As recruiters, our goal is not just to find jobs that match up with your skill set but to present the opportunities that align with your motivations and help you achieve your career goals. In order to provide the most value for you in your search, we always ask our candidates for full transparency and open communication during our initial conversation, through each interview process, and most importantly during offer stage.
However, there is a stigma around recruiters that can cause candidates to lie and withhold relevant information. The recruitment market is very large and unfortunately not all recruiters uphold the same standards. But any industry of this size has bad apples, and you should not let that affect how positive the experience of working with a recruiter can and should be.
Here are a few reasons we hope will encourage you to be honest with your recruiter.
1. It’s your future, recruiters just want to help.
A good recruiter will aim to learn about more than your career background because they understand there is more involved in the decision to change jobs than just having the necessary skills. If the recruiter is asking you about aspirations you have outside of work, share that with them! Tell them about your family, and the role they play in how you make career decisions. Even tell your recruiter about that vacation you have coming up in three weeks so they can be proactive and make sure you do not miss out on any opportunities.
Similarly, you should feel comfortable telling a recruiter when you are interviewing with other companies, what the opportunity is, and what you do or do not like about it. Candidates have this notion that recruiters only ask this for their own benefits as a business. As recruiters, do we want to have knowledge about the market? Of course. But it is much more important to understand the entire landscape of opportunities you are exploring so we can ask you the tough questions, and ultimately help you make the right career decision.
The more you share, the more value your recruiter can add—even advising you on where you sit compared to the rest of the market.
2. The truth always comes out.
It sounds elementary, but it is true in recruitment.
It is natural to want to boost your career, compensation, and seniority when looking for new opportunities. However, no matter how tempting it is DO NOT lie about any of this—especially your past experience or knowledge of a required skill. The truth will come out, whether that be in an interview or after you get the job.
If you claim to have skills in Lightning Development and you have a technical assessment that proves otherwise not only does your recruiter, and their firm look bad, but more importantly you make yourself look bad and you will not get the job. Likewise, if you get the job and your first project requires the skills you do not actually have, you end up failing to do what is expected and will likely be let go.
3. A job search can be hard but we do the hard parts for you.
Look at it this way. . . a recruiter can help you find the job you dream about and hand it to you on a platter. At TwentyPine we take the information from all of our conversations and use them to tell your story and present more than your resume. Unlike a blind application to a LinkedIn post,a recruiter allows you to be introduced directly to hiring managers which greatly increases your chances of landing the job.
Recruiters will schedule all of your interviews, follow up about interviews for you, and if you make it to offer stage, good recruiters will even negotiate on your behalf because they know how difficult those conversations can be. All that recruiters ask of you is for you to be honest with us—and nail your interviews of course!
If you have an interview and decided you do not like the opportunity anymore, absolutely share that with us. At the end of the day a recruiter will not want to send you to opportunities that do not interest you because no one benefits from that situation, especially you.
There is actually nothing you can lose by being honest with us, but there is a lot you could lose by choosing not to be.