Make a Great First Impression on a Candidate

  • Mobile phone, tablet and laptop

When you find a potentially interesting candidate for a role you are recruiting, whether they are someone you find online or someone who is already on your recruitment database, but who you haven’t personally spoken to, you are obviously going to be keen to get them on the phone and pitch the job to them. What many recruiters forget when contacting new candidates for the first time is just how many recruitment agents an active job seeker tends to speak to, and therefore how important it is to make a good and lasting impression so you stand out from the several other agents they may get calls from this morning (some of them even potentially calling about the same role if your client isn’t using your agency exclusively).

Here are a few things to remember:

Don’t Feel Like a Time Waster
Because someone who is actively applying for jobs probably gets a lot of calls from agents, they may be a little jaded with the whole process. They may have had calls from agents who spent ages talking and asking them questions before getting to the point and realising the candidate wasn’t actually suitable. They may have had agents build up their hopes only to finally reveal the job is in a location they can’t get to or pays far less than they are looking for. They may be bored of talking through their career history with new agents several times a day, often to never hear from those people again. You, therefore, need to make sure you don’t sound like you are going to waste their time.

Explain why you are calling straight away so they know you actually have a role they may be interested in and aren’t just calling to add them to your database for future jobs (or as they will see it ‘just for the sake of it’). Even if you don’t want to tell them too much about the job until they’ve answered some questions, tell them the location, job title, and sector before you start asking them things, so if any of these are a ‘nope’ for them they can say so early in the conversation.

Tell Them What Will Happen Next
People who want a job are easily frustrated by the process because there is so much waiting around, however, this is a lot more palatable when their expectations have been managed. If, after talking to them, they don’t seem like a good fit, tell them this (and of course that you’ll get back in touch if anything else comes in) so they don’t think of you as a live opportunity and get annoyed when you don’t call them about this job again. If you are going to put them forward and don’t need anything extra from them like a tailored CV, give them an idea of when you think the employer will be interviewing or shortlisting people so they have an idea of when to get another contact from you.

The most important thing to remember is that to a new candidate you are often just one of many calls that day or week, and so you have to ensure they find talking to you to be a valuable use of time that isn’t going to add to the frustrations they already have.


Chameleoni Master Logo 1Chameleon-i offers a cloud-based (SaaS) Recruitment Software package, giving your business 24/7 access. With no set up costs, no annual contract or long term tie-in and a business friendly rolling 30-day license enabling the addition & removal of users as your business needs dictate.

Chameleon-i online recruitment software delivers a fast, secure and portable database for recruitment agencies placing Permanent, Contract and Temporary candidates and a choice of website integration solutions including our WordPress plugin. We also build beautiful recruitment websites…

To find out more or to book an online demonstration please give us a call on
+44 (0)1483 600 370 or fill in a request form via this link.

2019-03-18T09:06:55+00:0010/07/2017|Categories: Recruitment Articles|Tags: , |

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