Working with Recruiters

By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter

Recruiters. Have you found it difficult to work with recruiters during your job search? (From the archi ves)

When is Do You Say Enough Is Enough?

So first of all, in terms of what to do when the recruiter calls and I’ll use myself as an example. Most of the time when I’m calling up a candidate, I may have a resume but let’s work with the assumption that I’m also I also do cold calls which I also do. I’m doing research to find people.

I’m working with my own database. I’m on the web trying to identify people. I’m using a host of different tools and services to find people who may have particular skills.

Sometimes the information I have is sketchy. Sometimes it’s very detailed. I can’t tell you which one it is right now.

It just depends on the search that I’m involved with but you know I’m going to reach out to someone and what I’ll do is call someone up and say, hi, my name is Jeff Altman. I’m a professional recruiter. I want to have a chance to talk with you about a situation with a client of mine.

Is this a good time or would it be better if we spoke in another occasion? Now, I’m giving someone two choices there. I’m asking if they’re free to talk now or would it be better if we spoke later? Instead, some people make the mistake of trying to put me on the defensive and asking that lovely question with an attitude. I must point out, who gave you my name? As though, you know, frankly people try to help me and in doing research, I’ll reach out to folks and appoint me in their direction and most of the time, almost all the time, the person doesn’t want their name mentioned.

Why? Sometimes they’re trying to get a competitor out of the way. Sometimes they’re an employer who wants to get a problem employee out of the way. You know, most of the time, they’re just trying to help someone out and they just don’t want their name involved in case the person might not want to be helped out.

They don’t want to get into trouble but they’re trying to help me out and they’re trying to help my client out. So don’t ask who gave you my name is the first question. Instead, be quiet and just listen when I try and talk with you about the role that’s involved.

Increase Your Chances of Getting a Response to Your Application

And once I’ve done that, ask some follow-up questions that relate to the job because what I’m doing is offering you an opportunity to improve your circumstances. Now, if it isn’t an improvement over what you have, just very politely say, you know, I’m doing better than that right now or this role doesn’t happen to interest me. Could I talk with you about what I’m doing now and what my comp level is and if something else comes up in the future, perhaps you can get back in touch.

Instead, some people just have an attitude. I have done nothing more than reach out to someone and offer them an opportunity that might be better than what they have. So, yeah, I’ll simply say that it’s not the way to respond.

I record notes about people and my dealings with them and all you want to do is to be respectful and courteous in much the same way as if you were to call a vendor and ask them some questions, you expect them to be courteous? Well, I’m the same way. So, once we’ve gotten the job out of the way, let me ask questions. Sometimes people want to start going way ahead in the process.

Just let me do my qualifying questions to evaluate and assess you for the role that’s involved. You might want to find out how long I’ve had the search. Is this something brand new in which case, you know, they’re relatively early in the process or is this something that’s been going on for three months and I’m circling back to try and fill this role? You know, there’s a difference in, you know, your circumstances at the very beginning versus two months in or three months in.

You know, you may want to find that out but frankly, most of the time, it’s not that important. What I think is more important is to find out if I’ve submitted any people against this search and what’s happened with them. If someone’s on a third interview, you know, getting involved in the search at this stage may be a waste of your time but from my standpoint, I’m just trying to make sure that, you know, there’s no additional competition that other recruiters are going to provide my client with.

So you might just want to find out what the status is of the search as well as my track record with the client. Have I worked with them before or am I a new individual providing service to them? You might want to find out what the process is like with this client. You know, I remember one firm some years ago, I briefly did work with and I stopped because the process became ridiculous.

The Exit Package

You know, this one firm would put someone through 15 to 20 interviews and I’m not kidding. He was really 15 to 20 interviews and they would call up one day and say, we’re going to take a pass and never really provide any information as to why. So just find out what the process is going to be like to see if you have the time to get involved with with something along those lines.

You might ask about my experience. Now, I’ll also say that, you know, and I’m just going to make a simple apology for my profession, junior recruiters often lie about their experience. Now, I’m a guy with 40 years of doing professional recruiting background.

I don’t lie about my background. I’m very proud of it. But junior recruiters will often say that they have more experience than they do.

Why? They just want to puff themselves up so they don’t seem like beginners. Now, I’ll just say listen carefully to how they carry themselves. Do they sound like someone with as much experience as they claim to have? I remember someone in my office who I verbally slapped around after they did this said they had 10 years of experience when they may have had 10 weeks in the field and they basically were embarrassing over the phone.

I just said, don’t lie. You know, you heard all of us when you claim 10 years and you only have 10 weeks. So just don’t lie about it.

You’re better off just being honest and saying I’m relatively new with the recruiting profession and yada yada yada and asking for some help. But the big question that you get asked before the end of the conversation, I think, is helpful to you is what are the next steps here? What’s going to happen next? You know, I might say, well, I’m going to speak with my client, presuming that they’re interested and I’ll go through the process with you what would happen next. If I have questions, I say, this is what my concern is and it’s an invitation to address those concerns with me.

But, in terms of the advantage of working with a recruiter, well, at the least, and this is with a rookie recruiter, a rookie recruiter is basically a secretary for you. They’re working with a more veteran individual who’s actually coordinating the search and is going to basically schedule appointments for you. They’re going to put you in touch with the senior at the right time in order to ensure that things flow smoothly.

Are You The Target for a Job Layoff?

The rookie may not necessarily be knowledgeable but, you know, this is the worst case scenario. The best case scenario is working with someone like me who has long track records with most of my clients and is trusted by them. So, a referral from me carries a certain weight with the client.

You know, you get good information from me about what’s going on because the client is very forthcoming with me. You know, I negotiate better on someone’s behalf. I know when to push it and when not to.

Versus with you, it’s something that you do once every few years. It’s something that I do very regularly as part of my work and thus I can be more effective. So, my advice to you in working with recruiters is don’t lie to us.

You know, tell us the truth. You know, be honest about what’s going to interest you and what your concerns are. If it’s a problem, we’ll make sure that, you know, if we don’t know the answer, I should say, we’ll make sure it’s addressed by your client during your meetings with them.

If it’s an insurmountable problem, that is it’s something that my client can’t satisfy, there’s no reason for you to interview if it’s at the end of the day, you’ll never accept the job. So, be honest with us. Also, if we leave a message for you, let me make it a nice statement.

If I leave a message for you, I want to hear back from you because there’s a reason that I called. I need to clarify something. I need to schedule an appointment.

Should I Apply to One Job at a Time and Go Through The Process or Multiple Jobs?

You know, I need to hear back in a timely way. If you can’t get back, a quick email or a text back is very useful. So, just let us know where you can get back with what you say.

You know, understand from our standpoint, if we’re trying to schedule an interview, a client has given us a few windows of opportunity in order to schedule the appointment and you don’t want to be in a circumstance where you get back to us and say, okay, I’m available at such and such time but we had those times available 24 hours before or even 12 hours before. Often, those slots will disappear in that time and thus we can’t schedule and thus we’re going back and forth instead of, you know, working to help you and others and if other people are getting onto the calendar, they may win the search because they’re going to create a good enough impression that a client is going to want to hire you. So, respond to our phone calls or emails in a timely way.

I’m not saying instantaneous but don’t let 24 hours go by. If you’re trying to change jobs, check your email or check your voicemail on your mobile or office messages, you know, before lunch or at end of day and when you walk in in the morning. Just in case we’ve left a message for you the day before, we’re not going from let’s say 5 p.m. your time zone till 9 a.m. the next day without hearing back from you.

So, you know, get back to us in a reasonable way. Okay, so that’s my advice about working with recruiters.

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