Career Jump Start - Part 9: Engaging with Agency Recruiters

Agency recruiters have a way of finding us. I expect most of us have gotten a phone call, or an email from a recruiter – often one we have never met, that say they think we are a good candidate for an open position they are working on. We may get these contacts regularly – perhaps multiple times a week. We feel that engaging with an agency recruiter is easy, and painless. Indeed, agency recruiters can take some of the work out of looking for a new job, but to use the relationship to your best advantage there are some key points to keep in mind.

But first a little background. As stated an earlier section of this series, I separate recruiters into two groups: 1) Recruiters that are employees of the hiring company, and 2) Recruiters that are not employees of the hiring company, but work for a recruiting firm. I have already discussed this first group in Part 7, the group known as in-house recruiters, or company recruiters - recruiters that are employed by the hiring company. This current discussion will be on the second flavor of recruiters, agency recruiters - recruiters that are employees of third party agencies.
 The job of agency recruiters is to find candidates to fill open positions at various hiring companies. Before diving into a detailed discussion of agency recruiters, I will restate the point that depending on the sources quoted only around 25% of job placements are through recruiters. The pint here is that in a job search you don’t want to work your job search relying on agency recruiters exclusively, as agency recruiters are only one channel of opportunity. However, if we want to cover every option (and we do), we want to utilize recruiters. This is especially the case if we have completed our networking campaign, and exhausted seeking out job leads through social, and virtual networking, as well as regularly working job boards. 
 THE BIG KIDS: Some of the largest national recruiting agencies are Allegis, Addeco, Randstad, Manpower, Kelly, and Robert Half. Whether we engage with one of the larger agencies, or one of the hundreds of other smaller, regional agencies, we want to engage with them skillfully. If we engage in the right way, we can use agency recruiters to our advantage.
 PREPARATION: The single most important aspect for best engagement with a recruiter, including an agency recruiter is to be prepared for the engagement. This means you need to focus in what you are looking for. Avoid the mindset that you just want “a job”. If you have the ability, the best way to focus your job search is to engage with a career expert. This can be a career counselor, transition coach, or a certified career coach. A good counselor or coach will have a process to help clarify what jobs, and type of work make you the happiest; make you feel most fulfilled, and build best business quality of life (BQL). In fact, this is the primary mission of my practice. To help Clients identify those jobs, and a career path that will make them happiest in the long run. Help them achieve the highest business quality of life they can achieve. You may get some insights from a “one and done” professional, but the best arrangement is to work with a professional over an extended period of time. For this reason, engaging with a career consultant, or career coach is the best option.
 TIPS: Below are some suggestions on how best to engage with agency recruiters. These suggestions will help you use agency recruiters to your best advantage.

