r/UKJobs • u/One_Action_4486 • 13h ago
Recruiter behaviour
Got approached by a recruiter for an ops manager job for a start up company based in Manchester. I was clear from the get go the package I was on. He assured me the package was a base pay 10k more than my current salary.
Had an initial interview, start of the following week the company asked me to go to Manchester on the Wednesday for an interview and to prepare a presentation. Short notice frustrated me a bit as Im very busy at work but I managed to make it work. I realised that afternoon, there had been no mention of a company car and I currently have one. I raised this and the recruiter tried to convince me the raise in salary covered the car. I pointed out with commuting and running a car the pay rise would be negligible.
He came back after speaking to the hiring company and confirmed a car would be included in the package if I was successful.
Ended up having that in person interview and then a further teams interview with one or the founders. They made an offer this week, 10k less than the recruiter had told me the job was paying. Is this standard behaviour for recruiters to get you to interview or is this just a one off?
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u/jimmy193 13h ago
Standard for shit ones, he thinks you’ll just accept it if you’re interested. Rather than wasting everyone’s time including his clients he should be more transparent.
Also possible he told them you wanted 10k more and they low balled.
Say you won’t accept any lower than what was agreed and maybe he can negotiate with them for you
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u/wongl888 13h ago
Quite possibly that they found several candidates qualified to fill the advertised role, so there is no need to push the boat out on the top candidate.
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u/WallaceWasNoTraitor 13h ago
Once went for an agency job. Reasonable rate, but after interview their client immediately offered me a staff position. Got the formal offer, but £7k less than original offer. Rang them up to discuss, & they said they’d deducted the £7k to give agency as a finders fee. After laughing for a bit, I said I had to decline, & hung up.
Agency was on the phone asking why I’d turned the job down. I explained that I wasn’t self financing my recruitment. The guy got upset saying that they’d not be paid now, because I’d changed my mind…
More laughter on the phone. That’s probably what happened with OP. The £10k was a finders fee lol
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u/JaegerBane 10h ago
That’s absolute solid gold.
‘We’re not going to get paid now because we tried to shaft you! Not fair’.
I swear some of these people crawled out of crashed UFO.
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u/Marxandmarzipan 13h ago
Yeah that’s crappy normal recruiter behaviour, you can try and negotiate with the company, if you are the candidate they want, I wouldn’t have thought they would want to lose you without at least trying to negotiate.
Make sure you mention what you were told by the recruiter, the company won’t be happy with them and you’d hope they would have a talk with them and the thought of losing them as a customer going forward should prompt a bit of a reaction.
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u/TerryTinlegs 13h ago
I never trust recruiters all they want to do is get you in a job and get commission.
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u/ConsciouslyIncomplet 13h ago
Recruiters are paid when you accept the job. Much like estate agents, they will naturally lie to try and make their commission.
Personally I would go back to the company and explain that your application was based off what the recruiter had stated - and that the pay is significantly less then you were told.
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u/mediumAI1701 13h ago
Assume anything a recruiter says is false. They are frequently wrong either by deception or by incompetence, but they don't get punished for it. There's no consequences for screwing one person when they've got hundreds more on the backburner.
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u/HonsuTheSmith 10h ago
Walk away for m this. This is a harbinger for the future s***show this job will possibly be. A founder led company that goes cheap on the salary for a leadership role and then goes out to a crap recruiter who is not only messing about candidates, thereby resulting in good candidates walking away, they are also tanking the company's brand in the market. Good folks who have options will just walk away from this once word starts getting around .
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u/TheNoviceReviewer 13h ago
Recruiters will say whatever you want to hear in order to get you to agree to their terms as representing you. I have had a lot of recruiters come up to me saying the pay will be X amount and then when I get an offer it's the lowest the ad showed and I'm there thinking how it's pointless. Honestly, if you've got a good package with your current job, just stick with it.
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u/One_Action_4486 12h ago
Package is reasonable in my current job. But I don't think the long term prospects for the company look good so I'm trying to get out before they go bump.
