The Recruitment Consultant Story

Being in the recruitment industry for many years and seeing too many recruitment consultants “suffering,” I would like to share some “nightmare” stories so that people who are not in the industry will understand what it is all about, and, of course, recruitment consultants who are reading this, please have a good laugh…

Manager Kelly: Tommy, your profile looks good, and I am very sure you have what it takes to become a great recruitment consultant and excel in this industry. Our company is willing to pay your requested salary and on top of that, we will even give you commission when you hit a certain target (KPI). You will also be given transport and mobile phone allowances when you meet clients.

Tommy: Well, this sounds good, and I would love to accept this offer to become a wonderful recruitment consultant.

Tommy starts the role of a recruitment consultant the next week and his nightmare begins….

The first three days, he goes through a crash course to learn the process of recruitment consulting and the work he has to go through. From cold calling, visiting clients, presentations, public relationships, entertaining, posting of advertisements, filtering, interviewing, recommending of candidates to clients, arrangement of interviews, following up…etc.

Wow…that seems to be a lot of work for Tommy, who has just realized the role of a recruitment consultant!

Of course, on the very first day, Kelly the manager brings the batch of new recruitment consultants to the top Japanese restaurant for lunch at International Plaza, 2nd story, where the menu is all in Japanese without any pictures. Apparently the whole meal costs a bomb in Tommy’s eyes, and, well, I am sure Tommy is “VERY IMPRESSED.” Anyhow, Kelly is not paying the bill, the company is. Haha.

1st Week

Monday – One week gone, and Tommy is ready to start his engine in high gear! On Monday he calls 50 companies and 49 companies reject him. Not interested in doing business with him…Oops…. The other one out of the 50 did not even give him a chance to talk. They slammed the phone on him! Ouch!

Tuesday – Tommy was drained yesterday, but does not want to give up. He tries to call another 70 companies. He gets 50 rejections, 19 slammed phones, and–finally–one asks him to send his company profile to them. Seems like a good start!

Wednesday – Tommy follows up with that one company and manages to get them interested to meet with him. He is so excited that he tells Kelly about it. Kelly says, “Well done… follow up, and if you need me to accompany you to see the client, let me know”. Tommy continues to call another 50 companies with no more luck.

Thursday – He meets up with his first client along with Kelly the manager, and realizes that he needs to be very good in socializing, entertaining, and presenting, which he is not. Tommy is very uncomfortable, but Kelly helps him out for this round and he manages to get the job order from the client.

Friday – Tommy starts to learn how to post advertisements in Jobstreet, JobsDB and Jobcentral, as well as other not-so-popular websites to attract people to apply for the post that the client requested. He asks himself, why can’t the clients post the advertisement themselves? He is not able to answer the question himself and asks his colleagues. He is told that it is because the clients find it troublesome or are not able to find the right people themselves. Hmmm. Tommy scratches his head. Is that really the case? He wonders….

Week 2

Monday – The advertisements Tommy posted have had some responses. His inbox is filled with 275 unread emails when he switches on his computer. He is so happy about it…Wow! I am going to be very busy today, he thinks…. The first 10 emails are applicants from the Philippines and India. The next 15 emails are also from India and Philippines. The other 129 were also from India, India, India, Philippines, Philippines, Philippines, Philippines, Philippines, Philippines and Cebu…What? What’s Cebu? Where is this place?

He asks Kelly. She says, “It is Philippines TOMMY!!! You never learned this in your school History lesson, huh??????” The day has just passed with the whole day learning about the culture, history and geography of India and Philippines…Oh, by the way, what does history have to do with Cebu City? It should be geography isn’t it? I think Kelly failed her history and geography…. smiles Tommy.

Tuesday – Today gets more interesting. There are applicants from Indonesia, Thailand, Pakistan, and even the Middle East! What the…. Middle East? I am just looking for a simple administrator and people from the Middle East send me their resume. Tommy calls the client and asks them if they take in people from the Philippines, India, Indonesia, etc.…. 

They tell him, “Tommy, we are so sorry but NO, we do not take them, Singaporean or PR only.” He says, “Err…Yes I understand Singaporean, but you said PR, which is Public Relations, which I studied at NTU. What do Public Relations have to do with an administrator????”  

“Excuse me, Tommy, PR means Permanent Residence, NOT Public Relations!” “ Oh…alright…yes yes…. Permanent Residence …so sorry, yesterday I must have slept too late, could not really concentrate….” Tommy realizes that he just made a complete fool out of himself!

Wednesday – An email from iamverypretty@yahoo.com reaches Tommy’s email for the job of administrator. Tommy is very impressed with the resume, and she does look very pretty in the photo, and this candidate is a Singaporean. So he sends her resume to his client immediately without doing any filtering or interviews. The client calls Tommy and asks him to arrange an interview with this “I am very pretty” lady. Tommy is very excited because he has reached the stage of “interviewing,” and if everything goes well, he will be able to close his first case!

Thursday – Tommy arranges the interview with Miss “I am very pretty” for the post of administrator with the client today and Miss “I am very pretty” attends the interview very prettily. 

Then Tommy calls the client and asks the client about the status of the interview.

The client asks, “Did you send in the wrong person?”

Tommy is very puzzled. “What do you mean?” The client tells him that the person in the photo in the resume is very pretty, but the person who attended the interview was “NOT” pretty. They were double the size and apparently her identity card was correct. The client asks, “Tommy, did you see the candidate before sending her to us?”

Now Tommy has a BIG problem: if he says YES, he will SLAP himself, and if he says NO he will also SLAP himself….a few seconds go by…he pauses….all of the sudden, Tommy’s mobile phone rings….He quickly tells his client, “I have a very important call coming in, I will call you back shortly”.

Tommy knows he made a BIG flop…A VERY BIG FLOP, and dares not return the call to the client. Of course, the client does not call back either, and Tommy has learned a very good lesson… 

Recruitment Consultants Nightmare! True Story… (Part 2) Coming soon…