Keeping Communication Open

“They never call back”.

That’s the number one most frequent complaint we all hear about recruiters. They get in touch with you about a job, get your CV and then… nothing, radio silence. It’s a cliche at this point and the opening gripe of many an aggrieved LinkedIn post.

Open, active communication is absolutely vital to a successful recruitment process, from all parties involved. It’s a bad recruiter who leaves a candidate not knowing what happened with their CV. Nobody likes a client who doesn’t come back with any response on a CV or feedback on an interview. And sometimes, lack of communication from candidates can hinder their own recruitment chances.

As a candidate, every interaction you have with a recruiter forms part of your working relationship. We all understand that accidents and emergencies happen, that sometimes people change their minds about what they want, that there are any number of reasons a candidate might want to pull out of a role or might need to request a change to the process. There’s nothing wrong with that if it’s discussed directly in a timely manner. But if a candidate suddenly stops picking up the phone, and won’t return an e-mail, that’s far more damaging to their chances of being placed in a role than if they, for example, have to cancel an interview but they make sure to tell the recruiter upfront about why.

Because it’s never just about the one job you’ve been contacted about – if you get rejected from that role, or you join a contract project which will be over in six months, you want to be somebody who a recruiter can be confident about putting forward for other opportunities. We will always feel more confident about championing a candidate who has had some doubts and difficulties but has told us about them than we would be putting forward someone who has a perfect CV but then ghosted me mid-process on a previous job.

There’s an interlinked ecosystem of candidates, recruiters and employers, and reputational damage can be done by a lack of communication between any of the people involved. Just as candidates would, quite rightly, not want to work with a recruiter who never came back to them, candidates who stop communicating make themselves bad prospects to work with, and that could completely ruin their chances of getting their ideal job.

If you’re looking for your next role in Financial Services and you want to work with recruiters who value frequent communication, get in touch on info@kindconsultancy.com or 0121 643 2100