As an experienced senior Contract Recruiter / Talent Acquisition Specialist, I judge a company by my own candidate experience from the moment I click the 'Apply' button as that is what the Recruiting / Talent team should be judged on. Edelman sadly rates as just above appalling.
From experience having coached recruiters, the moment you click apply having filled in a lengthy, clunky application via their own ATS system, your application is then forwarded to the relevant recruiter to review. The sad truth that the majority of recruiters are appallingly lazy and out of 100 applicants may only open the first 10. Hence to be in with a chance, you have to find the relevant hiring manager that posted the job and take the time to draft a covering letter to catch their attention to send as in InMail via LinkedIn.
I will give full credit to Nigel Miller (Head of HR EMEA) for taking the trouble to reply. If only Nigel's team were as diligent as it's not his place to be looking after individual roles - I applied 3 weeks ago and despite sending direct Inmails, a connection request and leaving 3 voicemails for the Head Of Recruitment (I will spare your blushes by not naming you) as well as a message with their recruitment co-ordinator, no one on the recruiting team has once tried to call, email or even acknowledged my application.
If this is how amateur the talent department are at hiring for someone on their own team, I would have grave concerns as a hiring manager relying on them to hire the best people into the business.
