Mary Serves Up a Lesson to Pittsburgh Recruiters, Very Well Done With a Side of Reproach

We were reading other Pittsburgh related Blogs last night when we saw Pittsblog had endorsed the reading of a frustrated job seeker's blog outlining her search for a higher level position in the Pittsburgh area with nothing but frustration and unprofessionalism from the Pittsburgh recruitisphere to show for it. Our biggest interest came from Mary’s post concerning the attendance of a job fair that was held at PNC Park last June. We also decided to publicize her travail, because her experience relates to all job seekers and recruiters, whether entry level hourly jobs or highly experienced professional positions.

As an organization that also produces multiple large job fairs each year, we hear most often from the “other side”, that is, recruiters who have attended our job fairs. Though many successes have occurred for employers and job seekers at these events, we have seen a common thread running among the recruiters who complain the most about not finding qualified job candidates for the positions they have open. Mary makes the point very well from the job seekers standpoint.

Many recruiters, though with the best of intentions, simply are not people persons. That is, whether they are in Human Resources or head a department for their organization, they are not trained and are not good at engaging people in a public forum. We suppose most people who do this well are currently in Sales or Public Relations or Politics.

Unfortunately for Mary her disappointment in the behavior of recruiters came from expectations that were too high for what a job fair is all about (or of most value to job seekers). Job Fairs, especially for higher end positions, are more of a research mechanism than an actual interview opportunity. Also, she is correct that going to a job fair during the last hour of an event is less likely to get her quality time with the companies that remain (another bad habit of local recruiters is leaving before an event is over)

This does not offer to excuse the behavior of recruiters, only to explain them. Blog postings like Mary’s should go a long way in educating company decision makers about how much they are missing out on available Pittsburgh talent because they are so enthralled with their systems that they forget what their purpose is. Rude or belittling behavior is unprofessional. Period.

As for any other advice for Mary in her job search, please leave your comments and suggestions on her blog. It will be a shame for yet another intelligent professional job seeker to leave Pittsburgh for lack of opportunity (which are actually out there but unaccesable to those without connections). We suggest she contact The Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh, as they offer job search assistance for professionals as well as hourly.

To read Mary’s postings and blog, here is the link.