Working With Recruitment Agencies
Recruitment agencies can be your best friend, or your worst nightmare.
You might be the flavour of the week for one week, and
then hear nothing back for the following days, weeks and sometimes months thereafter!
So what’s going on?
Recruiters will act quickly to “seize the moment”. If your background matches a vacancy that they hold, then expect to be railroaded to interview faster than it takes you to remember your name. However, if you don’t fit the job criteria, then don’t expect too much love at this stage (it will come, but not right now).The following has been provided by: www.short-list.com.au: Per hour Recruitment.
A glimpse into the recruiter’s life:
To understand why recruiters don't spend too much time on the phone to you, you'll need to understand the demands placed on a modern day Recruiter. A Generalist Recruiter may manage upwards of 50 jobs each week; times that by upwards of 100 applications for each role listed and we’re looking at a lot of candidate applications!
Due to the sheer volume of applicants and phone calls received on each job, there’s little time for a recruiter to be able to offer any real customer service. Don’t take it personally; it’s just their time is paid by their client, not by the applicant. If you dealing with Specialist Recruiters (Headhunters, Executive Search and alike), then these guys/gals have a more liberal approach as their work is as much about networking as it is trying to directly fill jobs.
So what can you do to improve your relationship, communication and expectations with recruiters?
So what’s going on?
Recruiters will act quickly to “seize the moment”. If your background matches a vacancy that they hold, then expect to be railroaded to interview faster than it takes you to remember your name. However, if you don’t fit the job criteria, then don’t expect too much love at this stage (it will come, but not right now).The following has been provided by: www.short-list.com.au: Per hour Recruitment.
A glimpse into the recruiter’s life:
To understand why recruiters don't spend too much time on the phone to you, you'll need to understand the demands placed on a modern day Recruiter. A Generalist Recruiter may manage upwards of 50 jobs each week; times that by upwards of 100 applications for each role listed and we’re looking at a lot of candidate applications!
Due to the sheer volume of applicants and phone calls received on each job, there’s little time for a recruiter to be able to offer any real customer service. Don’t take it personally; it’s just their time is paid by their client, not by the applicant. If you dealing with Specialist Recruiters (Headhunters, Executive Search and alike), then these guys/gals have a more liberal approach as their work is as much about networking as it is trying to directly fill jobs.
So what can you do to improve your relationship, communication and expectations with recruiters?
- Don’t apply for a job if you’re not interested in it. Sounds obvious, but there’s lots of employment seekers who apply to “get noticed”, wasting the recruiters time.
- Be open with the recruiter, don’t leave any nasty surprises. Even if you think they will reject you for a particular role, it’s best to be declined for one role than to be omitted from any future positions.
- Always be positive, sell yourself and be professional on the phone, and in person. When you go to interview at a Recruiter's office, treat it as an interview. When you go to their Client's interview, remember that you also represent the recruiter and their agency.
- Keep track of who is sending your CV/Resume, and to where. Duplications cause misery in the market and will blacken you name with recruiters, and with employers alike.
- Never ask a recruiter.. "Can you tell me who the company is?" - It’s just not going to happen at the initial stage of phone screening. It will happen if they feel there is a match.
- Recruiters often have hidden insight into a job - understand that there may be determining factors that a recruiter might find it difficult to elaborate on for fear of causing conflict.
- When talking on the phone to a recruiter, make sure you can speak openly. If not, say you will call back; don't stay on the phone when you simply can't talk about your background.
- Before you even consider applying, think about how you are going to attend interviews? The recruitment process can take up to 4 interviews with the agency and client, so make sure you come onto the market at a time when you can be flexible to attend interviews.
- Perform well in interviews. If you keep failing at interview then Recruiters will lose confidence in you. Read our JOB INTERVIEW SUPPORT GUIDE to boost your skills.
The above points may come over as a little one-sided (i.e. biased towards the recruitment agency). This is intentional as you will be one of thousands of job seekers who are on the market at any one time. Therefore, put the emphasis on your side than on the recruiters, and remember, we're just here to help and to tell you how it is.
A good Recruitment Consultant is like gold dust. So if you know one, treat them well and keep them on your side as they'll form an integral part of your networking strategy.
