This week marks the final installment of the Candidate’s Bill of Rights on ItzBIG Blog. this week, the 10th amendment, covering “Information.” This will also be the last installment for me. Tomorrow, I will be posting the second in a series (well actually the third installment) but under a new title. Come back tomorrow and check it out.
Information – All applicants will be provided with the necessary information about the company, hiring manager, compensation, performance expectations, etc. in order to make an informed career decision.
I agree that candidates need information in order to properly evaluate job opportunities and to prepare for various interviews during the hiring process. I don’t think that there could be much disagreement there. In fact I have covered the material quite a bit. In my article covering recruiter’s expectations [hint for anyone paying attention] I actually quote an earlier article, “Recruiting Myths – Candidate Resumes†where I point out the need for recruiters to share information with the job seeker, AND why it benefits the recruiter.
However, part of the article the article on ItzBIG quotes Joel Spolsky of Joel on Software in his article “Introducing jobs.joelonsoftware.com”
“For the job seeker, the problem is the same: when they look on giant job boards they see a bunch of undifferentiated jobs, often posted by clueless headhunters that provide all kinds of information you don’t need (â€A leading provider of whateverâ€) and none of the information you do need (what’s the name of the company? Do they make nuclear bombs? Will they give me a private office and a big monitor? Free M&Ms? Are they sloppy hacks or quality hackers? Can I use Ruby on Rails?)â€
I would suggest that that isn’t the information that the job seeker needs, at least not right in the beginning. And it is very naive to think the at recruiter would just lay out the name of his client company for all to see – especially other recruiters with whom he is competing. If you want a better sense of why that would be, read my article or just take a look at this excerpt:
Recruiters leave out the details for competitive reasons – Recruiters that work on a contingency basis work in a very competitive marketplace. They may not have an exclusive with a client company, and there can be many reasons for this. But because of it, they have to be smart about how they advertise their openings. Why? Well, that is easy to answer…. other recruiters. You see other recruiters out there who are industrious may be looking at the same job boards as candidates, in order to find open positions that need filling. The more information contained in a job posting, the easier it is to identify the client company. With a phone and a few minutes time, a really good recruiter could come up with the same assignment that it may have taken the person posting the ad months to secure.
I’m sure that if Joel’s livelihood depended upon winning races with other third party recruiters, he might not be so upset that the names of companies are not listed. Even company recruiters, not just third party recruiters often conduct confidential searches where the name of the company can not be released until the candidate is qualified and in the process. It is how the recruiting game is played. Companies don’t want an employee that is on his way out to leave before his replacement is hired. There isn’t a way to change those dynamics… and candidates need to learn patience. Once they are qualified and seem interested, a great recruiter will shower them with information in order to “hook” them for the opportunity.
So that wraps up our look at the Candidate’s Bill of Rights. Tomorrow check for our continuing series on making recruiters want to work with you. Dang it, did I just give it away… check tomorrow and see. 😉