What Can Recruiters Do For Me?
I spoke to a Ph.D. graduate this morning. He thought recruiters call companies to find a job for him. It isn’t just him that has a mixed understanding of what recruiters do or will do for a job seeker.
Recruiters represent the interest of their clients; employers who hire them to find temporary, contract or permanent employees.
Recruiters maintain a database of job seekers, attract people to fill various job openings, screening candidates, reference check and contract handling if needed. For all this work, it is the employer who pays recruiters.
If you understand how recruiters work, finding recruiters to help you with a job search is a great idea. But! If you reach out to a recruiter without knowing their role in the job market, your relationship with the recruiter can go cold.
Here are three things you should remember when working through any recruiters to reach the employment goal.
1. Can you find me a job?
You need to change this question around so they understand that you recognize recruiter's role.
“Can you tell me if you have job openings that fit my experience and interest?”
2. Give them space.
After you meet a recruiter (and only if you made a good impression), email and thank them for their time and future consideration. Give them a week or two, then send out a warm greeting email to remind them of you. Your third follow up email can be another two to three weeks later.
If nothing fruitful come through after 3 respectful follow-up emails, leave them alone. They have no job orders to give you.
3.Take on a small assignment
In most cases, recruiters are risk avoidance and try to assign a new job seeker to a smaller assignment as a warm-up. The smaller assignment can be two to three weeks of temporary fill-in or level of work that’s a lot less important than what you did in the past.
They know their new job seeker's performance very well as employers always give feedback on the new placement provided by the recruitment firm. As soon as the new job seeker become reliable, the recruiter starting throwing greater placement offers.
Working with a recruiter is a great option to enter a new job market and build strong reference. Recruiters you meet at any job fairs are very approachable. Make a great connection with them and don’t forget their role in the job market.