PSA: I Tracked Every Recruiter Call for 6 Months and Only 4 Out of 89 Went Anywhere

Tessa Wood · 2026-09-29T14:40:03.52256+00:00

I started keeping a little spreadsheet last January after a recruiter from a staffing agency in Dallas ghosted me right before a final round. Six months later the numbers are sitting in front of me: 89 recruiter calls, 61 of them for jobs I never applied to, and only 4 that turned into real interviews with the actual company. The part that got me was the pay talk. 52 of those calls gave me a "range" that was $8k to $15k lower than what the same job listed on the company site. One guy even told me the range was "flexible" and then came back with an offer $11k under the posting. I am not saying skip every recruiter, some of them are great and did get me one of the 4. But if you are job hunting right now, check the company's own careers page before you get excited about a number someone quotes you on the phone. Has anyone else tracked this stuff and seen the same gap, or did I just get a bad batch?

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PSA: I Tracked Every Recruiter Call for 6 Months and Only 4 Out of 89 Went Anywhere | Career Development - SMM Buzz