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I'm currently searching for opportunities. One can easily read that out of my XING account.

Today a headhunter found me on XING, looked up my company's phone number, called our reception and asked for me.

I had to exit that call, of course. We've arranged a phone call later that day. At first glance, this behavior looks unprofessional.

Is this a red flag?

Note: His call was initial. I've never heard of him or his company before.

BSMP
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jawo
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    Possible duplicate of What is the proper way to deal with a recruiter who calls during work hours? –  Jun 07 '16 at 10:09
  • I assume your Xing profile is public and could be seen by your company if they happened to look? –  Jun 07 '16 at 10:10
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    @JanDoggen not really the same, here we discuss if it is ethical for a recruiter to call on the company phone, and how Sempie should react. From what I read, the other question is more related to the fact that the recruiter is calling during office hours. – Gautier C Jun 07 '16 at 10:11
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    I'm not familiar with Xing, but I assume it provides a way for you to be contacted via the site (and that your work phone number that he called on is not the means of contact you provided for Xing)? – Carson63000 Jun 07 '16 at 10:17
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    The only problem here is that your company phone is easier to find than your private phone. – Agent_L Jun 07 '16 at 11:01
  • carson, xing is a social media for busines relationships. Ive not provided my company number there. – jawo Jun 07 '16 at 11:19
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    How did he get your work phone number? Is it listed somewhere or did he call your company looking for you or something? BTW, not sure where you stand on a moral point of view, but if you do business with him, he was right to do that. – komodosp Jun 07 '16 at 11:49
  • He called our reception and asked for me. I never heard of him or his company before. – jawo Jun 07 '16 at 12:05
  • @Sempie Just imagine you're him. The only thing you know is your name and name of a company you work for. Is there really a simpler way to reach you than call the company and ask for you? – Agent_L Jun 07 '16 at 17:14
  • Due you can communicate through sites like xing, on which he found me, yes there is a simpler way to reach me. – jawo Jun 07 '16 at 17:26
  • However, just talked with him. From all the recruiters I've talked to in the last weeks, he seems to be the one who could bring me to the jobs I like the most. nice. – jawo Jun 07 '16 at 17:29

3 Answers3

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In all likelihood although you are looking, it won't be common knowledge at your current work, so calling you there risks exposure and maybe more.

  • Is this unprofessional? Yes
  • Is this common? Unfortunately Yes
  • Is this a red flag? Not necessarily

You'd be surprised how many recruiters do this, even when it means they need to work out/guess your work phone number/email (they sometimes email as well), I'm never sure if they just don't get it, or have such an impatience that they can't wait (or are trying to verify you really do work there), but it happens.

I'd let them know how you feel about it, and proceed with caution with the recruiter, if they pull the stunt again just DK them ("don't know who that is" when the call comes through).

I knew someone in the UK who interviewed at a large (American) bank, the offer fell through, so they took another job. 6 weeks later bank had a change of mind, and recruiter (unsolicited) rang the new company to make the offer. My friend got fired as he "obviously" wanted the other job more (even though he didn't instigate the conversation and ultimately told the recruiter where to go)

