Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Maureen Sharib on January 27, 2009 at 7:13pm

Man, you asked for it. Be ready to duck.

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Permalink Reply by Rick Probstein on January 27, 2009 at 7:21pm

==> :)
hi maureen....
did you see this new site ?
www.TopJobLeads.com

its up for discussion in Crain's : http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090125/SM...

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Permalink Reply by Kevin Panet on January 27, 2009 at 8:09pm

I've always been wary of sites that charge job seekers money. In my entire life (45 years so far), I have only heard one person say they honestly benefitted from making an additional payment.

It's not really a question of ethics. If you can really help someone get a job, then it might be worth it. Yes, I'd pay $1,000 for a $120,000 job. However, you'd have to do a lot of convincing to get the money from me, especially if money is tight due to unemployment.

The few people I know who have tried to make a living at this do so with face-to-face networking. Those people seem to last a year or two, then they disappear (back to corporate America).

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Permalink Reply by Rick Probstein on January 27, 2009 at 8:14pm

kevin, well stated...
thanks for the reply...
rick

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Permalink Reply by pam claughton on January 27, 2009 at 9:13pm

Yes, I think it's unethical. Bad Karma too.

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Permalink Reply by Jerry Albright on January 27, 2009 at 9:26pm

I think charging candidates for the names of hiring managers is not good. Now granted - this is just my personal/biased opinion so please take it with a grain of salt. In my other reply I asked what you thought an out of work person would do with a contact name and number......my personal guess is NOT MUCH.

The idea of now turning the tables on candidates in this tumultuous time is bad business.

Yes it is a tight time in recruiting. It is for most in the field. But let's not give up our core values here........

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Permalink Reply by Gino Conti on January 28, 2009 at 4:07pm

I can understand the thought process here, but I just don't think it is the right thing to do unemployed or not. I would never feel right taking money from a person just to pass them a name and contact information for a hiring manager, especially since there is no guarantee of a job and that information could very well end up being totally worthless.

Just because a candidate has the name and number for a manager as opposed to a gatekeeper does not necessarily help them. First of all, most job seekers are not professional salespeople or recruiters and might not know how to approach the manager in a manner consistent with getting anything other than a hang-up. Further, even though you say these leads are for companies that are actively hiring, how can you guarantee the manager they call will have a job open? Last, how would you like to be the manager on the receiving end of the call?

Speaking only for the people in my building, our managers are so busy they hardly have time to work with the recruiting team as it is. The priority for most managers is the work they do. They do not want to field calls from candidates, which is why companies have HR and recruiting departments - to screen out the people who don't fit our needs. They certainly don't have the time to field what essentially are cold calls directly from candidates! In fact, I don't even like giving manager contact info to candidates who have come in for a first interview because I don't want them being bothered for feedback.

Regardless of the fact that I find it unethical to charge somebody for a lead that you can't guarantee will actually result in a job, I would be incredibly perturbed to be on the receiving end of those calls.

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Permalink Reply by Samson on January 28, 2009 at 8:45pm

Yep, totally unethical. No other way to slice it.

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Permalink Reply by Kevin Panet on January 29, 2009 at 4:03am

Now, just out of curiosity, if you can’t help the people who are contacting you because it is not your specialty, where do you tell them to go?

I’ll always accept a resume for the data base and try to keep my eyes and ears open. However, lately, I’ve been sending people to www.Indeed.com because it pulls job postings from multiple sites, from the larger job boards to many smaller more obscure sites. I’ve never seen anything like it. Does anyone know of similar or better sites? Where do you tell people to go (in a kind and positive direction)?

-Kevin

P.S. I agree that it is loathsome to prey upon those without jobs. I must have received a dozen of those vulture calls after I was laid off in '06 when the company shut down. Most of them had the nerve in their initial v-mails to sound like legitimate recruiters with positions in hand.

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Permalink Reply by Gerry Crispin on January 29, 2009 at 11:17am

No. Only if the promise doesn't match the result. Unfortunately a large segment of those charging unemployed folks are ripping them off by making promses that are unrealistic.

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Permalink Reply by Lisa DeAngelo on January 29, 2009 at 1:50pm

I think it is unethical because as recruiters we are typically paid by our client. To me, it doesn't matter if the candidate is unemployed or not, it just seems like a shady business practice and I would not be comfortable asking a candidate for money. Sometimes recruiters get a bad rap and the thought of charging money almost seems to justify it! Just my opinion.

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Permalink Reply by Lisa DeAngelo on January 29, 2009 at 1:52pm

Kevin- I, too, often refer people to Indeed.

Kevin Panet said:

Now, just out of curiosity, if you can’t help the people who are contacting you because it is not your specialty, where do you tell them to go?

I’ll always accept a resume for the data base and try to keep my eyes and ears open. However, lately, I’ve been sending people to www.Indeed.com because it pulls job postings from multiple sites, from the larger job boards to many smaller more obscure sites. I’ve never seen anything like it. Does anyone know of similar or better sites? Where do you tell people to go (in a kind and positive direction)?

-Kevin

P.S. I agree that it is loathsome to prey upon those without jobs. I must have received a dozen of those vulture calls after I was laid off in '06 when the company shut down. Most of them had the nerve in their initial v-mails to sound like legitimate recruiters with positions in hand.

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