The names in the below blog have been changed to protect the innocent…and the guilty.
Screening my recent ad applicants I came across the CV of an experienced recruiter. Believe it or not, in the world of Rec-to-Rec this can be a rare occurrence. Typically, my CRM is filled with moonlighting dinner ladies and South African Karate instructors. Suffice to say, this CV caused a stirring in my loins. Not only is this person (we shall call her Rachael – I’ll explain why later) an experienced recruiter, but she lives in a provincial town where I currently have a red-hot agency vacancy. With slightly sweaty digits I dial Rachael’s number. She picks up after a couple of rings. She’s charming, articulate, credible, successful, and…get this…immediately available. My slight stirring is now a raging Scrotum-pole. After a long conversation, I pitch my role to her. Rachael tells me “Sean, I want that job”. I hang up and excitedly call the client. I explain that I haven’t met this person yet, but she’s great. The world of Rec-to-Rec moves like this. When you have a hot commodity, you have precisely 37 seconds before some other chancer sprays their CV around town. My client, who I have a great relationship with, tells me they’ve heard enough. They don’t need me to meet the candidate, and they can meet them in two hours’ time. I call Rachael back and the meeting is booked. Rachael has no LinkedIn profile, and strange as this is to some, In my experience, some blue collar recruiters don’t. Hell, I didn’t for 4 months, and still made placements.
After the meeting my client calls:
“Sean, she was fantastic. She could be my new Team Leader. There is a concern however…”
Here we go.
“I found two old LinkedIn profiles for her, and one says she works at Hays, and the other says she worked at SourceHR. Neither of which are on her CV, and neither did she mention when we ran through her whole career. It’s a big warning sign, and I need to think on it”
Strangely, I was unable to find any LinkedIn record of “Rachael” – the name on her CV. My client however, without thinking typed in the more common “Rachel” – and low and behold, two ghost profiles.
Embarrassed at my own incompetence, I get on the case. Google is an incredible thing these days, and not only did I find the aforementioned LinkedIn profiles, but I find something else…
I call Rachael/Rachel, and it goes as follows:
“Rachael/Rachel, unfortunately it’s a “no” from the client. They discovered a few inconsistencies in your CV, and that makes them slightly uneasy. Why did you not mention you ever worked at Hays?”
“Is that not on my CV? I thought it was. Honestly Sean, I was there for such a short period, I barely remember it. I genuinely wasn’t trying to hide anything”
“OK Rachel, I suppose these things can happen. Is there anywhere else you’ve worked that isn’t on your CV? I just need to know in order to represent you. Think back. Any jobs that didn’t make it on, no matter how short?”
“Nope. That’s it Sean. Just Hays”
“OK. Then why is there another LinkedIn profile stating you worked at SourceHR??”
“Oh there. Yeah, I did work there. But I was just contracting.”
“OK, OK. Anywhere else? Absolutely anywhere? At any time? Think Rachel. Think.”
“I swear Sean, nowhere else.”
“OK. Does the name “Kinetic” mean anything to you?”
“errmmm…no. What’s Kinetic?”
“Kinetic is a recruitment company Rachel. A recruitment company which has a Facebook page with a photo of you wearing a Kinetic T-Shirt, standing next to the CEO of Kinetic, with a caption stating how much she likes catching up with her “awesome team”. A photo published in May of 2021, just over two years ago.”
“Ah yeah, Kinetic. I was there briefly also.”
Welcome to the world of Rec-to-Rec folks.
If you’d rather lie to my face, we’ve just released a handful of extra Rice PowWow tickets for next Thursday after the first lot got snapped up in record time. Click the link, and I’ll see you there.
^SW
