I’ve seen a lot of chat lately about the “great reshuffling” resulting in candidates getting multiple offers or accepting counter offers. This isn’t new. Candidates always had multiple options. Nearly all employed candidates get counter offers. The difference is whether or not they tell the recruiter about them.
Ask anyone trained as a contingency recruiter and we have this deep underlying fear that anything that goes wrong with a candidate is our fault. When I moved to executive search I realized it’s not so simple. I remember when an associate on my team came to me saying that our top candidate for a position was about to get an offer from another company, bracing himself. He was surprised when I was excited. “They told you, this is great! Now we can do something about it.”
And by doing something, it's not about talking anyone out of anything. This is about helping our client position themselves so they have a shot, and helping our candidate navigating timing. It’s preventing surprises and setting expectations on both sides.
That’s how you know if you’re working with a great recruiter. Trust. You trust them enough to tell them what’s going on, and they’ll do the right thing by you.