One of the funny things about recruiters (not those located in India, that’s whole another story) is when the number they are calling from is blocked. So he/she calls, but you can’t pick up the phone. Maybe you’re on another line. Maybe you don’t want to break it to your environment that you’re looking for a job. Or you just weren’t fast enough to dig your phone from the deepness of your pockets or your bag. So recruiter leaves you a voicemail message.
Which gets garbled. Or he/she didn’t enunciate enough and their phone number gets mumbled out, and you can’t make a number or two in the whole sequence. Or they are calling you during their lunch. Or your phone company makes it a half-hour task to retrieve your voicemail (which is mostly the case with American providers).
This is where that caller ID comes in handy. Usually, if I miss someone’s call I just double-tap phone button and voila! – I am calling back last incoming number.
Additionally, when I see “Private” or “Unknown” on a caller ID screen, my first thought is that it’s that annoying guy from India who’s looking for outsourced projects and calls me every week. He doesn’t speak English very well, so he doesn’t quite get the message of “NO!”. It could also be some brave-ass marketeer cold-calling. Or someone who doesn’t want me to call him back.
Now, if you are recruiter – why would you hide your phone number? Do you get harrassed? Do you get calls from marketeers or candidates? What’s your reasons?
Personally, I don’t see any.
#1 by John P - March 27th, 2009 at 14:39
I am a recruiter and I will try and answer your question. Alot of companies automatically block calls from recruiter phone numbers in an attempt to retain their staff. In other firms the receptionist knows the phone numbers of many prominent recruiting firms and when we call and ask for the Controller to recruit you for a VP Finance role , reception puts us through to Human Resources or disconnects us. That is why many firms have numbers that show up as private number.
#2 by Rater - March 27th, 2009 at 15:21
Thanks, John. I kind of suspected that, but if you are hiring for VP Finance role, chances are – you will get quite a sum of money. I am not counting them, don’t get me wrong, but maybe (just maybe) you can lift the block when you call my personal cell phone number? Or is that too much of a hassle to go through for anybody below VP role?