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Because I've worked in the recruiting industry for a while now, but am not actually a recruiter myself, scarcely a week goes by that I don't get an email from someone - a friend-of-a-friend, a spouse-of-a-friend, a child-of-a-friend - telling me that they're having unsatisfactory interactions with recruiters, and asking what they should do about it.

The fundamental problem, of course - outside of the current economy, which is making job hunting tougher for everyone - is simply that most job-seekers don't really understand the recruiting process.

(I know I'm not alone here:  If you've worked in recruiting or HR for more than 5 minutes, you get emails like this, too.)

It doesn't mean the people sending the emails are dumb, either.  (Ask 10 of your smartest friends - even ones who've been in the workforce for 10+ years - and I guarantee that at least 7 of them will have only the haziest notion of how 'headhunters' and contingency fees work.)  They just need a little education on how to work with recruiters.

But there are only so many hours in a day - who has time to conduct personalized Working With Recruiters 101 courses tutorials every time your father's best-friend-from-highschool's kid's cousin sends you a desperate email?

(Actually, I shouldn't be so glib, because it's sometimes heartbreaking.  In contrast to the infamous Egregiously Bad Candidates, I know many of these email writers are good people, and hard workers who bring valuable skills and experience to the table.  And even the best of us start to get a little desperate round about Week 8 of a job search.)

Welcome to the 'Dear Sarah' series!

...in which we offer advice, tips and general how-to-ish-ness to job-seekers who want to have more satisfactory interactions with recruiters.

So the next time you get a desperate email from a friend-of-a-friend, just send them here!

(All the questions here are from actual emails I've received in the past 6 months.)

FIRST QUESTION:
"Dear Sarah: 

I have been dealing with a couple of recruiters recently and I wanted your opinion.

In one case, the interview went really well and I was told that I would hear back within 1 to 3 days. It was 4 weeks before I heard anything back and the recruiter said that they planned to make an offer, but were working out details. The last contact I had with him was in August and I interviewed in July. I've been calling once a month since then, but he's not taking my calls so I leave voicemails asking him to give me a call. Is it worth keeping up with that?   Or is he not calling me back for a reason?"

When interviews go well (and it must have, if the recruiter started to talk about offers) but then you don't hear anything, one of two things has happened:

1. The employer changed their mind/plan/requirements and didn't hire anyone in the end
2. The job was filled by a candidate from another recruiting agency, and the recruiter doesn't want to tell you that

This one sounds like a classic case of #1.  In this economy, employers are wary of making new hires so they take ages to make decisions - and sometimes that decision is that they don't need to fill a role after all.

It's entirely possible that the employer has kept the recruiter dangling since July, too.

Yes, the recruiter should have followed up with you, even to tell you he hadn't heard anything.  (But you can take some comfort in the fact that in another couple of years, when the talent crisis really heats up, recruiters who don't build long-term relationships with candidates are going to find they don't have any candidates!)

In the meantime, don't waste any more time calling this recruiter.  You can bet he'll find you pretty darn quick if/when the employer is ready to make an offer - and you can spend your time seeking out other opportunities.