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I find it interesting that you blame your customers when it's you who have failed them.

They aren't sneaking around behind your back. They need a job. You didn't find it.

If they are accepting jobs in positions that you didn't know about, it's because you did an incomplete job interviewing them.

Stop blaming your customers for finding a job on their own. If you don't find them a job, you don't deserve to be paid. It's that simple.

- I am not hiding that I "failed them" in not finding the job they obviously wanted.

- I am not pretending that the job I had is perfect for them, either.

- Neither am I asking to be paid for a job I did not find for them.

Everyone who knows me well knows that I welcome healthy competition, in fact, I favor it because it keeps me sharp.

In all of these cases, however, I did find them each a job--a good one--and one they told me they were dying to have.

According to each of these candidates, this job (the one I was presenting them on) was "the perfect job" for them.

But I did spend my time, energy, and effort helping them to locate a job, interview, interview again, negotiate an offer for, and then--only at the very finish line of this whole process--they reveal that they found something else, my time and effort wasn't right, and while they do move on to a shiny new job with a pleasantly-fatter paycheck, I am left with wasted hours, a frustrated client and (as you correctly noted) no greenbacks in my wallet whatsoever.

I am not asking people to sit idly by and let me find them work. In fact, I try hard to give people good, open advice on how to Manage Their Recruiters as they move through the chapters of their life.

Superstars never wait for a recruiter to do their job-hunting.

But superstars have also learned that recruiters are professionals too--and beside that, a person who--at some level--is trying to HELP candidates find great jobs.

It is not lost on me that many people I work with have been burned by recruiters enough to be gun shy. Hey, I said from the beginning, that I am out to do this recruiting thing differently than others. I am okay with swimming upstream.

What I am saying is: there is a fine line between

• Involving a recruiter in your overall job-search, and...
• Stringing a recruiter (or a group of them) along (even maliciously mistreating recruiters in the name of payback or sadistic jokes) without sharing any information that would help them understand the true nature of their position in your search.

At the end of the day, I don't have a problem with these people moving on to other positions. That's excellent! I am honestly excited for all of them (and I do mean it). These are all good people that I enjoyed working with... I just wish they felt more open to working with me (by sharing more information), too.

Rob, a really good way to find out if they are interviewing elsewhere is to ask them. ;o) Candidates very seldom volunteer that info, so upon intake our recruiters dig into that area.

Laura, the recruiter's "customer" is not a job seeker, but rather the company who has agreed to pay a fee if they hire a candidate presented by the recruiter. In my blog "Confessions of an Executive Restaurant Recruiter" I am writing a series on "Recruiting Myths" and I cover portions of misconceptions of jobseekers about recruiters getting them jobs. You might want to check it out.

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