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Advice from a Recruiter for the Candidate
By Pat O'Donnell
© September 9, 2009, all rights reserved.
Disclosure: O’Donnell Executive Strategies provides recruiting services as well as career strategy.
Here are important tips for a successful relationship with a recruiter, when you are the candidate.
- Interview the recruiting firm. A firm may cover many roles, such as Sales, Marketing, IT, Engineering, Senior Finance and Accounting, Training, Organizational Development, Human Resources. Individual recruiters have industry specialties like medical device, durable goods, etc… The recruiter needs to assess whether one of the recruiters in the group is likely to have jobs that fit you. Most great recruiters have hands on experience in the field they cover. For instance, I have 10+ years as a VP of Marketing and I recruit marketers and others. A good finance recruiter might have a CPA and experience in one of the Big 4 accounting firms.
- Understand the recruiter’s world. The recruiter’s time is driven by clients who contract with the recruiting firm to find many different kinds of candidates. For this reason, recruiters do not know which searches they will work on next week or if they will have jobs that fit your background in the near future. However, when recruiters do fill job in your area during the course of a typical year, the recruiter definitely wants you to be in the candidate database. Then the recruiter can call you when those jobs show up and see if the time is right for you and if you are interested in the particular job the recruiter describes. Importantly, your resume and name are not shared with any hiring manager unless you say you would like to it be submitted to that client and that job. A great recruiter takes that very seriously, because a recruting firm with several recruiters and an excellent reputaton has far more to lose than gain by violating that policy.
- Optimize your communication with your recruiter. Be smart. This is a free service to you, so you are expected to follow a particular etiquette.
- Be available for questions.
- Answer all questions honestly.
If a recruiter is not getting cooperation during the process, the recruiter will gravitate to another candidate. Note that many hiring managers have also worked with the same great recruiting firm as candidates, so great recruiters are very used to keeping those relationships straight and your information confidential. Recruiter income depends on maintaining positive relationships both on the candidate and client side.
- Choose a great recruiter and feel honored when you get homework. A great firm has more connections, locally and nationally, and a more rigorous process for getting to know you. It costs the clients more and they get what they pay for. This means a great recruiter will spend a little more time with you than other firms demand. This means when your great recruiter introduces you to a client, it is more likely be a good fit for both of you.
- Be ready when your recruiter interviews you in person. The process of talking to a great recruiter usually starts with an email or phone call and a discussion of your resume and marketability to the firm’s clients. When your great recruiter has a job that he/she thinks fits you, your recruiter will ask you to visit in person. A great recruiting firm’s clients expect them to deliver the best culture/personality match as well as a skill set match.
- Trust your great recruiter to negotiate for you. Once your recruiter has shown your information to a client, the next step is to arrange the interviews and negotiate dollars on your behalf. Since your recruiter negotiates dollars on the behalf of candidates many times a week and recruiting fees are based on a percentage of your expected compensation, your great recruiter is interested in obtaining a high but reasonable salary for you and can usually negotiate a higher offer for you than you can on your own. The client expects a great recruiting firm to manage the salary and interview process.
- Wait for the call. When you are active in the candidate database, you do not have to call once a week to check in. Because a great recruiter will not send your information anywhere without asking you first, you will get a call with a position description when your recruiter has a job open that fits you.
- Stay active in the database. Send an email 1-2 times/month. It keeps you top of mind if you send an email to your recruiter every 2-4 weeks. This information and all of the notes on you are stored in a database for the entire team of great recruiters to see. In each email, be sure to mention:
- you are still available
- where you have been interviewing so the recruiter can expand on your own efforts
- It matters where you’ve been. Sharing where you have been interviewing is important because a great recruiter cannot show you to a client where you have already been submitted in the last 6-12 months (depending on how long a client keeps resumes.) The list also helps the great recruiting firm understand what kinds of roles and companies appeal to you and how flexible you are. Telling your recruiter what went well and badly in the interview (even if your recruiter’s firm did not arrange the meeting) helps your recruiter understand where you will be most salable. It makes all the recruiters at a great recruiting firm more willing to go out of their way for you.
- Support your recruiter’s reputation and you support yourself. Share your whole network. Contribute to everyone’s success. Recruiters find candidates names through a variety of sources. Most placements come from candidates recommended to the recruiters personally. Great recruiters pride themselves on knowing people who are very good at what they are doing whether that person is looking for an opportunity or not. Clients expect great recruiters to provide the candidates who are great. The client not only does not care if that candidate is looking, they also want the recruiters to find the people they can’t on their own. So clients do not want recruiters to provide people who are in databases like Monster.com. They expect the recruiter provide an added value not found in those public sources. That means your great recruiter will ask you who you know who is great at what they do, whether that person is looking or not. Even if your friend is not looking they may lead your recruiter to a very good candidate who is. (Eagles hang out with eagles.) This networking is one of the courtesies a great recruiter expects of you in exchange for looking for opportunities for your career for no money fee. This networking process is how the great recruiter gets leads to jobs to fill, so it may lead to uncovering a job you can fill. And when you help your recruiter to be better connected, your recruiter has an easier time attracting the kinds of clients you want hire you.
- Ask about how the recruiting process works. The better educated you are, the more effectively you can negotiate the process to your advantage. The better educated you are, the easier for your great recruiter to place you. Please ask questions!
Topics: Career Strategy, Networking, Recruiting | No Comments »