Question:

I wanted to know if there is any downside in asking an applicant to introduce me to his company when he leaves. What objections can I expect and how I can overcome them? 

Danny's response:

The only downside would be to believe whatever they say at face value. When a candidate leaves, he/she tends to be either be in a wistful frame of mind (thereby inducing a “false positive” about the company) or in a bitter, vituperative state of mind, (thereby inducing a “false negative”). You need to hear them out and make a judgment as to how much of what they are telling you is fact or feeling based. And then, the real test is to put what you have learned aside and approach the company with a clean slate. The candidate should provide a warm lead as to who to call, what their needs are, and even some insight as to what they prefer. But the trick is to balance the “insider info” and make the call as you would any biz development call. You can do...

Question:

My client, a small husband and wife company in business 25 + years, hired a Director of Sales and a Controller through our firm. Everything is going great with the Sales candidate because she reports to the husband. However, promises are not being kept for the Controller, who reports to the wife. The reason they hired our Controller was so the wife could back out of the business and focus on her law office. The husband was very clear (along with everyone else that we met with during client visits) that the wife could be overbearing at times. Husband and wife both say they love our candidate but the wife is not giving up control of any major responsibilities. The wife has our candidate doing special projects like researching for new manufacturing accounting programs to buy and researching new network servers. She does get to see every receipt, invoice, purchase agreement, etc. that crosses the wife's desk for approval, but that is as far as it goes when it comes to her...

Question:

We have a new client that recently hired someone through our firm. The CFO of the firm called us about four weeks ago to say that the candidate has been struggling with some of the basic functions of the job and has made a number of errors. We spoke with the candidate who highlighted that he was frustrated with the lack of a challenge and that the woman he was working for (who reports into the CFO) was difficult, sometimes moody, and ultimately he was not getting along with her on a personal level. He was under the impression that the job would improve once their accounting system was automated in September. He was unaware of the frustrations from the CFO and his manager. Today the CFO decided to give him one more week to "improve" - she called us to inform us of this decision. The comments have been that he doesn't take notes, lacks motivation, doesn't ask questions, makes mistakes on the simple tasks, all things we don't want to hear. After our call, the CFO communicated...

Question:

Is there such an agreement that candidates can sign that says they will not accept a job from someone we refer them to without notifying us? We had a financial person who went to work with a financial portfolio manager who started his own firm, and hired our fixed income specialist. Although it’s a different firm, it was through our efforts. I wonder if there is any type of agreement with the CANDIDATE that we could start using in this upcoming year.

Danny's response:

As any lawyer will tell you, you can put anything you’d like in an agreement. But that doesn’t mean it has any real standing or value. Your candidates are your “product” and your client companies are your customers. Your legal standing is with them. If they hire someone you refer, they owe you the agreed upon fee. This is called consideration. I have a host of recruiters putting a variety of things in candidate agreements (anti counter offer clauses, exclusivity where they...

Question:

I don't understand. In the last week:

1. I have had one candidate who was supposed to get an offer, pretend to be sick and have her "sister" take a call on her behalf.
2. A candidate who had an interview scheduled for 9am never showed up, and when I called, she was in the bathroom?
3. Today I am waiting on two candidates to call back for a 1st interview meeting and another candidate for a 2nd interview.
4. And as I was writing this (Monday evening), I just received a message that a candidate who went to an interview Friday, is now going back to school.

I don't understand. This has NEVER happened to me in my life...is there something going on in the market? What the heck is going on?

Danny's response:

Settle down. I wasn’t aware of this until we started making placements in the biotech arena, but I am now convinced that if Recruiters were medical researchers or FDA agents, not only would your candidates be telling you they were too sick to come to the phone, we...

Question:

Market is heating up. We know it because we have never received so many offers from our clients in the last few months. I should be jumping for joy but not quite. Just the last week - we had 3 (three!!!!!!!) fallouts. I yell at my guys to pre-close all the candidates and they do by following your scripts. “Yes I will accept $120K.” “Yes I can do the job.” “Yes I want to work for the company money aside.” But then last minute candidates don’t want to come to our offices to sign. They ask us to email the offer and want to read the complete offer (salary + bonus + benefits + vacations + sick days + etc.) and want to take a day to think about it. And then almost always take another offer.

So if I ask: So at $120K you will accept with $50K bonus, 4 week’s vacation, etc. - they say we want to see it on paper and think about it.

What are we doing wrong??? Should we take it away from them when they tell us they need 24...

Question:

I have a candidate that is perfect for a position we are working on and after talking to him I discovered he had a position that he did not put on his resume because he "had words" with the Director and only worked there for a few months. The way he got around this is by putting just the years of his employment on his resume and not the months so it doesn't look like there is a gap. I feel obligated to tell my client about this but he does not want me to. I explained to him that many of us have at some point in our careers had a boss that was difficult to deal with and it is better to disclose it up front than to try to cover it up. Would you send this candidate on his way?

Danny's response:

Maybe it's because when I was 11 my parents took me against my will to Disney World, and the only thing that could be more embarrassing than walking around with my parents happened. We went on the ride, "It's A Small World After All" and at the halfway point, the machinery...

Question:

As 3rd party recruiters, will we be bound by the law in Massachusetts, which now prohibits employers from asking a candidate what their compensation is (prior to an offer being made)?

Danny's response:

While I have no doubt what starts in Massachusetts will become the way it is throughout the land, (that whole Boston Tea Party thing seemed to catch on like wildfire back in the day), and at first blush it freaks recruiters out.

For those reading this who don’t know, a bill was passed making it illegal for employers to ask candidates about their current salary before offering them a job. (See article here.) It is a well-intentioned law, however misguided and proof positive that politicians lack real-world biz experience, to create pay equality. The new law will require employers to state a compensation figure up front.

In the real world, of course, this can get messy.

• People can volunteer their salaries, so will this create gamesmanship and...

Question:

Hi Danny,

I have a candidate who is active in looking for a new position. He has a job offer on the table with a deadline for his answer. My client expedited its process and met with my candidate the day I presented him. The client is interested but needs to complete a second interview. The candidate would need to delay his response to the other offer for two days. Any suggestions on how the candidate should ask for an extension without losing the "bird in the hand" offer?

Danny's response:

It’s a rare occasion that offers come in a neat and organized fashion. Pushing and pulling is a very large part of a recruiter’s job. When an offer is “in hand”, you always run the risk of losing that offer if you don’t accept it within the predetermined amount of time. When the client is ours, and we are extending an offer, we set the expectations that the acceptance is expected within 24 hours. We let the candidate know this before the offer is...

Question:

What is your policy on revealing the name of your clients to candidates?

As the war for talent heats up, I am getting more candidates who will not speak with me (or proceed further) until I tell them who the client is. I try to avoid telling them who the client is until they are vetted and ready to be submitted for the position.

Does your policy differ when trying to get referrals?

Danny's response:

So some background. A few times over the years, I have been asked by the equity partners in my firm to re-think one of my core beliefs. I pride myself on never being done with learning, and on being able to call myself on my own nonsense. So when they asked me if we could abandon the corporate dress code, and go business casual during the week, and completely casual (don’t get me started, “Are those sweatpants, Joe? Really?”) on Fridays, I fought hard. I said it would affect morale. I said we’d feel less professional and...