Recruiting a Recruiter

Probably one of the most ironic parts of working in HR is recruiting for a recruiter. These days they’re not a dime a dozen, and take a considerable amount of time.

During the "P," many companies laid off their recruiting staff as hiring halted dead in it's tracks. Our company was no different. Our company went fully remote on March 17, 2020. We cancelled the orientation scheduled for the March 23rd, furloughed a whole bunch of staff on March 31st (including our recruiter) and eventually laid our recruiter off on June 30th. As the HR Manager, I picked up the recruitment function when our hiring freeze was removed in July of 2020 and wasn't able to post for a new recruiter until the end of January of 2022, at which that time I had single handedly onboarded roughly 125 employees on my own, while also being the interim Director and interim Coordinator.

Unfortunately, by this stage of the game, all the Recruiters were scooped up and being compensated at an inflated rate our little non-profit just couldn’t afford. But I was excited at the thought of having some help and hopeful to find someone that would be the perfect fit. Little did I know I would have to kiss a whole bunch of frogs to get there.

Right off the bat, I felt like I had two highly qualified candidates for the role. One hailed from India. She had over 5 years of experience with recruiting, and described recruiting trends and innovative recruitment strategies. She had experience with DE&I, full cycle recruitment and came across as extremely detail oriented. The other candidate was slightly rougher around the edges, but had direct work experience related to the positions for which we were recruiting and also recruited in the same industry. There was no doubt that he was passionate about the field, and talked about data mining, building and maintaining relationships with community partners, full cycle recruitment and his passion in hiring individuals with disabilities.

Although the decision was tough, I extended an offer to the woman from India, who was more qualified by her years of experience. I was over the moon, as she seemed like a true professional, and had such a vast experience in recruiting. She emphatically accepted the role.

On February 28, 2022, the woman called me to explain that she was not a US citizen and required sponsorship. After discussing the issue with our legal team, I was advised that due to the risk, i.e. the obligations that we could potentially have to provide her with transportation back to India at the end of her assignment, that we would be responsible for anything she did on US territory while working at our company, and the monetary commitments we would be committed to, we should rescind the offer.

Heartbroken, I delivered the news to the candidate. She begged and pleaded with me to give her an opportunity. I was almost in tears by the end of the conversation, when I agreed to discuss the situation with her academic advisor, due to her persistence and explanation that the school’s program would minimize the risk of her employment with us.

But then something weird happened.

When I spoke to the office of international affairs, the school was confused as to why I was calling after I already signed an agreement with them. I brushed it off as their oversight, but he insisted I already signed the agreement. After further discussion, I discovered that it was not their oversight because they e-mailed me an electronically signed copy of the agreement with “my” signature on it. Still on the phone, I explained that I did not sign the agreement. I basically heard a gulp on the other line. The person at the school I was speaking with explained that he needed to report the incident to his supervisor and that they would be taking the issue very seriously. I hung up the phone, called the candidate and rescinded the offer. The candidate explained that it was not her intention to sign my name, she thought she was just filling it in. The form literally had a line that said "Employer (Supervisor) Signature: ___________," with my name (fraudulently) signed on it via Docusign...

The next day, I received a phone call from the security desk in the lobby of my office building explaining that I had guests. I wasn’t expecting guests but thought it was a new hire that was confused so I went to the lobby. To my surprise, it was the candidate accompanied by a man. The candidate began to cry hysterically and explained that she was in jeopardy of being deported. She just kept on repeating, "Please, I'm begging you, they're going to deport me. You have to tell them it was a mistake!" I explained that this was no longer within my control and I wished her well. Although her pleads really haunted me, I could not help her. To this day, I’ll never know if I got her deported or not...

With her out of the running and a rescinded offer under my belt, I offered the role to the other candidate. I was still excited, but cautiously optimistic. Luckily, I didn't get my hopes up. After extending an offer, I had a rough time getting a hold of his references. One Friday night, I lucked out. I asked the reference how the candidate managed stress. He responded, "Great, for a while, but not towards the end. Towards the end he drank heavily to cope with his stress and it affected his work." With that said, I asked if he was eligible for rehire. The reference responded, "Absolutely not! There were a number of reasons why [he] was involuntarily terminated. I would consider rehiring him only because I desperately need the assistance (remember, this was a time when there were absolutely no candidates), but when he was bad, he was really bad." I didn't take notes on the rest of the call, but the reference strongly insinuated that he was terminated because he was drinking and/or getting high, and his attendance and work suffered due to it. I rescinded the offer not only because of the reference, but because the candidate didn't have the sense to not use that person as a reference. You're in HR, have some common sense!

With two offers rescinded, all went downhill from there, even after seeking assistance from a staffing agency. After a phone screening with one woman, she dropped out of the process because the job seemed too big and the recruiter told me I scared her. Another candidate confirmed that he lied on his resume and did not have a Bachelor's Degree as required.

