An Executive recruiter may call you – be sure to answer their call!
Why? …because they can help your career! An executive recruiter may be the perfect match for you – if you are looking for work, or seeking a mid-career challenge, … you may want to have and Executive recruiter at your disposal.
Job listings are becoming obsolete these days; companies are using search firms to scour the Internet, looking for a suitable candidate whose background may be a match to the opening they have in their listings.
Executive recruiters are assigned the responsibility to find and place candidates, some may be for high-level positions, but not always. Companies hire recruitment firms to find talented employees and bring them in to take high-profile jobs that are not often publicly advertised. Most firms are specialized in some manner, either regionally, by profession (such as accounting, legal, advertising, marketing), or industry—such as high tech or pharmaceutical. Some firms have exclusive contracts to do all of a company’s outsource hiring.
How Recruiters Work
Recruiting firms are employment agencies. Companies hire executive recruiters to find and bring in candidates for a variety of positions—anyone with two years of professional work experience on up. The company is the client of the “headhunter” and the job seeker is the “target”. Essentially, the Executive recruiter (”headhunter“) is seeking out a person for the job, not a job for the person.
Recruiters are compensated either on retainer or a contingency basis; either way, the standard fee structure is 25 percent to 35 percent of the position’s first-year salary. Retainer firms have exclusive contracts to handle higher-level positions involving six-figure salaries.
Locating Your Recruiter
Your first step is to locate a recruiting firm that works in your field. Network around to find a speciality recruiter. Once you’ve found a firm, choose an individual recruiter with whom you can develop a relationship with. You want to develop a “bond of trust” for the relationship to be productive and rewarding.
Put the recruiter to the test. How established is the firm? How long has the person been recruiting? Where has he/she practiced before? Does he or she have a solid working knowledge of your field? How many years of experience do they have?
Maybe you can locate one or two whom you trust and with whom you want to work. Recruiters rely heavily on their personal contacts and arrangements with certain companies, so each recruiter you network with will widen your “circle” of contacts.
Making an Impression
How can you best help the recruiter help you? The more you put into the process, the more you’ll get out of it. Be honest and clear about your career goals. Describe the type of position you want, your salary requirements, where you want to work, etc. Remember that you’re the the “target” that the recruiter is selling.
Recruiters send people out to interview all the time, and they get feedback afterward from both sides on what worked and what didn’t. A good recruiter may be able to tell you the interviewing style of the person you’ll be meeting, and perhaps even some of his or her trick questions. Even if you’ve spent a number of years in your field and know who you are and what you’re worth, a recruiter can point out key details that will make your presentation of yourself more enticing to a potential employer.
Passive Job Seeker
If you’re a passive job seeker, you can post a resume and let the recruiters come to you, or, better yet – create a Web page and blog about your skill set. Recruiters Online Network posts business information and website addresses for hundreds of recruiting firms worldwide, and also features resume-posting sites and job banks.