It kills me when a client says, “It feels like you are working for the candidate here, instead of us.” Honestly, do they really think that? I mean, we aren’t stupid - we know where our bread is buttered. The day a candidate writes me a $20,000 check is the day that I’ll turn over a new leaf. I will be a candidate-working-for-machine. I don’t see that happening anytime soon, however.

Let’s take an honest look at this question though. Why would a client think that a recruiter would be looking out for the candidate’s best interest rather than theirs? Could it be that we are attempting to stop the client from making bad recruiting moves that will lose the candidate? Could it be that we are telling them honestly what it is going to take to get the candidate on board during negotiations? Could it possibly be that we are actually looking out for their best interest, not the candidate, and what we are telling them is actually to HELP them make a hire to improve their company? If it “feels” that we are working for the candidate, that is not fact, but just that - a feeling.

We are known as being assertive recruiters, I’ll admit that. It’s not because we like being hardasses. I don’t get a kick out of having those “lay it all out on the table” type conversations with our clients. I don’t get personal satisfaction out of having to tell someone something that I know could unequivocally get their underwear in a bunch. But I’ll do it. I’ll do it again and again, if it means that I have information that will save us all a lot of pain and suffering in the long run, you better believe I am going to sing like a canary.

I never thought my parents were looking out for my best interest when they said something that I didn’t agree with. “Don’t go out with that boy Ragan, he’s a real dirt-bag.” That translated to me, “Don’t go out with that guy Ragan, you’ll have too much fun and we don’t want you to have fun.” Is that really what my parents wanted? For me not to have fun? No, they didn’t want me to get hurt - I know now they were looking out for my best interest. Of course there was no fee involved with my parent’s advice, however, the sentiment is still the same with a recruiter-client relationship. The truth hurts, and no one ever wants to hear that their actions are potentially detrimental, but that is our job to tell you the facts - love them or leave them.

Sometimes it is easier to twist the facts to something emotionally charged rather than think about them rationally. Everyone in the process has a job to do, ours is to make sure that our clients make the best hires possible. It would not be in our best interest to push a client into a hire that isn’t right, that would be cutting off our nose to spite our face. You may not understand exactly what goes into the recruiting process until you are on the other side. It’s not easy being a recruiter, the same goes for being a hiring manager dealing with a recruiter - not a cake walk either. It is true, candidates do not write the checks, the client does - but with that being said, the candidate is a crucial element in the process and without them, none of us have jobs.