Job Candidates Do You Own This Nightmare?

It’s every recruiter’s nightmare. You spend hours sourcing and, then, in great detail, present the perfect candidate. Followed by negotiating an offer that both the client and the candidate find acceptable. After a verbal acceptance, the candidate uses the offer as leverage to gain a better deal from their present employer. In the end, Ms./Mr. Recruiter, it makes you look stupid in front of your client and left feeling resentful that the candidate “played” you.

But as the saying goes, “Fool me once, shame on you: fool me twice shame on me”.

Candidates who accept counter offers make a huge mistake. The statistics are undeniable. People who accept a counter offer are usually gone within a year. Why? They remember how unhappy they were in the first place. And recruiters have long memories. Some refer to this (unethical) move as a “bridge burner”. And know this, smart employers NEVER make counter offers because they’ve learned from past experience unhappy employees always come to the senses. And leave.

While today’s economy teaches people there is no such thing as corporate loyalty (except in rare instances), personal loyalty has never been stronger. Baby boomers were taught early in their careers to never make enemies because one never knew where that person might end up – client, boss or colleague. This is a lesson many Millennials don’t seem to have fully grasped. And, they wonder why they encounter such strong resentment from their more experienced associates.