in the
delusion that they’re being picky!

Best,
Liz