Working With Recruiters - Oxymoron?

One of the sites I routinely visit is the Electronic Recruiting Exchange. It is not only well organized and well run, the content and discussions are quite interesting and would be, I think, even if your DNA does not include recruiting.
Given the volume of complaints that I have heard over the years about what some laughingly refer to as "working with recruiters" it was with considerable interest that I read a recent article posted by Kevin Wheeler, President and Founder of a recruiting strategy consulting firm called Global Learning Resources.

In short, Kevin was pointing out that most, if not all, of the technology has been developed to help the recruiter while the candidates is left to try and fight his way through it or around it. If you read his piece my guess is that you would probably agree.

Among other things, what struck me about what Kevin was saying is that unless my experience was unique (which I seriously doubt) along with the experiences for literally thousands of our members with whom I have spoken over the years (which I also seriously doubt) the disadvantages faced by a candidate have been around long before job boards, e-mail, voice mail, applicant tracking systems, and web sites, all of which are discussed in this piece.

As I read further and looked over the proposed Candidate Bill of Rights put forth by recruiting site Accolo it reminded me of all the neat sounding "mission statements" that companies spent hundreds of hours and millions of dollars having consultants help them craft to create something that really amounts to nothing more than treating people with respect. I have never felt it was about words, I have always believed that is was about individual value systems.

As the old saying goes, "actions speak louder than words." When it comes to the things that candidates resent in terms of "working with recruiters" they way they manage the relationship is by having a very short list in their pocket of those recruiters who they will call to help them fill the executive jobs that will surface in their new gig.