Your 'Entitled' Candidates Are Paying Customers — Just Not Yours

Had a founder tell me his biggest problem with trying to hire talent was that so many reps he was speaking to were “entitled.”

Like the kind where guys coming in are wanting 30k a month, half days, calendar blocked off in the mornings because they like to travel, type entitlement. He’s paying a recruiter good money and getting sent people who talk to him like he owes them a job. Like, all of them.

I fish from the same pond and I don’t have that problem…I also don’t charge reps. Go figure.

The reason that happens is because when a rep pays money for a job, that rep doesn’t show up as a candidate. He shows up as a CUSTOMER. And customers don’t audition. Customers expect delivery.

So the founder is sitting there confused, wondering why this guy is negotiating like the job was already promised to him. It was. Just not by the founder…

And you gotta understand where that guy even comes from.This space sells a very SPECIFIC fantasy to people who have never worked in it.30k a month. Two calls a day. Laptop somewhere warm.So people show up believing that's the job description right from the get-go.Nobody mentioned the part where you sit in a chair and dial your face off for 8 months before any of that gets even remotely real.So when somebody offers to skip the line for a fee,of course they take it.They already think the line is the scam.Then they land on a founder's calendar asking for the beach versionand the founder is looking at them like they have two heads.But the reps who actually last around here dont think like that.They still want to work.They just want to do it on their own schedule, their own way, without somebody breathing down their neck and asking why they logged off at 4 to go shoot some hoops.That's a completely different animal than wanting to not work at all.The ones who stick around figured out how to make the casino their bish.The other one quits in 90 days because the picture didn't match the product and tells everybody the space is a scam.And guess which one of those two is buying placements?Now to the naysayers already warming up their fingers.I'm not saying EVERY difficult candidate paid somebody.And plenty of "entitled rep" complaints are really just a founder who doesn't want to fix his own broken comp plain.But founders, if your pipeline keeps handing you people who act like the job is owed to them, ask one question.Does the place they came from charge them?Because an agency collecting from the rep AND from you has TWO promises to keep at the same time.And in that setup, your open role is what makes their promise true.Reps, nobody who's actually on your side takes your money to introduce you to somebody.Real referrals are free.And if you already paid, that money is gone.Don't let it buy you an attitude going into the next interview too.And recognize on both ends of this equation, the reps and the company are both getting the short end of the stick,being told it's the other persons fault,while the agency in the middle is getting rich twice as fast.Stay Humble, Hustle Hard.