By Mike Bozeth
Contributor, Career Services
Recruiters are valuable to job candidates in many ways. The most obvious is that they may be able to present you for a vacant position. They also offer tremendous value to job candidates in areas that may not be so obvious. For example, recruiters might have insight into your market or geography that you didn’t know about. They may offer advice about job-search activities, your résumé and or your interview skills. In many cases, it’s actually in their best interest for you to be hired.
That means if you help recruiters get what they really want and need from you, you will have a greater chance of getting what you want from them. Here are some ways in two perspectives (the second perspective offered in yesterday’s blog post) that you can make the most of your relationship with recruiters.
The Life of a Recruiter:
- Recruiters have very limited time. As mentioned in my earlier post, recruiters have lots of people wanting their attention. Use the time you have with them effectively and direct their attention to your value. In order to stand out from the sea of other job seekers, quote achievements that highlight how your performance differentiates you. Recruiters are looking for highlights they can present to hiring managers.
- Comply with their process. Give recruiters what they need when they need it as quick as they need it. While they don’t make the rules or create the process, they are often held accountable for it. Even if that process takes weeks, be patience and respectful with the recruiters during the process. If you want them to help you, you have to help them first.
- Remember that you are a reflection of the recruiter. Recruiters risk their professional reputation and relationships with hiring managers each time they present a candidate. If they present wrong candidates or someone who doesn’t perform well in an interview, their work life becomes more difficult. Recruiters live in a world dominated by trust and don’t have authority over hiring managers; they act in service to hiring managers. They can’t afford much risk in this area.
- Don’t harass recruiters under the guise of being persistent. This will only frustrate and eventually anger the person you want working on your behalf. Recruiters can say and do things you cannot. They can also give you an inside scoop that you can’t get anywhere else. Are these really the people you want to make angry? Recruiters may not make the decision to hire you, but they can surely make a decision to eliminate you from the process.
All in all, recruiters function as educators and filters, and they should give you as much information as possible about positions, companies and hiring managers. As they do this, they will be simultaneously learning about you and deciding if hiring managers should invest their time with you as a prospective hire. The trick is to be a job candidate with whom recruiters want to invest their time with. Follow these simple tips and you will be successful in working with a recruiter.
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