ERGHH, this just happened and I need to be able to get it out somewhere. A recruiter berated me for almost 20 minutes after rejecting an offer.
At the start of January, a recruiter reaches out to me on Linkedin from a major company asking to see if I would be interested in a role. This person came from a major player within the industry so I promptly reply. I hear nothing back for almost a month until she reaches out in early Feb to set a meeting.
Several days before our meeting is scheduled to happen, I fire a quick message asking her what specific roles and compensation did she have in mind for me in the company. The response I get back was “There are a variety of positions I think you'd be a great fit for!”. OKAY, that is ambiguous AF. Whatever. I'll just roll with it for now.
On the day of the interview, I join and we start on the general, “What is your background?”, “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?” spiel until she finally tells me the position she wants to fill is heavily sales-related. I work in the supply chain industry and my experience is 100% operations-related. Seeing that it was a bad fit, I politely told her I wasn't interested as this wasn't the direction I wanted to go within my career.
This set the women off saying that I needed to have more clarity in my life and that I needed to re-evaluate my choices. I was flabbergasted! This person then goes on to say that I have an opportunity to succeed in the industry but that my attitude would prevent me from succeeding. Having someone who was insanely successful before switching to recruiting tell me these things initially stung. I'm at the mid-point in my career where I am starting to hit management roles and she was cunning enough to hit me where it hurt the most. I was so taken aback and she was trying to give me life advice on how to be successful in my career by telling me that no major company would ever consider me if I continue to act the way I do in interviews.
The cherry on top? She wanted me to fill an entry-level sales role for 30K less than what I am currently compensated. Her reasoning? Financial compensation isn't everything and I would really establish the “foundation” of my burgeoning career by joining their firm. Lady, I have all the special licenses that took a lot of time to get, I'm about to pursue a master's degree at literally the best university for my field on top of having 8 years of working experience with 5 of them being in the niche category we're working in. FUCK YOU, FUCK YOU, FUCK YOU. Whilst I'm young, I'm not stupid or gullible. Do not try to pull my age or attitude into the discussion. Especially since you're throwing a temper tantrum after I rejected the SHITTY position you're offering.
I just need to put this out there – Fuck you for being a shitty recruiter. You said the start-up I was in would never become bigger than your precious company. Well, you should have fact-checked then. My company has already passed the $1B point and reported more than $100M in profit than your company. They are not going anywhere, anytime soon. I have no clarity in my life? Excuse me, rejecting your shitty position is the definition of clarity. I just opened my inbox and received the salary I actually wanted which gives me a pay raise of 40K from my current company. A total of 70k more than your offer. This is why I hate recruiters. This is why I am becoming increasingly more anti-work.