There are certain truths about the recruitment profession and to benefit most as a jobseeker you need to understand these truths.
Candidates do not pay recruiters, hiring companies do, and then generally only when the candidate has been placed, has started and indeed stays with the company for an amount of time. Also bearing in mind that most recruiters are in competition with other recruiters on the same job, and mostly in competition with the hiring company themselves. You, as a jobseeker, are a commodity, a means to an end, and although many many recruiters get great pleasure from getting jobs for people, they don’t get any money!
So, how it generally works from the recruiter’s point of view is as follows.
Their client supplies a requirement, the two companies should agree a fee, based on a percentage of the successful candidate’s first years salary, a jobspec and interview process and ideally a timeframe for filling the role.
Now it’s a race against time for most recruiters, to get the best candidate in front of the hiring manager as fast as they can, before the competition can. This is why you might find some recruiters being abrupt and you may feel pressured into going for a role that may not suit you upon first glance. A point to make here which is vitally important for you as a jobseeker is to get confirmation of your application from the recruiter in writing.
A couple of years ago, when I was still in recruitment, I was looking for a new role and I found that a recruiter with whom I had been in touch had sent my CV to a couple of companies without my express permission and in one case against my specific wishes. Suffice to say I refused point blank to deal with the company again! So, if your recruiter gives any resistance at all to you sending written confirmation that your CV has been sent, walk away.
Back to the process, the recruiter now has to supply feedback to the candidate, but in fairness to them, the majority of times when there is no feedback is due to the fact that there is no feedback from the hiring company. Either that or it’s bad news and the recruiter is spending their time either speaking to more successful candidates or finding new ones. Courtesy would suggest that you should be told as soon as there is feedback, but courtesy is unfortunately often nothing to do with it! Suffice to say if indeed you are being called for an interview, you’ll know all about it.
So, you need to remember that it’s a process, you’re a commodity to the recruiter, if it works well, from your perspective you have one or more people working for you, to achieve your ends, for FREE.
Think about that. Think about when you got interviews through a recruiter, what did you get out of it, and what did you give them? Conversely of course, if it does not go well, they were using you for free to make money! So, it’s all in the mind, how it’s taken, so the important thing here is to be very clear that it’s business, not personal. If you feel a recruiter hates your guts, it doesn’t matter one jot as they will place you if they can make money from it. Now that’s not a reflection on their personality or yours, it’s just business.
Recruiters often talk about being in a sales industry where the product is unpredictable, talks back, changes its mind and generally messes them around. But of course, it’s all in their minds too.
There are genuinely lots and lots of honest, ethical recruiters out there, but their function, their loyalty, their paymasters are the companies that use their services. I would put it to you as a jobseeker, that when you start paying recruiters to get you a job, then you can expect top class service from them all, but until that happens, same old same old I’m afraid.
So, what you need to do is to establish who are the best recruiters in your industry. Both companies and individuals. Get your details in front of them using the following steps.
CV - Use MS Word as most of the recruiters use search technologies requiring MS word for their databases. Make sure that the version of the CV you submit is keyword rich, in the same way that google uses keyword density to decide page rank, the same applies.
Therefore some good advice for agency recruiter management is to create an extra page to your CV, a skills matrix if you will, listing in bullet form your skills, experiences and qualifications. This will get you found.
Your cover email must tell the agent what they want to know.
Required salary or rate
Availability to start and or interview
Notice period in current role if applicable
Ability to work in the country, visa issues if any
Desire for contract and or permanent work
Desired physical location of your next role
Industry and anything related they may need to know such as, if you’re getting married towards the end of the year, the prospective employer will need to know that you’ll be on honeymoon not long after starting, for instance.
Don’t send a CV to a lot of agencies and expect them all to be banging your door down. Trust me, recruitment technology is such nowadays that when a role comes up that could make them money they will be onto you very quickly.
However, I recommend that you come back to your list of contacts within the industry and email them on the same day each month. Be it the first or last day, just to make sure that they are aware of you. They may not get back to you immediately or at all, but all that means is that they can’t make money from you.
What to watch out for, how to spot unethical recruiters
Like any industry there are cowboys, so let’s find out how to spot them. Ask for written confirmation as discussed, if it’s not forthcoming, run away, demand that your details be taken from their system and quote Data Protection at them, that’ll do the trick.
Watch out for recruiters trying to get you to take a pay cut! Enough said. Also, request that the CV that was sent to a client be also sent to you, including cover email, to make sure at interview that there have been no lies told on your behalf. It’s important to ask for this, because you could lose control of an interview if this happens.
In conclusion, recruiters are perceived as a necessary evil, but a lot of them do a great job for their clients, but you have to remember that you are not their clients! You are the commodity and as you don’t pay them, they don’t owe you anything.
You in fact use their resources to get a role, their wages, their fixtures and fittings. On the other hand, you have to watch out for the unethical ones.
As mentioned, establish who are the best ones for you, put them on a list and contact them. Then contact them regularly until such time as you have finished your jobsearch.
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