I Recruit, Therefore I Am

Month: February 2014

Choosing a Recruiter That’s Right For You

Remember yesterday when I tried to reshape your perception of yourself in relation to the Recruitment market by asking you to think about yourself as a product and your Recruiter as a Salesman?

With that, you want to make sure that you’re finding adequate representation in the form of a Recruiter that can actually get your name out there and your details read. Every Recruiter will promise you a Stairway to Heaven, but only a select few of them have what it takes to riff like Jimmy Page

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There are two schools of doing within the Recruitment business: Proactive and Reactive.

Reactive

This means that a Recruiter is acting as a reaction to something that has been placed in front of them. That call will sound something like this

*Ring**Ring*
Mary: “Hello?”
Mike: “Hey is this Mary?”
Mary: “Speaking.”
Mike: “Hey Mary it’s Mike from XYZ Recruiting calling?”
Mary: “Who?”
Mike: “You sent me your resume yesterday regarding the QA Analyst position.”
Mary: “Right, right, Mike, how are you?”

The reason I called Mary is because one of the Big Five Banks just gave me a call and told me they had an immediate need for a permanent QA Analyst to be working full-time, on-site at their Downtown location. Maybe I posted the job on LinkedIn. Maybe I did an e-blast (more on this latter), maybe I met with Mary last week and liked what she was all about or maybe Mary sent me her resume on spec and the timing just so happened to work out. Timing is everything in this business.

Either way, my call to Mary is a reaction to this open position. I have something right now that I am actively working on and think Mary might be a good fit. I want to chat with her, see where she is at personally and professionally and, if she’s a good fit, get her sent forward for the position.

Reactive Recruiting is essentially sitting around with your head in the sand waiting for something to work on.

Proactive

The best Recruiters are Proactive.

They don’t sit around and wait for job orders to come in. They go out an find opportunities. Their goal is to meet with promising candidates and figure out where to send them. If you come into my office and tell me you’re a Front End Developer with experience in Tridion I know automatically where your information is going because I know the two major companies that use Tridion Web Content Management System in the city.  

In fact, if you have this skillset, give me a call and let’s talk.

Not only will a Proactive Recruiter know where to send you, they’ll also know who to send you to. They know Dave in HR or Jeff who heads up the Front-End Development Team. In fact they just played golf this past weekend in Jeff’s annual tournament and he owes them a favour or two.

So, how do you find a good one?

You’ll need to interview them a little once they get done interviewing you. This is a two way relationship after all.

Here are a couple of things to look for in knowing whether you’re meeting with the real deal or someone just passing through the industry.

1) Their main concern will not be with what you can do for them, but rather with what you want. If you’re currently employed full-time at the bank and have a six figure salary plus an extensive benefits package then I’m not going to send you contracts for $50/hr. It’s a waste of both of our time. A good recruiter wants to dig deep and know what their talent wants. They don’t want you to waste their time and don’t want to waste yours. (More on this when we explore Recruiter Interviews in more depth)

2) Check their LinkedIn. Whether we like it or not, LinkedIn is the way of the future. One day I can foresee it becoming more important than your physical resume. So check the background of the Recruiter you’re meeting with. Don’t be overly alarmed if they have jumped around to different companies (more on that in another post). What you do want to look for is their connections and their recommendations. How many people are they connected with? What type of people are they connected with? How many candidates have recommended working with them? How many pleased clients have nothing but praise to sing for them? A Recruiter is only as good as his/her reputation within the industry. If people aren’t talking about them, they may as well not exist.

3) Don’t be afraid to push a Recruiter to talk about themselves. Who’s on their current client list? Are these active or passive client relationships? (I.E. are they on site every couple of weeks or did they place someone there for a one off, once upon a time and who knows if they’ll ever call again.) How many positions have they filled from Proactive Recruitment vs. Reactive Recruitment?  Don’t be afraid to put them on the spot and see how they hold up under pressure. Remember, this isn’t a job interview.

