Job Search in India-poor recruiter empathy

Among the mails I recieved this week, there were these comments:

"I haven't gotten any response to my last email and am wondering if you would be able to help me. "

" I have put my resume on Monster and Naukri and do get lots of email but, surprisingly, no recruiter follows through"

"I would like to provide 1 to 2 months of notice to my current employer. So, I would need ~2 months to join in India"

"In US, typically if we do not get response to an email within x hours, or a phonecall within y hours, it is understood that the person isnt interested to deal with you"

Well, I am not trying to justify why we Indian recruiters behave the way we do. Infact, in response to one of my earlier posts I had received a lot of offline comments, and so I thought I shall share the learnings in this post.

I have just replied to one of those mails as below:

"I can surely empathise with you..your experience with me -is perhaps no different from all the other recruiters who havent got back after the initial interest.

Surely we can assist you..but I guess we will have to work on a definite time line and agenda.I guess we shd have a phonecall and take this ahead-Am travelling tomoro. So anyday -(other than Sunday) between 5pm and 10pm IST is okay for me-with a prior intimation.

From a recruiter perspective -here are the observations:

a) most of the recruiters in India work on contingency search basis..that is we get paid only if the person recommended by us-joins the company. Since your resume is already on the jobsites, the hope that I would have for success -would be pretty low. Moreover, most corporates also have access to the popular jobsites..and eventually wd deny us the payment-indicating they have your resume in their database :-)!

b)you havent indicated any date of returning to India. Perhaps you do not have any compelling reasons to come back to India-and so are waiting for an offer while still in the US. In such a case, no recruiter wd really stretch out-and spend time on your profile-when there are likely to be similar profiles already in India.

I know its a catch 22-unless you know about opportunities, and people know about your availability, how wd these interviews happen?

Here are my suggestions:

1.Instead of actually posting the resume on all popular jobsites, try out the 'alert' or 'agent' feature each of them provide. By indicating a bunch of key words, like the location, level, salary, skillsets -you can create an alert-and each time a similar job is uploaded on the site, you will get an email indicating the opportunity. You then visit the jobsite and check if it interests you-and then apply for it specifically. This way you can control the circulation of your resume too

2. Plan a India trip-for perhaps 10 working days- purely dedicated for a job search. Indicate these to the recruiters you are working with..and the companies you are applying to, and see the difference. It would also help you to line up a few interviews, and help you meet the prospective employer at their workplace..and perhaps have a first hand exp of the Indian work environment- And am sure, even if the salary ranges offered by the companies are drastically different, you can weigh them-more comfortably.

Can I hear from others -who have returned to India, or those who have plans to return, fellow recruiters, both from the corporate and third party kind-on how I could address the situations better? Am I being totally self centred, and missing out on the larger picture? I shall be glad to hear your comments, feedback, views, brickbats, ...am sure I will take it as constructive criticism and change my perspective.