Skip to main content

What Do You Do if You Miss a Recruiter’s Call?

 If you’re someone who doesn’t take every call you get, then odds are that you will end up missing a recruiter when they call you. It’s not a big deal. Don’t think that it will sink you chances of getting a job.

The way you react to missing a call from a recruiter is more important than missing the call in the first place.

Here’s the thing, everyone is busy. Recruiters are especially busy. It’s understandable that you might miss the call. Recruiters don’t mind as long as you follow up.

Wait, Why Did You Miss the Call?

You might miss a call from a recruiter for a lot of reasons. First off, if you haven’t already been in an extensive back and forth with the recruiter and if you haven’t logged their number in your phone, then you might ignore it.

A lot of people have their phones set to automatically scan for and stop incoming calls from unknown numbers.

If you’re recruiter is local, then it might come through because they will be using a local area code. However, you might miss a foreign number (which could be a good thing in the case of Indian recruiters who call with fake jobs) but you don’t want to miss a local recruiter with a real job.

Another reason you might miss a call from a recruiter is that you’re simply busy. Maybe you are on another call, maybe you are working. Either way, there are a lot of reasons to miss a call from a recruiter and it’s not something that is very unusual.

What Will Happen if You Miss the Call?

If you miss the recruiters call a few things might happen. It depends on the type of assignment or role that the recruiter is working on.

If the recruiter is working on an immediate opening, which might be a permanent role or more likely a temporary role, then they might contact someone else on a list to interview or take the job.

If the recruiter is headhunting you, if they are specifically looking to get you on the phone then they will reach out and try and contact you again by email or text.

Does It Look Bad to Miss a Call from a Recruiter?

That depends on if the call is scheduled or not. If the recruiter is simply calling you out of the blue or without prompting, then it doesn’t look bad. However, if the recruiter is calling you at a set time that you have both agreed upon ahead of time, then yes it looks bad.

If you have a meeting with a recruiter at a certain time to have a phone call, then make sure that you don’t miss that call. This would be a huge issue and if you miss a pre-set scheduled call with a recruiter than it’s a big red flag. There is very little chance that you’ll recover from that. It does look bad to miss an appointment.

But if you just miss a call from a recruiter that you have never worked with before, then it’s not a big deal.

Even if you have been working with a recruiter and have a relationship with them, if they call you unexpectedly and it’s not prearranged, then it’s not a problem to miss their call.

Should You Call The Recruiter Back?

Yes, if you missed a call from the recruiter that was scheduled, then immediately call them back.

If you missed a call from a recruiter that you’re working with, but they haven’t setup a time to speak prior to calling you, then you should return their call as soon as possible. But there is not problem with missing the call from an etiquette perspective.

Unless the call is scheduled then there is no expectation that you should be able to answer the call.

There is the expectation that you will be call the recruiter back, however.

Recruiters make their money by placing people in jobs. They don’t make money if they place people who are unreliable and who end up leaving the job or failing to show up. So, being responsive is a big part of impressing a recruiter and making sure that they will contact you for work.

It's in your interst to follow up for a few reasons.

What If You Don’t Want The Job?

Now, if you have no idea who the recruiter is and if you’ve never connected with them before on either LinkedIn or via email, then you don’t have to call them back unless you are interested about the job.

However, bear in mind that if you don’t respond to them, they will never contact you again

If you are looking to get any sort of professional job in a corporate setting, be it an entry level admin job or a more senior role, be mindful that recruiters remember responsive people.

If you are not interested in that role, but want to make sure that they contact you in the future, then what I suggest is to either text them a polite note that mentions you are not currently looking for work but please to keep you in mind for future roles.

Simply not responding to a recruiter is a surefire way to make sure that they won’t work with you.

People who work in blue color work such as nurses or case managers in social service roles don’t have to follow normal etiquette, however the rules for the professional world are much different.

What Do Say If You Missed The Call?

It’s not a big deal if you miss the call and it’s not scheduled. Just call the recruiter back. If you reach them immediately, then say you’re returning their call.

If you don’t get the message for some time, it helps to email or text the recruiter that you missed their call as well as calling them.

The important thing to remember is that you don’t want to wait too long to contact a recruiter back.

This is an industry in which time is money. While that’s a saying in many industries, it’s very applicable for recruiting firms and recruiters.

The average recruiter has no patience or ability to wait around for people who don’t check emails, answer their phone, or return calls.

So make it a point to make sure to reach out as soon as possible, especially if you are working with the recruiter and they are actively working with you on a particular role.

Here’s my quick summary on missing recruiter calls:

  • Missing a Call From a Recruiter Your Working With

-Call them back ASAP. If you can’t reach them on the phone, text them or message on LinkedIn.

  • Missing a  Call From a Recruiter You Don’t Know

-Call them back at your convenience if you are interested. If you are not interested, text them or message them on LinkedIn and let them know to keep you in mind

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Can You List Content Mills on Your Resume?

 Freelance writers often struggle with how to list their experience on a resume. While that topic is too large for this single article, what I did want to do was cover the topic of so called “content mills”. These are online brokers who have people write out topics for any number of businesses. The writers are paid a small amount of money and the brokers then sell these pieces to businesses and online marketers who use it to build websites and promote companies. In the world of recruiting, any sort of freelance or online work is considered suspicious. However, when you’re recruiting for writers and digital marketers, you are bound to see this on resumes. I’ve handled several large scale hiring efforts for digital marketers and content writers for firms I’ve consulted with in the past. And I’ve seen more than a few CVs come in with all sorts of strange jobs listed on them. What I want to do here is give some tips on how to best list a content mill on your resume. Be...
Post a Comment
Read more

Do Nurse Recruiters Work Weekends?

  Nurse recruiters are an integral part of the nursing process. Without nurse recruiters, hospitals and clinics would be hard pressed to find nursing staff. It’s just the predicament that medical facilities are in nowadays. There are many reasons why nurse recruiters are needed, but suffice to say it’s a fact and it’s here to stay. With so many nurses being hired in recent years, there are also quite a few nurse recruiters being hired. And since nurses work weekends, sometimes as a per diem side hustle, sometimes as their scheduled shift, it becomes necessary to discuss the work schedule of nurse recruiters. This question and the following brief article is designed for all current nurse recruiters who are curious about what their schedule should be. And it’s also designed for potential nurse recruiters who have yet to start the job. These future nurse recruiters might be curious as to how much work they will be expected to do. So, with those questions understoo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Do Nurses Make Good Recruiters?

Nursing and recruiting go hand in hand in many large cities. It’s no secret that hospitals, clinics, mental health facilities, homeless shelters, and schools need nurses to be on staff. It’s also no secrete within the recruiting world that nurses are in such high demand that recruiters are needed to find and hire them. It’s not uncommon for a company to have multiple nurse recruiters working to find a single nurse. The reason nurses are in such high demand and why they are so difficult to find is the topic for another time, but suffice to say the field is growing and recruiters are necessary for finding and bringing nurses into work. Does that mean that nurses make good recruiters? Is there something special about nurses and how they work that would make them good recruiter? Well, it depends. It’s not that common for nurses to work as recruiters, but what about those that do? Do they have a special insight that makes them really good at their job? You’d think so. So, let’s see if that’...
Post a Comment
Read more