There was a great post on blog The Anti-Pimp recently, 7 Things Recruiters Do That Irritate Me. I had to laugh -- so many of the things listed are complaints that I've heard from quite a few candidates myself.

So I started speaking to contractors that I know to see what other things irritate and annoy them -- sometimes to the point of refusing to work with a particular recruiter or company. In this far-from-scientific survey, I've spoken to a few IT consultants (business analyst, systems analyst, technical writer, and a programmer), as well as a contract HR specialist, a recruiter, a travel nurse, and a proposal writer.

Perhaps the most common complaint (and I've experienced this one a time or two myself!) is recruiters not listening to what the candidate is telling them -- whether it's about what sort of position would be a good fit, salary and compensation, or just that they're unavailable to talk at the moment.

A technical writer complained: "I was recently in the check-out line at the grocery store when a recruiter I'd been speaking to called back with some feedback from a recent interview. ... Despite the fact that I told him that no, this wasn't a good time, and could we please speak a little later (like when I'm not bagging groceries!), this guy just kept right on talking."

In addition to the rudeness of such situations, many also commented to the effect that if they can't trust a recruiter to respect that they are unavailable at the moment -- whether it's due to an important meeting or a family dinner -- how can they be sure that they'll listen to anything else?

But the complaint that surprised me was the idea of recruiters attempting to build rapport by talking about how hard it is to be a recruiter right now. I spoke to a nurse who frequently works with agencies for travel nursing positions. One of her worst experiences, she said, was with a recruiter whose skills were apparently not quite up to the recent challenges posed by the economic slowdown:

"Literally, about the first five or ten minutes we were talking, it was all about how hard her life was these days. How she used to have dozens of open jobs on the go at any one time, and now she only had one or two at a time -- if she was lucky. Better yet," the candidate added, "this recruiter actually told me that these days the candidates she sent rarely got interviews."

Not exactly a confidence-booster. (Not to mention unprofessional.) It can be great to build a personal rapport with candidates -- but that doesn't mean that recruiters should vent to their candidates, whether about job orders or a client, no matter how frustrating things can get.

Another concurred. "I don't see why recruiters are asking me to sympathize with them. You don't have lots of orders? Honey, I'm the one looking for a job."