You may remember the Adele parody created by a jobseeker a couple of years ago. Her song ‘Hello’ was used to show the experience of a graduate applying for jobs and not receiving any response. They did a great job and I recommend you have a look if you haven’t already.
It made me think, surely there is a song out there that could tell the story from the graduate recruiter side. Well, I personally find the words of the chorus of Taylor Swift’s song ‘Shake it off’ on point after experiences I’ve had over the last couple of years with recruitment campaigns. So, I am writing this (and it is better that I write rather than sing!) for my peers whom I sure will be able to relate to these situations as well.
‘The players gonna play’ – candidates who don’t have an ideal role or company in mind who apply for a number of roles, to then proceed to accept offers until such time as a better offer comes up, leaving a path of declined offers in their wake (and a number of lost opportunities for other candidates).
‘The haters gonna hate’ – online forum commentators, social media posters, giving ‘advice’ to friends, basically any form of public negativity about a company or a recruitment process. I can only think these must be the candidates who are unsuccessful at some stage of the recruitment process. I’ve even seen some negativity from these people towards other candidates who have posted about being successful in getting a role.
‘The fakers gonna fake’ – those candidates who look you in the eye and say, ‘yes, your company is my number one choice’. ‘I’ve always wanted to work here’ (sound familiar?) and then go on to decline your offer a month after they’ve signed the contract. Or fill out the application form with details that they know will get them to the next stage, only to waste your time screening their application to find out that the details were incorrect (I’ve even seen posts online telling graduates to do this).
I know I missed the ‘Heartbreakers’ but I think the examples above cover this anyway….as it really does break my heart when these things happen. Have you had a few of these lately? And I bet you’re singing this song in your head right now, aren’t you??
At the end of the day, I do believe there are more good candidates out there than bad. I realise this post is more on the negative side, and I’m sure you’ll agree that the good always outweighs the bad in our jobs. We get to meet so many great people and help them find the right role, support them through the nervousness of their first day, to eventually see them thriving in the business and developing themselves professionally. It’s these rewards that keep me coming back for more.
So, I will keep ‘shaking it off’ and spend my time and energy on the candidates who deserve it the most. To my fellow graduate recruiters, you’re all awesome and doing a great job every day so keep up the good work!