DAY 63 - YOU ARE NOT MY FRIEND?

I am a person that is pretty skeptical at times and being in recruiting I don't take a lot of stock in what executive recruiters tell me usually. Even in our outplacement classes, we are told that Executive Recruiters are not the job seekers friend.

I guess I am becoming vulnerable and maybe a little lonely because I am chatting with recruiters like they are my best friend. I think I am weakened through this whole process. Anyways, the other day I received an e-mail that asked me if I wanted a top talent acquisition position with a Fortune 200 company. If I did, according to this e-mail, then I needed to send a resume and fill out this candidate sheet.

Now I am a girl that wants to do the least amount of unnecessary work plus this message was a little suspicious to me. So I sent my resume and said that I needed to know where this position was before I would fill out the sheet. I ended up getting a call from "let's call him Blane." He was this recruiter from California that talked about his approach which was different from other recruiters. He gets to know his candidates and so he can make the best placements. He proceeds to tell me that he has in's to the top fortune 500 companies .. yada yada yada. You know as I am writing this, it really has FRAUD written all over it.

He then said that he was going to forward my resume to his client at Amazon as they were looking for a Director, Talent Acquisition. I said that in return I would fill out his bio sheet. So I did and sent it in. He called me a few hours later and congratulated me for qualifying to be one of his clients. I thought this was kind of odd. He began to tell me that he spends time with his clients and provides advice etc.. I told him thanks and moved on. He also said that he would send me this monthly report he puts out to his clients. I again thanked him and was pretty much done.

I received a voice mail the next day from Blane and he said that one of his client company's had an interesting opportunity that would be right down my alley. I called him back amd have not heard from him in two days. I actually did not think anything of it until I was speaking to my former boss today who is also in this unemployment predicament. He also talked to Blane and asked me if I received his report. I said I thought I did but had not opened it up. My former boss said that this report for "members" has a fee of $200 and he received an invoice with it.

I think I got scammed. My gut told me - why would this guy want to chat with me so much? But my spirit is down and I guess my edge is not as razor sharp as it used to be. How embarrassing ... actually as I was writing this it is so obvious!!!

Realization
Most executive recruiters are loyal to the business paying their fees not the candidate. Beware of recruiters wanting to be your friend... too good to be true. Not don't get me wrong there are a lot of nice people out there .. but the legitimate ones do not have time to talk about "you" if it is not directly related to search they have in hand. How lame am I getting.... I guess all I can do is laugh and have a vodka cranberry... CHEERS