As some of you might have read in a previous post, which can be found here, my experience with recruiters are not always the best.
But a few weeks ago, I was called by a recruiter, which politely asked if she was disturbing me. She wasn’t.
So we talked for a sort time on the phone and she was asking me (again politely) if I was interested in a new job.
As I’m working for a company which is very close to home and has nice co-workers, I wasn’t particularly available for a new job.
But my motto is “If you can do better, you should do better”. So I told her my motto, she had a open position in mind for a company and asked my for a updated resume.
I was quite busy during that time, so I told her that I could arrange that in a few days maybe earlier, I told her I was busy and didn’t want to make any promises I couldn’t make.
So I updated my resume and mailed it to her. We had some more conversations by phone and she matched me also for another company.
She matched me because I sounded like I would fit that company.
During the conversations she expressly told me, if I have any doubt tell me, then we will stop this recruitment process.
She asked me if I was willing to go for an job interview, without any commitment to these companies or her. I agreed on this.
This was very convenient and comfortable for me. I noticed that this is a recruiter that does know her job!
And it gave me potential some stress because I might have some choices, which is (of course) a very luxurious position.
I went for a interview at the first company, it felt like a match, the people were nice and we shared interests.
After that I went for a interview at the second company and guess what, the people were nice and we shared interests.
So both companies felt great to work for, the technologies they use etc.
After the interviews I called the recruiter and after the recruiter talked to the companies she called me. We kept each other up to date.
Then appointments were made for a second interview, this time they should asked me more about me and “test” my technical skills.
Company A did a really good job, gave me a test setup and an laptop to fulfill the assignments, which was first a clear question, the next one was more open / “vague”, just to provoke me to fill in my own ideas how to fix the assignment.
Company B did also a good job, asked me a lot of technical questions. And I noticed by the feedback, the my answers were in the excepted range. Technical answers are not black and white, there are often (maybe most of the time) more solutions possible for a problem.
It went all OK and I had the strong feeling that both companies would like me as a new employee.
Then a appointments were made for a third interview, this was, at both companies, with higher management.
At company A I spoke with the director, nice guy, seems to know what they want with the company.
At company B I spoke with a C-something officer, but he was very rushed. During the interview he was already packing up his stuff and put on his coat. This made me a bit in doubt about this company, well actually about this guy in this company.
After the interview the manager of the department were I was matched to told me that the whole company was busy with a potential big new customer and therefor he was in such a big rush.
And it happend… Both companies offered me a job…. Both within a good distance from home, both futher away of the employer at that time… Both a good salary offer…..
So I talked about this with friends and family…. Also talked about my thought of both companies with this recruiter….
And finally I made a decision…
This is months ago and this article is finally finished… I will not name company A, B or the recruitment agency. Because my current and previous employer can read this. Maybe I will publish this with the name of the recruitment agency in the future after I discussed this with them.
Conclusion of this story, the recruiter in this was aware that she worked with people and not some product. This was by far the best recruitment process I was involved in! It wasn’t fortunately not the only good recruiter I ever met.
The Dutch are known for complaining about everything and sometimes we forget to focus on the good things…
So after a bad recruiter experience were I wrote about, now a good recruiter experience….
18-09-2017 tiny update: The recruitment agency called me today and were pleasantly surprised about this article. There are ok with the article and agreed to add their name to this article therefor the name of the agency, this is Starapple