Early in my career as a recruiter, I was treated poorly by a job seeker and couldn’t understand why.
After several conversations that felt more like a heated sparring match rather than professional dialogue, I mustered the courage to ask him why he was so curt. Clearly, he was upset and didn’t want to have the conversation.
Over his career, he had a history of unproductive relationships with recruiters. As he put it, recruiters exhibited a lack of professionalism and even told outright lies. Consequently, he had strong bias against anyone in the profession, and he perceived no value in the relationship. As stated, “Talking to recruiters is like dealing with the root of all evil. I’d rather not bother.”