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Posts Tagged ‘Headhunter’

Working With a Recruiter

Friday, August 14th, 2009

Recruiters exist to find people for jobs, not jobs for people. Once you have chosen a recruiter (who is specializing in your field) and he/she has agreed to represent you, you still have to do you part.

These five actions will help you succeed when working with placement professionals.

1. Be Forthcoming

Be honest and upfront about any personal information that may impact your decision making process when it comes to job offers. For instance if there are geographic locations to which you won’t travel or if your availability to work is limited speak up. A placement person can’t work toward a win-win if she’s operating in the dark.

2. Be Honest about your Pay Requirements

The right placement professional works from your best interests as well as the hiring manager’s best interests. He/She is working to match your needs with the hiring manager’s needs. To do that effectively he/she needs to know what you’re really looking for in the way of pay as well as the least amount you’re willing to accept. By being up front you can avoid being overlooked for positions you would actually be interested in because the recruiter thought the pay rate was too low.

Don’t worry that he’ll/she’ll sabotage you’re negotiating leverage. The vast majority of recruiters work on a contingency basis. That means it’s in her best interest to help you negotiate the highest possible salary.

3. Utilize Coaching or Constructive Feedback

A quality based recruiter will have insight into the hiring manager’s decision making criteria. To help you prepare for an interview he/she may make suggestions about what experience to emphasize or what personal mannerisms to play down. Be ready to act on those suggestions. Don’t put your recruiter in a position to regret recommending you for an opening by behaving in a way that would reflect poorly on her or the firm.

4. Be Responsive to Requests

There may be times during the placement process when your placement agent or recruiter needs quick answers to client specific questions. This may come up when your candidacy is first submitted or it could happen after an interview. Your immediate response (or lack thereof) to these requests for information can make the difference in whether or not you get the job.

If your recruiter asks that you call him/her at a specific time, do it. As a professional recruiter I knew of upcoming openings (positions waiting for the hiring go ahead) or pending offers that required time sensitive contact. By asking certain candidates to contact me at specific times I saved both of us a lot of back and forth phone tag. The number of times this sped up placements was significant enough to continue the practice. A professional recruiter won’t waste your time or his/hers if he/she doesn’t truly think he/she has the potential to place you.

5. Stay Top-of-Mind

If you apply with a staffing firm but aren’t placed immediately, don’t disappear. Timing is everything. The position you were first interested in may get filled with someone else. And the next great opening could come in that afternoon. Placement firms are constantly recruiting which means your candidacy could get pushed down the list.

Stay in touch as long as you are actively looking for work (assuming the recruiter specializes in your field). Help your recruiter help you by keeping her up to date on your job seeking status.

Vary your communication between email and phone calls. Contact her once a week or every two weeks. (When in doubt ask the recruiter about the appropriate time interval between contacts.)

Choosing the right recruiter, having her want you as a candidate and then holding up your end of the bargain is the way to win a job through a placement professional. When handled correctly you and your recruiter will forge a relationship that has the potential to serve you both for years to come.

Source: Shirley Ray, a former hiring professional turned infopreneur empowering job seekers

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“Headhunters” – Put Them to Work for You

Friday, August 14th, 2009

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.

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