I have a story that may be interesting to candidates as to why recruiters sometimes get frustrated with those of you looking to use them to get a job. More likely, it will make most recruiters smile.
Early in my career I worked in San Jose, California as a recruiter specializing in executive search for companies needing bilingual talent from Greater China and Japan. While most of our candidates were sourced from direct search, now and again we were approached by employees in the the USA from Japanese firms who had been transferred to the USA. Now for a lot of US firms these people are very attractive hires. They speak the languages and have an understanding of US business. However, they are to a certain extent usually only valuable to the US firm if they want to return to Japan and work for them there. Usually when they approached us they have started to enjoy living in the US and want to stay there. Therefore we usually had to tell these people that there was not much we could do for them - because we find people for jobs not jobs for people.
However, one day we had a guy come into the office off the street and ask to talk about finding a job. He was Japanese and worked for a Japanese firm in Silicon Valley so sat down and said we could at least talk for a little while. He started by saying he was a sales guy for a Japanese firm who was transferred to the US about 3 years ago. Now his company wanted him to return to Japan but he was keen to stay in the US and therefore needed a new employer to sponsor him. So he asked us to help him out.
We explained to him that we didn't find jobs for people but certainly, if there was a match for what he was looking for and any of our clients, then we would be helpful. After a few minutes of him again explaining that he was really keen to stay in the US, we asked him a few interview questions. From memory it went something like this:
Me: So can you tell me a little bit about your responsibilities in your current position?
A: Well, I am the Sales Manager for the USA.
Me: So what does that involve exactly?
A: Well, our US customers will make orders and I will get that to the Japanese division.
Me: So you have to find the customers here and then sell them your products?
A: No, they fax the orders through to us.
Me: But you travel to meet them and manage the relationships?
A: No, I collect the faxes and then fax them to Japan.
Me: Is there anything else you are responsible for?
A: Not really, just faxing the orders used to be pretty busy but recently there aren't so many and that is why my company wants me to return. So I need you to help me find a job.
Now, you might be laughing and thinking I am full of it, but this was truly the conversation we had. Even though I hadn't been in the business very long I thought it would be tough to help this guy. So I let him know we probably couldn't help him and told him about a few job sites and suggested he start searching.
Now this isn't the end of the story because this guy, for some reason, was convinced that we were going to look for a job for him. He asked me how long it was going to take before we found him something. I explained again about recruiting and "people for jobs, not jobs for people" situation. But he just didn't seem to get it. He told me he would follow up in a week about the "progress on his job", gave me his CV and finally left. At that point I figured he would just work it out.
Still a week later he calls up and asks, "How is the progress on my job?" I told him straight away we were not looking for a job for him and that I was leaving on a business trip so it would be pointless calling me back. He then asked me, "Who will be handling my case while you are away?" and insisted I transfer him to someone else. I told him to call my boss;-). Not sure what happened after that. Anyway I decided to take a look at his CV so I could delete it from our system and found one of the best lines I have ever seen on a CV. In his Career Objective it said: "I want to live in US until I die, but please don't kill me (ha ha ha)".
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