•  FOCUS: As mentioned above, before you have an interview with an agency recruiter, have a career focus. (Career Counselors, Career Coaches can give great value in this area.) Defining your focus in advance will help both you, and the agency recruiter.
• POLISHED RESUME: Have a current résumé that meets best practices. Make sure you have reviewed your résumé several times, and have a peer or other professional review it as well. Do these steps in advance of submitting to a recruiter. An extra set of eyes will usually catch grammar, and wrong words. Also incorporate powerful keywords, and avoid clichés like “team-player”, and “dynamic”. See part 4 in this series for details on how to construct a powerful résumé.
• TRACK SUBMISSIONS: A good agency recruiter will track where they have sent your résumé, but don’t leave this to chance. If you work with multiple recruiting agencies, the trail becomes much more complex. Best practice is to be selective on who you release your résumé to. There are gobs, and gobs of recruiting firms out there. If you have more than one firm submitting your résumé on the same job, or to the same hiring team, you may telegraph you are desperate. Create a tracking of what agencies you have released your résumé to, and for which positions, and hiring companies.
• HOW MANY AGENCIES: I suggest only working with two to three agencies. This will keep the tracking of résumé tracking more manageable. If these agencies are not getting you interviews, dis-engage with them. There are plenty of potential agencies to work with. Work with the ones that land you job interviews.
• CAREER INTRODUCTION: Have your career introduction (think, personal elevator script) down cold. When you are able to tell people in 60 seconds what you are good at, and how you can give value, you will give the recruiter an executive summary of what you are about. You will make life easier for both you, and the recruiter. Avoid overwhelming the recruiter. Keep your introduction 3 to 4 sentences. See part 4 in this series on how to build an effective career introduction.
• GET SPECIFIC: Agency recruiters love to collect résumés. To avoid being one résumé in a large stack, ask the recruiter what specific job they are trying to fill. The goal should be to interview on a specific position. Some recruiters may ask for your résumé without having a specific position in mind. (They are probably building a candidate database.)  Ask the recruiter for a job description for the position they are trying to fill. Get as much information from the recruiter on the specific position as you can before you interview. Try to get information on what in your résumé, or background made the recruiter think you would be a strong candidate. Try to get feedback from other candidates the recruiter has sent out to interview on the position. This will help you avoid snares, and increase your likelihood of getting an offer. 
• THERE IS NO SMALL TALK: Even with an agency recruiter, small talk is really not small talk. Do ask the recruiter if your conversations are confidential. (They should be.) At the same time, also be aware small talk is not just small talk. The recruiter is making some assessments on your personality, your attitude, and your mindset. In general, it is best to take the tone of the interview as if it were an interview with the hiring company. Best practice is to treat your conversation in a professional, business-like manner. The recruiter’s goal is not to be your friend – it is to send the strongest, most professional candidates to interview with the hiring company. In short, be friendly, but be professional.
• RECRUITER NEEDS: When you end your conversation, or interview with the agency recruiter, make sure the recruiter has everything they need. As you approach the end of the interview ask the recruiter if they have all they need to present you to the hiring company, or organization.
• EXPRESS INTEREST: Tell the recruiter you are interested in the job. Make it clear you are truly interested in the open position, and look forward to the next steps. Remember you can always say no later if you decide you don’t like the offer.
• TIME FRAMES: With the help of the recruiter, try to Identify time-frames. Ask the recruiter when they will present you to the hiring company or organization. Ask for information about the company’s hiring process.  Ask the recruiter how many interviews the hiring company usually requires. And ask how soon the hiring company wants the open position filled.
• THANKS: Thank the recruiter for their time. Thank them for thinking of you. You can also say you are excited about the opportunity. Be kind to the recruiter – they have a difficult, competitive, and stressful job.
• FOLLOW UP: Do any follow up that is needed. If the recruiter said they would contact you say Monday, and you don’t hear from them, contact them Tuesday for an update. Some recruiters are good about follow up in a timely manner, some are not. Keep the recruiter on-track, and accountable. Make it easy for the recruiter to think of you, and contact you. Don’t be afraid to check in regularly.
• FEEDBACK BEFORE INTERVIEWING: If you are called in for an interview with the hiring company, ask your recruiter for feedback they have gotten on other candidates. This is one area where you will get more information than dealing directly with the hiring company/organization. Often the recruiter may want to prep you for the interview. This is to your advantage, so make time for interview prepping, and listen closely to what the recruiter has to say. If you are called in to interview, make no mistake - the recruiter wants to place you.
• OTHER FEEDBACK: If you are not selected to interview with the hiring company, get some feedback from the recruiter. This is another area where an agency recruiter can provide more feedback than dealing directly with the company. Use the experience to better your personal packaging. This might mean some improvements to your presentation, including résumé, your personal introductions, or your interviewing skills. Weigh the feedback to see if it seems valid. If more than one recruiter gives the same or similar feedback, there is validity in the feedback. Don’t take criticisms personally – the recruiter is actually trying to help you prepare for other interviews.
• OPTIMISM: Try to maintain an optimistic attitude. Very often placement has to do with team dynamics, and personalities as much as anything. If you are not placed, it may have more to do with the company team, rather than any short coming on your part. Try to take the attitude  this particular placement was not meant to be, and most importantly, move on.
• STAY IN TOUCH: Do stay in touch with your agency recruiter(s). If you are actively searching, ping your recruiter(s) about once a month. Ask what kind of jobs they are working on. When you speak with your recruiter(s) stay optimistic. If you are unemployed, but doing volunteer work, or work on personal projects (writing, organizing, taking a class, etc.) mention this work. When you communicate, you like to stay active, you are improving your chances to be contacted on future positions. If you have worked with an agency for a couple of months without getting an interview – consider working with a different agency. The goal is always to land job interviews. If your agencies are not making this happen, perhaps best to make a change.

 Engagement with recruiting agencies can often appear to be one of the easier pieces of a job search. But to get the most out of engaging, there are some key things to keep in mind. The most important thing you can do to engage with an agency recruiter is to be prepared. This involves some work on career focus. An expert such as a career counselor, or career coach can help in this area. It also means having a current and easy to read résumé. (You always have a current résumé – right?) Having an introduction that is polished, concise, and clear is another key. In general, it is best to have friendly, but professional conversations with your recruiter. Respond to recruiter’s questions politely, but be concise. If the recruiter wants more details on any item, they will ask for this. Treat interactions in a business-like manner. This includes getting time frames from the recruiter, and doing timely follow ups. Keep in mind that agency recruiters do not work for you – their client is the hiring company. But if you engage using best practices, you can form a relationship that will benefit both the recruiter, and you going forward.
 Author: Brian Kail, MBA, CPC, CCC is a Career, and Business Coach. For more information see AscendProCoach.com