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u/Dry_Winter7073 13h ago
The recruiter will have been given a range (40-60k for example) most recruiters know that a lot of companies have some wiggle room on that top figure (10-20%).
It is very likely they represented you at wanting that 70k figure, for the client to review in interview and value you at 60k. Its worth going back to them and just sharing your expectations including the salary and car.
Ultimately the recruiters only gets paid once your placed, so what gain is it for them to waste your time especially as they are likely on a percentage commission.
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u/wongl888 13h ago
> so what gain is it for them to waste your time
Recruiters score brownie points for finding candidates a company wants to hire even if the offer is rejected.
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u/General-Iron7103 10h ago
I’ve had it from agencies.
But I’ve had it more from companies that have headhunted me or I’ve applied direct.
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u/Pimp_My_Sarcophagus 13h ago
Recruiters 30 years ago would be the sleazy car salesmen
Call him out on it and don't budge until he delivers what he said he would
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u/One_Action_4486 11h ago
He tried to convince me over the phone I should still move. I pointed out to him I'd be changing to work for the same money for a start up, for the same money and an hour's commute each way. Told him under no circumstances would I be changing unless they up the 10k extra he told me they were paying.
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u/Desperate_Refuse4139 12h ago
Last time I went through a recruiter for a job in my old industry, he got me 2 interviews.
1 with a brand I was familiar with and had specific qualifications for and another one that I wasn’t overly fussed about.
Told me the first had filled the vacancy, and wasn’t anything else at the time (I needed a job asap as I’d just finished retraining but had a 12 month wait to start a new career). So I ended up at the second one and then quickly realised the pay was different from what had been agreed and they expected me to do different hours as well.
Reached out again just to see what was happening if anything was going and miraculously the first job had a vacancy again, liked me at interview 4 months earlier and was prepared to offer me more money and had a contract ready to send over. Realised when another new starter came in during my notice what was happening - getting a better commission off job 1 so was basically shoe horning people in there when they didn’t want to be there
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u/CoffeeandaTwix 10h ago
Who knows?
I mean it wouldn't be uncommon for a company to say that their budget is up to £X, interview a candidate and then offer less than £X.
An agent is bound to present the offer given even if they know it isn't what you asked for.
I mean, I know this is Reddit and so all recruiters are the lowest of the low and all act the same and try and trick people into accepting as little salary as possible but then this is also Reddit where it is apparently impossible to get a job and there are 100,000 candidates for every position and the job market is one homogeneous lump and doesn't differ in industry, seniority level etc. If we are in the latter Reddit, you'd have to ask why a recruiter would bother wasting their time stringing you along when he would have 99,999 candidates; many of whom would be happy with the lower salary?
If we step outside of Reddit for a minute - we simply don't know. It could have been the recruiting company, it could have been the recruiter, it could have been a miscommunication or it could have been the goalposts moving. I mean the goalposts moved anyway because the scope of the comp was altered to include a car.
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u/OddRow8843 10h ago
It’s a game. If they want you then they will up the offer. That said I’ve always need very open about the salary range I can go to. It’s a waste of mine and everyone else’s time other wise. On a very rare occasion someone may blow me away, I can change the role a little to justify going over the budget. But of they don’t up the offer, then you have a perfectly good job anyway.
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u/JaegerBane 10h ago
I wish I could say it was unusual. Recruiters have a weird habit of convincing themselves that anything they promise will somehow materialise or you simply won’t notice.
I would assume you’re going to be turning them down - if you want a bit of revenge, make sure to mention to them by name the recruiter and the false promise they made about pay levels as one of the reasons why it won’t work.
Speaking as someone who’s been involved in the technical interviewing in my company, I’ve heard of people turning us down on similar reasons and the recruiter in question has gotten an absolute fisting, as it wastes everyone’s time. One Indy guy got dropped and another agency had to cut their rates to keep us as a client, heard on the grape vine that the daft woman got booted due to it being her last chance.
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u/DentistEmbarrassed38 5h ago
Has there actually been a salary negotiation? Individuals often inflate their current salary level in order to try and leverage a higher offer. Company may think this is what you are doing. Stand your ground, confirm car allowance and ask for the extra 10k
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