Building a relationship with a recruiter is essential in your job search. You need to have respect for your recruiter. No matter what you have heard about recruiters or what you think of them, they are providing you a service and they could be your vehicle to a new job. I honestly think this is probably THE most important factor in building the relationship, and something that has been lacking whilst the market has been so buoyant.
As a Corporate Recruiter now, I see a change in people’s attitude when they change from thinking I am an agency recruiter to knowing I am truly representing my company. I don’t understand this. Recruiters will represent you into perspective clients, companies with jobs you may never hear of. Recruiters are always good to have on side, you should be using their skills and networks to your advantage.
If you are applying for a role it is up to you to build the relationship, and this starts from the initial interaction. From my point of view, a conversation beats an email. However the conversation needs to have meaning.
Please don’t call with a “I want to know more about the jobâ€. Think about the ad.. think about how you can excel in it, and have questions which will help you tailor your cv to the role. Then tell them you will call them to discuss your potential suitability (at a certain time, get agreement on that) and stick to it.
Know this, you will only form a relationship if you can show, straight off the bat, that you will ad value to that Recruiter. Sounds crass doesn’t it? It’s true though, Recruiters literally get hundreds of calls and emails a day. Remember you are selling them something… yourself, being different and able to ad value to them makes a difference.
Once you speak to a Recruiter, modestly sell yourself, allow them to get to know you. When you get that interview, WOW them. Be open and honest, avoid game playing (For example, I’ve never seen the value of avoiding the salary question, as a Recruiter, it annoys me more than anything). No matter what you hear, I’m not convinced playing a game will give you an advantage one way or another, and I’m not sure you want a one up man ship, competitive style relationship with your recruiter. The more you get paid the more commission they make.. It is in their best interests to get you more. But also it is their job to help you realign expectations if they don’t match the clients budget. The Recruiters job is to find the right person for their client. Your job is to make them know that is you.
If your situation changes, (ie other job offers, the reason you were looking for a job disappears etc)let them know, give them honest feedback from your client interview, good bad or indifferent.
Again, treat them as you want them to treat you, but understand the dynamic of your relationship, you both have the same goal, just coming at it from different angles!
Photo Credit Unity
Dan Nuroo, our guest blogger is a recruiter based in Australia. Dan has been in the Recruitment industry since 1997, where he started working for an IT Recruitment Agency. He worked in a number of roles there, from resourcer to Account Manager to general consultant. In 2002 he took the plunge into the world of Internal Recruitment and has been in his current role with DWS as National Recruitment Manager since then. He is a career Recruiter who is passionate about the industry, and when time allows he is active in a number of online Recruiting Communities. Email Dan at Dan.Nuroo@dws.com.au or visit his blog, Say Something Dan.
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Excellent! This should be required reading for everyone who sends a resume to a corporation.
Building a relationship to your own recruiter is a best way to know more from each other,and having a good relationship from them is a chance for you to hire immediately because sometimes when a recruiter need someone to hire the first thing will come to their mind is a good quality of person with skills.
I thought this was going to be another long boring blog post, but I was pleasantly suprised. I will be posting a backlink on my blog, as I am quite sure my readers will find this more than interesting.
Insightful article. I have never used a recruiter, but after reading this would definitely love to look into it!
I had been with a recruiter once. True enough, she was able to get me hired before the week ended. Only, I didn’t pursue the job because of its location that is very far from my place.
It takes a while before you get a job without having the help of a recruiter. I have never had a recruiter. My neighbor had one and she was able to find a job faster than I did.
There are many agencies/recruiters in my country. They can easily get you hired very fast. My sister is in a recruitment agency and she has many contacts and a lot of people come to her for work.
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