Interviewing Recruiters: Part 1

I worked for Volt Information Sciences, a Fortune 1000 recruiting agency, for nearly four years. While I worked for Volt I provided managed service programs to Fortune 500 companies and recruited for various Information Technology positions for my clients. Since I was in a management role, I also hired my own in-house employees which typically were recruiters. I am going to share a three part series on how I interviewed recruiters.

My approach to prepping for first round interviews is to initially reply to all the applicants via email as quickly as possible. The applicant's follow up to my response is of interest to me. 1) If someone is spamming online postings for multiple jobs you will get a reply that is similar to an auto response which tells me the applicant is likely window shopping. 2) If the applicant does not follow the directions I requested in my response that tells me they are not taking their time reading my reply and overlook details. 3) If the applicant takes the initiative to contact me directly from the information in my email signature (especially if they call my mobile phone) that tells me they are either truly interested in my position or they know how to track someone down which is critical in the recruitment business.