Recruiters ghost all job seekers, even when it’s not Halloween.
In the video below, I’ll be talking about why in-house recruiters ghost you after an interview and 3 things you can do to get the dialogue back on track. After watching this video, you will know exactly how to get an in-house recruiter’s attention and get to the next interview round.
Transcription Below
Introduction
Hi, this is Mike Mittleman your personal career coach. I help people get top jobs in financial services.
Today I’ll be talking about why in-house recruiters ghost you after an interview and 3 things you can do to get the dialogue back on track. After watching this video, you will know exactly how to get an in-house recruiters’ attention and get to the next interview round.
Recruiters Ghost You Because They are Under-Appreciated, Underpaid, and Overworked.
The first thing to know is it is never personal. If you understand the process from the recruiter’s point of view, you will gain insights which you can use to your advantage.
Let’s take the situation of an average recruiter at an in-house financial services company.
The first thing to understand is they are poorly paid since generally, these jobs are transitions to other jobs.
Another way to say it is most companies don’t fully appreciate their HR staff.
If you are in HR watching this, big shout out.
The next thing to understand is they are overworked. Hmm, being overworked and underpaid is not a great combination.
Recruiters Have Too Many Bosses
For example, the average HR professional probably has about 20 jobs open on their desk from various departments within their company.
These 20 jobs openings come from about 10 different people.
Imagine that you now have 10 different bosses.
Each boss is pinging you every day to see how their individual job search is going. Do they care that you have 9 other bosses, of course not? These aren’t even your real bosses in HR!
The recruiter with 20 job openings is now speaking with 5 candidates for each. If you do the math, they have 100 candidates they are supposed to keep track of. If you think the HR talent acquisition systems do a good job, think again. HR gets the lowest budget since as we said, financial services companies don’t really respect people in this department.
So you are 1 of 100 people that this poor, tired, overworked, and underpaid HR professional needs to interview.
However, don’t fret because we are going to talk about 3 tactics you can use today to get their attention, without being a pain in the ass.
Getting a Recruiter’s Attention Without Being A Royal Pain
#1 solution is in every correspondence, give them something of value. See life is a two-way street. Let’s explain more.
What do most people do in a follow-up email after the interview? Let’s assume the interviewer is John.
They write something like: “Hi John. I am excited about continuing the dialogue for the vice president position in debt capital markets. I want to check in to see if you have an update.”
This is ineffective since this is treating the HR person like a computer, not a person. Let’s create respect for the poor, overworked and underpaid HR person in our message.
Let’s actually try to help the HR person and yourself at the same time. What do we mean?
Find an article about HR that you think they would love. Or maybe an article about a competitive firm. Or maybe a salary comparison to allow them to benchmark their salary against others in the same industry. Trying to help them in their own career path is gold!
So let’s try that email again.
First the subject line: Hi John, I found an article on HR compensation trends you might find interesting.
Body:
Hi John. I am excited about continuing the dialogue for the vice president position in Debt Capital Markets.
I thought you might really enjoy this article on compensation trends for HR professionals in financial services. Page 5 has a great chart.
Oh, by the way, I want to check in to see if you have an update on my next interview.
Regards,
Joe Job Seeker
Light bulb moment!
You now have their attention.
You can reach a recruiter in multiple ways
#2 solution is to mix up your communication methods. Try email at first, then LinkedIn then text. Your email might get caught in spam. No spam filter in LinkedIn or in texts for new relationships.
What, you don’t have their telephone number? After linking in with them, click the “Contact Info” button right below their name. Most recruiters will list their telephone. If not, google it. Be resourceful.
By mixing up the communication methods, you break out of the “ignore him since he always sends an email pattern”. Our brains love new information and reject old.
Mix up your media when contacting recruiters
#3 Solution is when you send a message in LinkedIn, mix it up with audio and video. What, you can send an audio or video message in LinkedIn?
How do you do this? On the desktop version, you can’t. But on the mobile version you can. When you go to create a message, you will see a paperclip icon on the left of the message and a microphone icon on the right.
Click the paperclip and you will see an option for sending a photo/video and take a video.
You have the option to upload a pre-recorded video or take one right there with your phone.
If you are camera shy like me, try recording the video on your iPhone when you are not in the LinkedIn app. Script it out and put the script right above or below the phone. You might want to get a cheap tripod for $50.
The message should be short and punchy anyway.
To record a voice message, click the microphone icon and follow the simple directions. You can erase and re-record at will.
Almost no one uses LinkedIn’s voice and video messages.
Now you know how to avoid the ghost and advance to the next interview round. I’m Mike Mittleman, your personal career coach.
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