Top 10 Ways Job Seekers Can Work Better with Their Recruiter
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By Keith Gurtzweiler
1. Have realistic expectations. Recruiters are one avenue you might take in looking for a new job. They are not — nor should they be — the only avenue you take. You may work with one or multiple recruiters. You should also conduct your own job search, network, and be active in professional associations. Do not hinge all hope for your future idyllic employment on us. We’ll do our very best — but then beyond that it’s up to you to make things happen.
2. Know thyself. Discuss with your recruiter your priorities for a new position. Be candid; you’re not going to hurt our feelings. We’re not the hiring organization, we’re your partner throughout this process and opportunity. So speak up! If you had to make a choice right now, today, what’s more important to you: money or location, title or responsibility, growth opportunities or work–life balance? If you don’t know, then neither do we. This is one area we can’t counsel you on, but we can ask questions to help you decide for yourself. This is one of the most important exercises to do when you first even think of looking for a job. It is fundamental. Without knowing your own priorities you may jump out of the frying pan and into the fire. That’s not what you want to do. So prioritize. It’s our job to help you think of these questions and your job to ask them of yourself — and then answer them truthfully.
3. Be open-minded. Listen when we recruiters offer our best, most objective counseling and feedback. This could come in many forms: advice on your resume for this specific position, or how better to answer questions in an interview, or what the hiring organization is really looking for in their ideal candidate. We’re not just blowing smoke rings and swilling brandy, much as some days we might wish we were. We’re trying to help you show the best version of yourself to the eyes of the hiring organization. Sometimes, we simply don’t know much more about what they’re looking for in their ideal candidate. Sometimes, we do. When we do know, and when we give you suggestions, please understand that we’re doing it to help you show your best side. Do not get defensive, and please do not show up to the interview and do the exact thing that we counseled you not to do, such as speaking dysphemistically about your former employer.
4. Respond in a timely fashion. Return your recruiter’s calls and emails in a timely fashion. By timely fashion I mean a reasonable amount of time. It does not necessarily mean drop everything. It depends on what is happening. If we’re talking about a job offer or salary negotiations, then yes, it’s pretty much drop everything. If it’s something more general, such as seeing whether you’re working or not, or what your situation is, or how you’re doing in your job, it’s not a drop-everything communication. A candidate’s taking a lot of time to respond to something important — for instance a job offer or subsequent negotiations — is to the hiring organization a revealing sign that the candidate may not be that interested in the position. Many times an offer has been rescinded or has come to being rescinded because the candidate took too long to respond. Now of course this is a big decision and you want to think things through. The time to ponder what you want to do in this next step in your career, however, is before you’ve been on several interviews, and during the whole recruiting process, and while the organization checks your references — and reflection time ends when you receive that coveted offer. Once received, it’s time to decide and communicate. Look, we all know that most job seekers are looking at multiple opportunities at the same time. It is for this reason that once a hiring organization makes an offer to you and you don’t respond right away the hiring organization (like it or not) presumes you must have something else cooking or else you would have said yes or no more quickly. If you have to think about it too long, and more than a day or two is too long by many HR standards, then it’s probably a no-go in their mind. You’ve done your soul-searching, you’ve gone through the process, and now you have the offer: if you’re interested, don’t dawdle, get on the horn to your recruiter, and let him know what you want to do.
5. Do not answer questions evasively. Why, when we recruiters ask straightforward questions, are we sometimes met with less-than-forthcoming answers? Because candidates become shy about events in their past that didn’t go so well. What I say: Better that we know what may have happened now, than we find out later from the hiring organization when we will have to do damage control. If there’s a blemish in your professional history, don’t hide it. Rather, discuss it with your recruiter and let us work with you on how honestly — and appropriately — to frame the situation for the hiring manager, should she ask questions about it during an interview. Maybe you were terminated. Okay, fine, but let’s look at why and what you took away from the experience. Have you improved in certain needed areas as a result? Did you learn anything? Or maybe you walked out on a job. Why? What precipitated that action? Or maybe it’s something else entirely. In any case, it really is better that we know about a touchy situation before we get too far along in the recruiting process, so that we’re not blindsided later if the hiring manager discovers this part of your history somehow before we do. That does happen from time to time, and it’s not pretty. Be up front with us. As Joan Rivers might say, “Can we talk?”
6. Don't insult us to our face. If you’re asking for our help, then please don’t treat us like “the help.” Insult us behind our backs — fine. We can live with that. But speak in a manner than implies condescension or annoyance that you “have to go through a recruiter” — presumably versus dealing directly with HR at the hiring organization — and we’re less likely to help get you that perfect position. Hiring managers come to us outside recruiting firms for a variety of reasons, and they know how best to work with us. They may come to us because they haven’t found the perfect candidate despite trying, or they don’t know our niche field as well as we know it, or they have many positions open in their organization and so for some of their positions they’re turning to outside help. There are many reasons hiring managers come to us. Suffice it to say, if an organization comes to a recruiting firm, it’s their business why. It is unacceptable for you the job seeker to display your annoyance that you have to “go through” a recruiter to be submitted for a position. Even if you do feel that way, we don’t want to know. Ask yourself: Would you rather have us do our best to offer you insight into the position that may not be found in the job description and have us give feedback on your resume or interviewing skills — or would you rather just take your chances by blindly sending a resume to a company who doesn’t know you from Adam? We are here to help, so play nice.
7. Know where your resume has gone. One of the most frustrating situations for recruiters and hiring managers in employer organizations is trying to untangle the knot that is created when a hiring organization receives a candidate’s resume from more than one source in a short period of time. It’s a big no-no. It makes the candidate look sneaky, as though she is trying to come in through the back door. It makes the recruiter look sloppy, as if he did not bother to ask the candidate where she submitted her resume. In the name of all that’s holy (and these days I’m not sure what that is), do not tell your recruiter that you have not applied when you have or that your another agency has not submitted your resume to an organization when it has. Saying “I don’t know where this other agency submitted my resume” — which we hear alarmingly often — is not a viable explanation. We and our clients need to know where you and other recruiters on your behalf have sent your resume, when it was sent, and for which positions. If another recruiter is submitting your resume willy-nilly to organizations without your prior knowledge and permission, then you may wish to have a conversation with them, as it could cause problems for you when you’re looking for a new job.
8. Understand that recruiters work on multiple projects at any given time. It’s nothing personal, it’s the truth. Most recruiters are working on anywhere from five to ten open positions in a given week, some which may be new and others which may be drawing to a close. Some days we are incredibly available to take a call, have a long chat about your desired career path and so forth, and other days we’re in back-to-back interviews from when we arrive until when we go home. Please be patient give us time to get back to you. We’re not ignoring you, just working on many different projects concurrently. If you don’t hear back from us in a day or two days, then maybe follow up with another voice message or email. We’ll get to you as soon as we possibly can.
9. Communicate honestly. Do I really have to explain this? If I have to, then you’re not doing it. If you’re doing it, then I don’t have to.
10. Have a sense of humor. I know, we’re asking a lot. That was a joke, Pucker Face. Being friendly and having a smile in your voice goes a long way. It’s important not only in working through the understandably stressful career transition you’re undertaking but also in making a positive impression with the hiring organization. Everyone wants to work with friendly co-workers. No one looks forward to working with ole battle axe in the next office. So come to us and our client hiring organizations with a smile and the ability to laugh and be appropriately light-hearted. But do not come drunk. That would not be funny.
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