This image of the Google predictive search results for ‘recruiters are...’ has been circulating recently which shows the search engine’s top 10 autocomplete terms that includes adjectives such ‘evil’, ‘liars’, ‘stupid’, ‘scumbags’, and ‘a waste of time’. No, this image has not been photoshopped (try it yourself!). And no, this is nothing new: when I googled ‘recruiters are’ 3 years ago I remember seeing a very similar list of negative and insulting autocompleted search suggestions.

Clearly, things have not changed, but why do recruiters still carry such a bad rep?

Sure we may 'spam' inboxes from time to time, but my inbox is full of spam from retailers and other businesses. And yes, we may not give candidates as much feedback as they'd like, but 99% of the time it's because the hiring manager hasn't given it to us. Sure, there there are ‘bad eggs’ in recruitment - but there are 'bad eggs' in every industry. So why does the term ‘recruiter’ in particular have such a strong and consistent negative connotation to the public?

The truth:

While Google believes otherwise, the truth is that 99% of recruiters are hard working, smart, creative, resourceful, and very valuable. After all, recruiters are responsible for solving the #1 problem that keeps most CEO’s up at night (shortage of talent), and we play a critical role in improving millions of peoples’ lives around the world by introducing them to better career opportunities with better working conditions. Even though we get paid for what we do, recruiters genuinely care about helping people find great jobs, and we authentically care about helping hiring managers find great talent. Ask any recruiter and they'll tell you that they get a natural 'buzz' every time they make successful hire happen - it just feels good!

It’s time that we stand up for ourselves and our profession.

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In our opinion...

We think that RECRUITERS ARE AWESOME. Further, we think that recruiters are one of the most important (and one of the most underappreciated) professionals in the business world today. We’re proud to call ourselves Recruiters - and you should be too! As recruiters  we solve important problems, we help to shape careers, we coach, we care, we build teams, and we build companies.
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In our opinion, this is what Google should display when someone searches ‘recruiters are…’

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If you agree with us, and you think recruiters are awesome too, then share this with your network and make your recruitment voice heard! #recruitersareawesome

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