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It makes no sense. You tell me you're following up with XYZ law firm, and then weeks—sometimes even months—go by with nothing. Yes, I understand that firms and hiring partners take time, but it is literally YOUR job to push for candidates like me, to advocate for us, to help us find roles. 'Help' being the key word here.
If a role doesn’t work out, refer me to other places. Keep track of your candidates. Remember us. Organize a database. Put some effort into your job. Help me and others like me.
I get it, you’re dealing with a lot of candidates. But there are also a lot of you. So how is it that, collectively, you have managed to fail us so spectacularly?
It’s especially frustrating to see recruiters spending so much time posting on LinkedIn about what candidates should or shouldn’t do. You go on and on about how we shouldn’t reach out to firms directly or post self-righteous motivational messages about 'Mondays' while ignoring our messages. Imagine if you just took five seconds to say, 'Hey, it didn’t work out with XYZ firm, but I’ll keep you in mind for future roles,' or even, 'The client changed their mind.' How hard is that?
If you’re a recruiter reading this, feel free to copy-paste the above. It’s probably the least you can do.
Have templates, hire more people, use some basic common sense—for the sake of those of us who are desperately looking for jobs. If you can’t even show this minimal level of decency, how do you expect any respect in return?
Most legal recruiters don’t understand the industry beyond the surface-level buzzwords—litigation, corporate law, in-house counsel, TMT, IPR. That much is clear.
And then there’s the whole 'confidential openings' nonsense. Half of you are peddling mystery jobs with no real details, expecting candidates like me to jump in blind. 'Big law firm, Tier 1, great opportunity' is NOT a job description. Do you even have a real opening, or are you just collecting resumes to meet some arbitrary quota?
Let’s not even get started on mass emails. Nothing screams professionalism like getting a job alert that wasn’t even meant for me. 'Dear Candidate, Exciting role at XYZ firm!' Sure, sounds legit.
And salary misinformation? Don’t even get me started. Some of you lowball me to keep your clients happy, others inflate numbers just to lure me in. Either way, I end up blindsided at the final stage when the actual offer doesn’t match anything you promised.
At the end of the day, most of these so-called recruiters are just middlemen chasing commissions with zero regard for candidates as actual human beings.