push back – have the courage of your convictions (and your ability)
with a market swamped with candidates, companies use recruiters because we specialize, understand their business and save them time.
Ask yourself a question: how many people do you talk to for each role you work on? how long does it take you to identify your ‘long list’ for every search? Then how long does it take to funnel that long list down to your short list? By the time you get to your best candidates for a position, you’re heavily invested from a time perspective.
So you put your notes together and send the resume out to your client. Your client comes back and says, ‘no, they just dont have enough experience of …………’. That’s wonderful. All that work and not even a first interview yet. If you go through the process as mentioned above, resumes you submit have been submitted for a reason. i.e. YOU, the specialist, time-saving, business-understanding recruiter believe they are a good fit for the company. Should you sit there and take that rejection on behalf of your candidate? NO – not if you know the brief and have pre-qualified your candidates effectively. You’ve got to be prepared to push back on your client and fight your candidate’s corner (otherwise, you’re wasting your time as a recruiter). Admittedly, the first resume might be a benchmark which helps you refine what you are looking for, but from then on, ALL of your candidates should be interviewed. Otherwise, you’re really not differentiating yourself from the competition out there.
Think of it this way. I want to buy a car. I’ve got the money, but I’m specific about a number of things such as colour and options – and i have a pretty long list of ‘nice to haves’. The sales guy and I get on pretty well. He’s not pushy, but he’s asking a lot of questions. eventually, he takes me to a car with everything apart from the rear DVD package. Why do i need that? well, my kids, who sit in the back once a week, might want to watch it. But then, do i really go on long enough journeys with them where I’m going to need it? err…..probably not. The car has everything else I am looking for and the salesperson says it’s probably as close as we’ll get to what I’m looking for. REMEMBER, this analogy is to get a TEST DRIVE, not buy the car. Buying the car would be a placement. a test drive would be the equivalent of an interview. I don’t know about you, but I’d take the test drive.
Go back to your client and find out exactly why – what do they mean by not enough experience? then push back with a ‘i respect your comments/concerns, but i would not be doing my job if I didn’t counter them. I’m by no means trying to force you to talk to this individual, but these are the reason why I believe you should. I’ve spoken to around (however many) people so far and this individual stands as a clear favourite for the position, and these are the reasons why’ Then go into it. Keep pushing. Now remember, you’ll only push back if you believe in your candidate’s ‘matchability’. If you don’t believe in that, perhaps you shouldn’t have submitted the resume in the first place…..
so stop wasting your precious time and become an extension of your client’s hiring program. Too many recruiters don’t differentiate by accepting the initial resume feedback. It is NOT your job to send across candidates who don’t get interviewed. We’re talking about a $25k fee here. You’ve got to be good enough to earn it.
