Straight From The Recruiter’s…, I mean Career Counselor’s Mouth
Last month, I posted about working with healthcare recruiters and to my surprise, I got some comments that opened my eyes to how recruiters are generally perceived. It was not good.
In an attempt to dispel the myth and negative aura, here’s an article available at John Hadley Associates LLC, Career Search Counseling that offers some more practical advice on the effective use of recruiters (pdf).
In summary:
1. Ask around for the best recruiter in your industry (in our case, healthcare).
2. Interview the recruiter. Some questions suggested by John Hadley:
- What salary range do you typically recruit for?
- What is your success rate in placing candidates?
- How often do you work with candidates in my industry? At my job level? In my specific job area? In my preferred geographic area?
- What is your success rate in my industry, profession, at my job/salary level?
- Do you have an exclusive arrangement with certain companies, or do you simply work “on spec”?
- Do you operate on a contingency or a retained search basis?
- Specifically how will you go about marketing me?
- What level of feedback can I expect on the quality of my resume, interview and presentation skills, how I performed in the actual interview?
- How do you submit my resume to prospective employers? Do you mail in the clean copy I send you on bond paper, or do you only e-mail or fax it in? Do you mark up my resume in any way before sending it in?
3. Make sure you sign off on every company your recruiter contacts on your behalf.
4. If the recruiter preps you for an interview or gives career advice in general, consider the source. They may genuinely have your interests in mind but still give priority to the employers’ desires.
5. Treat your interview with the recruiter as seriously as you would an interview with the employer.
6. Tell you references
about the recruiter(s) you’re working for so they will know how to “sell” you.
7. Do NOT try to get hired by going through the recruiter and trying to contact the company yourself.
More to come including an interview with my friend who’s been in the recruiting field. I think you’ll like and trust her as much as I do.
NB: Aplogies to John for mistaking him for a recruiter.
Technorati Tags: recruiters, job hunting, recruiter, career, jobs, healthcare, health care, healthcare workers, work
Tagged with:
Anonymous Coward said on May 5, 2006 @ 7:56 pm...
I know I misjudged you last time, and I apologize. But my opinion about recruiters (and middlemen in general) is still the same: very low.
I have some advice FOR THE RECRUITERS myself.
1. If I don’t know you personally, stop spamming me. Stop buying the databases of professional associations and sending out mass mail. You will be treated like spammers, like the scum of the Internet. Your message will be submitted to Spamcop and BlueFrog and your address will get blacklisted on a lot of mail servers.
2. Stop asking me to do your job and refer a qualified person for the position your are mailvertising.
3. Stop asking for resumes. That puts you in the same league as regular HR: robots. If you really know your business, you can easily find out how good I am by talking to my patients or my colleagues. You don’t need my personal data for that. Ask for my resume only when I am one of your final candidates.
4. My personal data and history is my business and not yours. If I don’t get hired, let me know that you securely erased (Google Eraser) all my personal info from the laptop you will probably lose.
5. Even better: if YOU want MY resume then, first, YOU send me YOURS! Oh, you don’t like that idea, do you?
6. And, don’t forget: if I get a bad opinion about you, I will avoid any job you offer like the plague. I won’t work for an employer who can’t even identify a bad recruiter.
Hsien-Hsien Lei, PhD (Profile) said on May 5, 2006 @ 8:02 pm...
Thanks so much, Anonymous Coward. I really appreciate your candor and the time you’re taking to share your experience with us. There are definitely some bad fishes in the sea and they’re not welcome here! ;) Let’s see how my recruiter friend responds in her interview. Please stay tuned!
PS You don’t need to apologize and I wish you’d comment more!