When interviewing one candidate, she continued to go on and on about her experience with administering benefits. I explained that I wanted her to talk more about her recruitment experience. She quickly went over some of the recruitment tasks she was responsible for in other roles and quickly went back into her experience with benefits. When I asked her about a time she went above and beyond in one of her roles, she described an incident when an employee forgot to enroll his infant in short term disability. I couldn't help but wonder, why would an infant need short term disability? Was the infant a professional formula tester? A professional napper? Was the infant on crawl patrol? It wasn't even possible to get an infant on short term disability.

Obviously the candidate wasn't good with benefits administration, which she clearly insisted on telling us about, let alone recruitment. We asked her what frustrated her most at work and she said that she was a germaphobe and was annoyed when people didn't socially distance. I hear you sis, but that wasn’t what I was asking. She then asked me if she had her own office at the end of the interview, despite me explaining that she did during our initial phone screening. I passed.

Then I fell in love with a recruiter, who seemed to have the background we needed and the personality of someone who I'd love to work with. When I was just about ready to extend an offer just based on the phone screening alone, something on her resume caught my eye that I hadn't noticed when the recruiter first sent her resume over. She "pursued" a bachelor's degree from 2013-2016. I incorrectly assumed that meant she "received" it upon first glance. Under that, was another school which I just assumed was a Master’s program. However, to my surprise, she was currently "pursuing" an Associate's Degree from 2020 - present (April 2022). When I asked her about it because I thought it had to be a typo, she explained that she did not have a degree. So she was in school for over 5 years and didn't even have an Associate's degree. She was unqualified. I passed.

I then had a string of annoying candidates: the candidate who accepted another offer the morning of her final interview, the candidate who declined the offer based on the salary after knowing the salary range and agreeing to it throughout the whole process (she didn't have another offer), and the candidate that was desperately trying to leave a cookie chain who cancelled our final interview at the last minute citing, "Unfortunately, I feel if I were to leave my current company, I would be leaving my team and supervisor in a tough position. I care a lot about the team and supervisor I work with, so I don't want to waste your time and continue the interview process - my deepest apologies for this last minute decision. I know you will find the right candidate for this position!"

But wait, there's more! I receive the resume of someone who seemed like a shining star, who again, seemed to have all of the relevant experience for which I was searching. She was even better during the phone screen, but then no call/no showed to her interview. Despite my better judgment, and potentially the desperation eating away at me, I rescheduled her after the recruiter e-mailed me with an update on why she no call/no showed to the interview. According to the recruited, "Her dad got shot over the weekend. And she’s [out of state] dealing with that, he didn’t die… but is needing some care. Seems like her head maybe wasn’t in the right space? She was prepped yesterday and sounded great, she called my recruiter this am and was asking her what she should wear. She did mention that she thought the meeting was at 11:30. So not sure if that was where the confusion was? But I mean she had the invite from you. I feel bad for her. BUT, I also have been in this business long enough to hear every story under the sun, some true, some not…

After some back and forth, I interviewed her, she was great, and we extended an offer to her. Again, we were down this road multiple times, and I had typed up 5 or 6 other offers without an actual recruiter starting. I was nowhere near feeling 100% confident. And I was happy I wasn't, because this offer was no exception. While working on credentialing her, I noticed that her resume stated that she graduated in 2020, however, her background check form she completed stated that she got her degree in 2022 and her online application that she also completed stated that she graduated in 2021. After verifying her graduation date with her and running the background check, the screening service provided me with information that the school stated that she did not graduate and verified "enrollment only.” The recruiter told me the candidate insisted that she graduated and asked me to reopen the case with the background screening service.

She also stated she possessed a SHRM-CP. Already skeptical about the schooling, and being recently certified at the time, I knew you could verify a credential on the SHRM website, so I decided to search for her name. No results were found. When I told the recruiter, she seemed to not believe me and requested the certificate from the candidate. She forwarded me the most pixelated image I’ve ever seen in my life of the candidate’s SHRM-CP, which was another red flag. I explained that although she produced a certification that I was unable to verify it. After much back and forth with SHRM, the candidate and the recruiter, SHRM again confirmed (in writing) that there was no way this candidate had the certification. Even after we rescinded the offer (number three if your abacus doesn't have enough beads), the candidate still swore she had a SHRM-CP and the degree. Sure Jan, SHRM and a screening service were both conspired against you...

Finally, 6 months of a search, in September of 2022, we extended an offer to a recruiter. And they started. And were fully credentialed. Sure, he wasn't the most detail oriented, and yes, his office reeked of stale college straight man, and he may or may not have had a few nervous break downs in my office that resulted in tears, with some mentorship he’ll be just fine.

Until next time…