Working in recruitment has enabled me to meet many, many different people and many, many, many different kinds of personalities along the way.

How people choose to keep in touch is quite an interesting aspect of a person’s personality. Here a few different kinds of people in terms of how they keep in touch after they’ve made contact with me.

Which one are you?

1. The Missing In Action Job Searcher: This is the person who speaks with me once, maybe even meets with me in person and then disappears, never to be heard from again. They never call, never email, never tell me whatever happened to them. If I have a job to discuss with them, I’d certainly give them a call but I generally don’t call people just to say hi and to see how they’re doing. That’s their job. Follow up is something they’re supposed to do with the recruiter if they’re serious about getting help with their job search otherwise they become quickly forgotten.

2. The Whiner: This is the person who calls me and complains that they haven’t heard from me in a week and wonder what’s going on. Uh, I don’t have a job to discuss with you, that’s what’s going on.

3. The Harrasser: This is the person who calls me every day (for a few days anyways, until I stop returning their calls and they get the message). They call every day – often they’ll call several times a day and when I don’t answer the phone, they hang up without leaving a message and then try again a few minutes later. Thank God for caller ID…

4. The Emailer: This is the job searcher who never calls me, but simply sends an email to touch base every so often. I actually like this type of person because sending a quick email to touch base isn’t a bad thing and the truth is I often do the same thing. Sending an email of course means that I don’t have to respond right away – although I normally do anyways – and isn’t as intrusive as a phone call.

5. The Harrassing Emailer: This person has tendencies of both #3 and #4. Typically, they will email me and the moment the email hits my In Box and I hear the sound that MS Outlook makes when a new email arrives, I hear a second sound and it’s typically my phone ringing because in addition to emailing me, this person has called as well to ensure I got the email that they only sent 5 seconds earlier. Typically, they’ll say “did you get my email?” This would be the email that they’d sent 5 seconds earlier.

6. The Updater: This is the person who updates their resume three times a week and sends me an updated copy of their resume three times per week.

7. The Spammer: This rare breed will send a generic “I’m still looking for a job” email and will CC the email to 10 or more different recruiters. We already talked about netiquette and email rules a few months ago.

8. The Drop In Artist: This is another rare breed who will pop into my office unannounced just to say hi – they usually say they “were in the neighborhood” – and to see if I have a job for them. Typically, I’m just about to pop into a scheduled interview with someone else and I actually feel guilty when I have to cut the chat short with The Drop In Artist to attend the other interview even though it’s not my fault.

9. The Social Butterfly: This person starts working with me and starts getting my help to find a new job. Then I find out that they have interviewed with one or more of my colleagues previously without telling me, meaning I get into a dispute with my colleague(s) and then we have to sort out who is going to continue working with The Social Butterfly which just gives everyone a lot of grief. Typically, The Social Butterfly isn’t that great a candidate either. No offense.