When I speak with job seekers during consultation calls, whether they’re new to the working world or have been around more years than they may care to count, one commonality emerges at the mention of the word ‘recruiter’ – I can see them rolling their eyes through the phone lines.
Recruiters have a bad reputation for not being helpful and for being downright inefficient – but they are also gatekeepers to an organization and know the pulse of what’s going on. So how do you ensure that you work well with a recruiter so that the relationship is valuable to you as a job seeker?
In a word: respect.
1. Respect what recruiters can do for you. Respect what recruiters do. Although recruiters don’t work for you, the good ones will work with you. With a hiring company in mind, a recruiter will be (sometimes brutally) honest about what will make you a star candidate and tell you how to change your resume, your interview style, and even what to wear. If this is the case, don’t take it personally, put your head down, and follow the advice. Recruiters have the scoop on what the company is looking for, and the guidance they provide are the keys to the inside. So let them help by being receptive to their suggestions.
2. Respect what recruiters can’t do for you. The recruiter is paid by the hiring organization. Therefore, he or she is going to spend time and resources on finding a candidate that fits the company’s needs, not on finding you a job. They deal with hundreds of candidates for potentially thousands of positions. They don’t have time for personalized job coaching; that’s what a job coach is for. So a savvy job seeker should understand that recruiters are just one way to get interviews. Your job search strategies should include other methods of scouting jobs and attaining interviews, such as networking, answering classified ads, and responding to online job board postings.
3. Respect the interview with a recruiter. Save your ‘this guy walked into a bar and…’ jokes for your beer-drinking buddies on the weekend. When you contact recruiters, or they contact you, be selective about the type of information you provide. A meeting with a recruiter is an interview. Let me repeat that: a meeting with a recruiter is an interview. Don’t allow the informality of the conversation to convince you otherwise. It’s designed to show how professional you are and if you let your guard down, you’ll be judged negatively on your conduct, and your resume will go into the Electronic Black Hole of Death.
4. Respect a recruiter’s time. When a recruiter recommends you for a position, it means someone has invested time in you. Respect them by returning phone calls, speaking to them when they call if you’re available (they hate leaving messages and playing phone tag), and providing them with honest feedback on the company after an interview. Fit is a two-way process. Recruiters don’t want to waste time on a candidate who’s not a good fit or not interested in the job. So be honest about your interest level, your thoughts about the interviewer, and how you felt the interview went, and be sure to ask about next steps.
Like any productive working relationship, the one between job seekers and recruiters should be a professional one built on mutual respect. Don’t expect them – or anyone – to come to your rescue and magically hand you a job. You must be willing to help yourself with training, industry research, reading the latest career trends, and keeping your resume up to date. When it comes down to brass tacks, smart job seekers know the value of tooting their own horn – and how to tap into their toolboxes to use different resources as part of a comprehensive job search strategy.