The Wandering Dev Manager
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    I don't know how it works in your country, but in mine, answering a phone call during work isn't unprofessional, work is not 100% of your time, even at work, you can take a (short) pause when you want, if your work is done when it has to be. For a recruiter, which is working the same hours as you, it is not a problem to call you, nor is it unprofessional. But maybe it depends of the country. – Gautier C Jun 07 '16 at 09:18
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    I think I didn't get something. He called him on his work phone ? – Gautier C Jun 07 '16 at 09:21
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    Yeah that's the point the recruiter called the poster at their work, not on cell or home phone, people have been fired for being found out looking for another job. – The Wandering Dev Manager Jun 07 '16 at 09:25
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    That is what I didn't understand at first, I have edited my answer to be more generalist. It is really a unprofessional to answer, except for just saying "call me outside of work hours on my *personal phone". I don't know what to think about the recruiter, but it is clearly not a professional behavior. – Gautier C Jun 07 '16 at 09:27
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    "Is this common? Unfortunately Yes" It is most definitely not common for recruiters to call someone's work number. Being called while at work is common but this answer seems to confuse the two. – Lilienthal Jun 07 '16 at 10:21
  • As for the reason, this recruiter surely just wants to beat out other recruiters to get to you first. That doesn't justify it, but it's understandable. –  Jun 07 '16 at 11:06
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    @Lilienthal - no I meant what I said, all too often (at least in the UK) you get a recruiter who thinks nothing of calling someone on their work number, which was the point of my answer. – The Wandering Dev Manager Jun 07 '16 at 11:16
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    @JoeStrazzere what is unprofessional is to call someone on his company phone – Gautier C Jun 07 '16 at 11:35
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    I agree with @JoeStrazzere. Nobody gets fired for answering an unsolicited call, at least not in a place like UK where you can be sued. – Shantnu Tiwari Jun 07 '16 at 13:11
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    @ShantnuTiwari still, it may put you in a bad position... especially if the phone caller say that you are searching for a job. – Gautier C Jun 07 '16 at 14:35
  • @Lilienthal, maybe it depends on where you are, but I have received numerous unsolicited calls this year from recruiters on my work phone, and I'm not even actively looking for a job. I am in the US. – cdkMoose Jun 07 '16 at 15:02
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    Merely calling is not unprofessional. – Brandin Jun 07 '16 at 16:37
  • I don't view either as unprofessional. @JoeStrazzere - Perhaps this should have been closed as primarily opinion based? – BSMP Jun 08 '16 at 03:33
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If he calls you on your work phone, then yes, it is a unprofessional, except if he has no other infos to reach you (mail, personal phone, etc...).

I would not raise the red flag for that, but the recruiter seems really hungry. Double check any opportunity he might propose you, he may be just a bit inexperienced, or just really interested in your profile.

As keshlam said, the problem might that may only be "cold calls" just trying to get you signed up rather than actually having a position that they are recruiting for.

If you are interested, tell them to call you back on your personal line and on your own time; if you aren't, tell them to go away.

On the contrary, and to be a bit more generalist, if it is your personal phone, people just expect you not to answer the call (and call back later), or give a short response like "I am currently at work, please call me back later".

In that way, I don't think it's unprofessional, especially if it was the initial call.

Sometimes, the recruiter will leave you a message on your phone, that did happen to me several times.

Gautier C
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    You probably mean "unexperienced". –  Jun 07 '16 at 10:33
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    No. The word is "inexperienced". – Roger Lipscombe Jun 07 '16 at 11:52
  • Arg. That is what I got from trusting english people ! :p – Gautier C Jun 07 '16 at 12:05
  • I agree with others that this is somewhat unprofessional, but common. It used to be more so when cell phones weren't common. My concern is that someone who teaches you this way may be making "cold calls" just trying to get you signed up rather than actually having a position that they are recruiting for. If you are interested, tell them to call you back on your personal line and on your own time; if you aren't, tell them to go away. – keshlam Jun 07 '16 at 12:52
  • @keshlam if you don't mind, I will add your reflexion to my answer – Gautier C Jun 07 '16 at 12:53
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Really depends how the recruiter from XING approached it.

Prior to switching career paths i worked as a Recruiter for four years where calling potential candidates up at work was a fairly common occurance. To clarify, this isn't a situation where i had a persons resume and was too impatient to wait until they got home to call them this was more in situations where i was hired by a company to help them track down very specific niche candidates. These conversations get initiated in workplaces only because this is often the only way to track down certain candidates - there may only be a few other companies who do the type of thing you need and it's just not practical to hope the resume passively finds its way into your lap. Granted this was a time before LinkedIn so probably easier now.

As for the ethicality of it, the way it's approached makes a big difference on how ethicial it is. When i first started doing it i felt very dirty about it as i didn't really know what i was doing. Putting somebody on the spot and their place of work with the impression of trying to "snatch them" away isn't terrific.

But then i got better at it and learned what is ok is calling a professional person in their professional environment who has uncommon specific industry exposure and has probably crossed paths with specialized individuals within this region and then having a conversation with them to see if they have any thoughts that could help you in finding somebody for this pretty neat position. That approach doesn't put anybody on the spot but allows them to request a deeper conversation later if it peaks their personal interest and if not then can still proceed into a conversation about ideas on how to find somebody or recommend somebody. Almost nobody gets mad at that sort of approach and it's not even that awkard of a conversation to get overheard having it if's just providing input towards a search.

End of the day it's all roses if you end up getting a better position out of the call that you otherwise would never have known about.

Greg
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