TL;DR Outside recruiter is a knob but company loves me. I wanna take her out of the equation (not the agency, just this specific recruiter). How do I handle it? I've worked with alot of outside/contingency recruiters and have always had really positive experiences. The other day got a call from one about a Sr Frontend Engineer role that I fit with and we just did not hit it off in that first call. At the very start of the convo I explained that I wasn't "actively" looking for a new gig, but am always open to new opportunities should they present themselves especially if the company is the right culture fit. I was probably the one that initiated the confrontation because when she asked what I'm looking for in a company, I started explaining the culture and vision values I was looking for and expected TC; with an emphasis on TC being low on my priority list as a motivator to leave my current company. After which she replied, almost verbatim: "I dont really know much about all that, but how much money do you want???". So basically from there I kinda chewed her out a bit saying I'm not interested in working with someone who's gonna treat matching me as a numbers game as its effectively a waste of not only my time, but the prospective company and hers as well. Nonetheless I end up sending my info over. All of which is pretty well packaged and based on both experience and past feedback, makes for a really easy sell from a recruiter's perspective. I hear back from her within a few hours and the company wants to fast track the phone screen for the next day. Phone screen goes extremely well. Company tells me they have a Lead role on the dev team that they also need to fill and they think I'm a better fit for that. I follow up with the recruiter after the call, tell her I'm interested in learning more about their tech stack and processes since the call wasn't very technical oriented and that I'd be interested in moving forward with an onsite if the feeling is mutual. I receive an immediate reply that the company already got back to her, loved me & once again wants to fast track the onsite for the next day (Today). She tells me they have a 10am and a 3p available. I agree to the 10am and to send me the details and let's set it up. Here's where things get weird. Recruiter calls me after the message exchange and basically demands that if they extend a formal offer the day of the onsite that I immediately tell her if I either except or decline. I tell her I'll have an answer by Monday (onsite is Friday) if they do extend an offer same day. Shes not having it and starts to tell me if my current job is going to impact my decision than she's not even going to put me in front of the them to interview. I tell her that makes no sense & if that's the angle she wants to take, I'll contact the company directly & inform them that I'm very eager to move forward with the next steps as they apparently are (all through the recruiting agency of course), but the current recruiter is intentionally acting as an obstruction and that they should request a new one. She hangs up on me. Emails me an hour later to say there was scheduling confusion with the onsite tomorrow and she'll let me know what they end up working out. Tomorrow is now today and no word beyond that. TC: 120k YOE: 8
Tldr?
Red flag 1: the recruiter Red flag 2: the company wanting to move fast Red flag 3: the company hired the recruiter which means they don't know how to hire
Accept*
Speech to text. Blame Google .
I see red flags in you. You did not handle the situation well. Please respect and partner with recruiters. Their job is not easy and no one in this world works for free. Also think that this was not even an opportunity of the recruiter did not reach out to you. Now how to handle part: You are being pursued for a Dev lead position and you failed to handle this small situation and ambiguity. Imagine how will you handle even bigger and complex scenarios when you are on that job. Work out with your recruiter and see how you can mutually sync. If I were you, I would tell your position with full respect and even add that at this time you are focussing on giving a best shot and not thought enough about what happens if there is an offer. Please postpone that discussion. I don't know the full context, but you should have shown the grown up attitude.
Nah.
Admittedly I was a bit confrontational at the start, which probably triggered the whole downward spiral. But on the flipside I've worked with many recruiters over the years and this is legitimately the first time I've had a negative experience like this. Some of them I actually still keep in touch with and frequently send referrals to. Also for additional context, recruiter did specifically reach out to me, my current role is a lead as was my prior role. Never really had any issues in terms of conflict resolution or other complex scenarios (quite the opposite actually) so I'm not sure it's a "grown up attitude" thing. But I do agree that its probably a good idea to maybe reach out and see if we could "reset".
I would consider reaching out to the company directly being diplomatic and stick to facts. They likely don’t want to engage with a recruiting agency that makes candidates feel this way and would appreciate your insight.