During a job or career transition those who are ready to make a change often consider working with a recruiter as a good avenue for help. Although this can be true, many do this out of lack of full awareness of the role a recruiter plays during a transition and how to utilize that resource to their best advantage.
Recruiters come in two flavors: Retained and Contingent. A retained recruiter is paid by their client company to fill an open position even if they are unable to fill that position. This position may or may not be known to the outsiders at large. If a company is trying to fill a position without openly admitting that the incumbent is going to be replaced, it wants to be discreet about how it executes this process. A retained recruiter is ideal in this role for such a company. Senior executives or highly specialized candidates are typically handled by a retained recruiter. Another reason may be that a company wants to poach its competitor for certain talent. Again, who better to help this company than a well-connected recruiter? An inside company recruiter can be seen as a retained recruiter.
A contingent recruiter, on the other hand, is a person who has a number of clients (companies) that hire from them and gets paid only on a successful placement. Middle management ranks and even some individual contributor positions are often filled through contingent recruiters. These recruiters have a good knowledge of who is hiring and where the action is.
Although recruiters are a value-added benefit for their clients (those who pay their bills) they play a different role from the perspective of the job seeker. This becomes clear when one looks at their business model (how they make their money). Many job seekers approach a recruiter to get some help in their positioning or reinvention. This is not a recruiter’s job. Since their job is to fill an open position with the best available talent with the least amount of time and effort, they will go after such talent to meet their immediate need than to work with someone who does not exactly fit the requirements. Recruiters are more concerned about their transactional success and keeping their clients happy than to work with job seekers to keep them happy; this is their secondary mission. Remember that there are far fewer employers than there are job seekers! In this respect, recruiters can be analogized to matchmakers. If a good match does not already exist, they will not go out of their way to develop it.
While all this discussion about a contingent-and even a retained- recruiter may appear cautionary, it is intended to provide a perspective that job seekers could benefit from. It is not uncommon for a job seeker to start their job search by first contacting a recruiter with the hope of landing a quick and rewarding position. Although this can happen, a more productive approach is to do some groundwork yourself and then leverage a recruiter as just one element of your marketing campaign. This strategy will always put you ahead of the curve and benefit you the most during your transition. The following guidelines may be helpful in your overall transition:
- Be clear about your positioning, message, and how you want to leverage your career momentum before you begin your marketing. Do not expect a recruiter to provide you that insight. A career coach or counselor is better equipped to provide this insight than a recruiter.
- Look at the market and, using the best knowledge of the current conditions, prepare your resume to accurately capture your value proposition. Making a forward-looking resume to reflect where you want to go with your background and the momentum are central to this step. Most job seekers prepare their resume that reflects a backward-looking message and that do not showcase their background in a leveraged way. For example, someone with an entrepreneurial background may shy away from showcasing that experience as a positive feature of their resume. Recruiters will often suggest burying your entrepreneurial past. Nothing could be further from the truth. A properly showcased background can be invaluable in a leveraged positioning. It just requires a different perspective and a packaging skill that is not common.
- Identify where you want to work. This can be defined in your “A,” B,” and “C” companies’ list that define your targeting universe. Do not be concerned about some “A” companies not having open positions that you are after. You can always get their attention by sending a prospect letter that identifies ignored or missed opportunities. Sending a prospect letter without a resume can work effectively in such cases.
- Organize a marketing campaign with your message. If you post your resume on one of the job boards (do this with some caution) you will be approached by recruiters. They frequently access these boards to recruit job seekers, make them part of their stable of job seekers, and then place them. Screen them after asking some key questions (Retained vs. Contingent) and how they work. Ask for references. Check them out. A recruiter will typically preempt you from targeting a company, especially if it is one of their clients. Many companies will not entertain your resume if you are working with a recruiter.
- Set the boundaries of your marketing campaign with your recruiter. If you work with them be very selective and keep in touch with how they are progressing and where they are targeting you.
- Continue marketing yourself where you have a clear marketing advantage. Companies would rather not pay the placement fees recruiters typically charge (20% of annual salary).
- Clearly differentiate your resume that goes through the recruiter by keeping track of versions. If there is a conflict between how you entered a target company the version control should be unambiguous.
- Keep your recruiter apprised of your progress. If you are getting close to an offer, let them know so that they can generate additional action based on your progress.
- Do not rely on the recruiter to generate action. You must actively participate in your own marketing. Network as much as you can during your active search.
- If you are unemployed recruiters will treat you accordingly. They typically go after employed candidates for their placement. If you are being laid off, see if you can “stay” in your company while you look for a job and let a recruiter help you (along with your helping yourself as presented here) in this transition. Some companies will let their laid-off employees use their affiliation for a period beyond physical termination. But, you must ask for this consideration.
- Throughout your transition you must stay in charge of your campaign. Merely relying on a recruiter can disadvantage you.
Now that you know the parameters which define the recruiters’ role during your transition, you are better equipped to deal with it in a way that best serves your needs. Good luck!