Honesty

I have been in the business of finding good people for good companies for about 10 years now. In that time I have made thousands of introductions and hundreds of placements. Sometimes folks hit it off, everything falls into place, and a good match is made. This is the way we hope things will always go. Sometimes however, this is not the case. It's not just that the match was something not meant to be, a bad fit, or something or someone better suited was in the mix, it is that there was intentional deception. Now, I have never had an employer attempt to deceive a potential candidate. Those sorts of things do happen, but not when they are paying a recruiting fee to find the best and brightest. No company wants to get that reputation among recruiters or recruited candidates. Some few candidates though will lie or omit in order to get the job. This path usually does not end well and thus my story today.

I am on retainer to one of my " A " list clients to always be on the lookout for talented sales people with a certain set of technical skills in a highly specialized field. The way it works is this. I find and place a person with them and they pay my fee + the retainer for the next search, thus I am always retained for at least one search with them. This keeps me looking and interested.

About 6 months ago, I found them such a person. He had all of the necessary skills, contacts and talked a pretty good game. He was one year out of the industry and his non compete was expired thus he was free and eager to jump back in. He interviewed, our client loved him. I sent him the release to check his background and references and our client set him up for the drug test. They in the mean time prepared and extended an offer conditional upon good references and a clean drug screen. The offer was considerably more than he was currently making. The candidate vanished. He did not return repeated calls by me. I thought he was stalling waiting for another competing offer, but after 10 days of waiting, our client righteously withdrew their offer. That was 10 days of calls and emails with no response. In the final email, the offer was withdrawn. The candidate emailed me back that they would never find another one like him and that he could not believe they had the nerve to withdraw.

Buddy, 10 days and no word is a strong indication that something is not kosher. I filed it under the Oh well, stamp my feet and move on file. This however was not over. About a month ago, the candidate contacted the hiring manager directly. He mentioned cutting out the recruiter and getting down to business. Given his skills and a good business plan, the employer was convinced to reconsider. They are good people and wanted to believe him. The employer contacted me and stated told me that they would certainly pay our fee, but that for the sake of the deal would handle things. I'm fine with this as they are good honest folks. I'd hate to throw a wrench in their works. Well the offer goes out, he accepts and again, their HR department sets up the drug test and sends out our background and reference release. Their HR person spoke with the candidate and he knew precisely where and what he was supposed to do. Again, he didn't. He didn't send the release, he didn't show at the drug test, and he didn't show on his start date.

Folks, I'm seeing a pattern. You know, I think this fellow has something to hide! Now I know through public records that something is amiss with someone who has the same first and last name as this fellow, near where he lives, but from what the public records state, it would be nothing that would have prevented someone from getting this job if he was honest about it and it was cleared up. Why lie? BTW, they withdrew the offer again.

Lets be clear, in the modern employment arena, background checks through companies like Backtrack and pre-employment drug screens are the norm. Most companies large and small do them and they will find it. Most companies are also forgiving of minor transgressions that don't interfere with your ability to do the job. They will not however tolerate deception to obtain the job. If you are good at what you do, be honest, it will likely work out to your benefit.