Now don’t get me wrong - I’ve worked in Recruitment for many years and I’ve seen pretty much every trick in the book when it comes to candidates. From falsifying your CV (literally down to the date of birth being 20 years prior to that stated!!!), to not showing up for interviews, to changing the goalposts at the last minute - certain candidates never cease to amaze me.

I always take steps to insulate myself and my clients from this sort of behaviour: checking references, extensive questioning of candidates, getting verbal assurance from people that they will “pursue an opportunity to its fullest extent before making a decision”. It seems that many peoples “word” counts for very little these days. Worst of all I’m referring to professionals at all stages of their careers!

It seems to me that we now exist in a non-committal society where you can hide behind text messages and a hotmail account - never having to commit or face a confrontation. No one can stand confrontation but everyone seems quite happy to allow recruiters to have to face it! Sure, this is our job many will think - but have they considered the long term negative impact their indecisive actions could make for the recruiter’s relationship with the client? I think not. Being unable to make a decision and commit to a company and/or a job puts recruiters like myself in a very difficult position.

If you are the type of person who cannot make a decision to commit easily, I suggest you carefully assess your situation and requirements prior to working with a recruiter. Our service is free to candidates and we work very hard to secure work for you guys. We’ve all made wrong decisions in life and we want to prevent that from happening - especially if we’re thinking about something as important as full time employment - so once again, I would urge candidates to seriously assess what it is that motivates you and make this clear when you start speaking with a recruiter.

If a job is not right for you - then fine, no problem. There is no point us trying to force someone to take a job which would make them unhappy - so tell us this straight away! What frustrates us is when you review an advert, receive a briefing, review the spec and the client’s website, proceed through a gruelling interview process over a number of weeks only to turn down an offer of employment, which has been carefully negotiated, at the last minute shows an inability to make a firm decision and follow through with commitment. Oh, and probably best if you don’t apply for The Apprentice next year!