4) Don’t limit yourself to just one Recruiter. We know you call more than one person. We know that you’ve applied for a bunch of jobs on your own. We know that our competitor’s may have relationships with clients that we don’t. And we know that, depending on our organizational structure, we may be limited in our ability to help.

And

5) Decide what you’re looking for. If you’re an Architect you’re going to want to call a big box agency that has a Construction or Architectural Division or a boutique firm that focuses only in this niche market. These people deal in this space day in and day out. They know what sets a good candidate apart from a bad one, they know the current and emerging trends, they can speak to the state of their vertical and, best of all, they only deal with clients who look for people like you. So don’t limit yourself. Speak to as many agents as will meet with you and choose to partner closely with the one or two that you trust and feel can best service your needs.

This is, after all, about you.   

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What You Are To A Recruiter

To every Recruiter, no matter how decent a human being he is she is, you are one thing:

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Always remember this.
The recruitment company needs to make money so it hires Recruiters and Sales professionals to maintain and grow it’s business.
We’re essentially door to door salesmen, put in place to preach the word of our talent and sell as many of them as possible.
Our routine looks something like this.
*Ring**Ring*
Audrey: “Hello?”
Recruiter: “Hello is this Audrey in HR?
Audrey:  “Uh, yeah. Who’s this.”
Recruiter: It’s Mike from XYZ Recruiting.”
Audrey: “Never heard of you.”
Recruiter: “Was wondering if I could interest you in some of our best Front End Development talent?”
Audrey: “I look after Training and Development, you’ll need to talk to someone in Strategic Sourcing. Bye.”
*Click*

Okay, it’s not always that bad. Let me walk you through two scenarios.

Scenario 1

I show up at your front door selling vacuums. You open up, like my smile, my handshake, the cut of my suit, the twinkle of my eye and the charm of my greeting. You invite me in for tea.

I’m in luck. After a bit of friendly banter you let me know that your vacuum just sucked it’s last breath yesterday and you were about to head out to buy a new one. Bingo. I can taste the dollar signs.

I say “What luck! I’ve come with this year’s model; so new that it probably hasn’t even cooled yet. It’s suction is twice that of last year’s model, it’s filter trapping 98% of all dust particles and it’s bags made from a new material that kills 99% of germs that go into it. Not only will it make your house look nicer, it’ll make you happier and healthier just from using it. If you went to a store to get this you’d be paying $200. Too bad you can’t get them in stores until next month. That’s why I’m here to let you start using this baby and all it’s accessories today for a one-time offer of $89.95.You’ll be the talk of the neighborhood.”

You almost fall off your seat with joy when I pull this out:

Shall we go into the kitchen to fill out some paperwork and I’ll be on my merry way?

Scenario 2

Scenario 2 is exactly the same as Scenario 1, however this time, just when I’ve gotten you in the troughs of ecstasy, I pull this out:

The life is sucked out of the room as you take a beat, smile awkwardly and say “I’d rather see what Canadian Tire has to offer before agreeing to anything. Thanks for stopping by though.”

In Scenario 1 I had a product that I talked up and that lived up to your expectations when you saw it first hand. The sale was closed. In Scenario 2 I talked up the product exactly the same, but it did not meet the expectations that my pitch had built when it was finally shown. In spite of the good deal, I lost the sale.

To the Recruiter, you are the product. No matter how good my sale, I can’t change you. You are what you are. This is paramount to everything that I will write on this blog going forward.

Let it sink in again.

YOU ARE THE PRODUCT

Yes. You.

Not enough people know this. They think that Recruiters are there to help them find work. They are wrong. Recruiters are there to find good product and either sell it to their client or pass it off to an Account Manager who will.

If they can’t place you, they can’t make money. If they can’t make money, they get fired. If they get fired, who’s going to pick up their accounts and help get your resume read by a VP at one of the banks? And so it goes on and on.

Take that away and think about it for a day. You are the product. You shape the perception of yourself. You are in control of yourself. You are the key to making this work.

Look in the mirror and tell yourself that you’re a good product. That you’re worth your price tag. That there’s no reason someone wouldn’t want to buy what you have to offer. That you’re better than your competition. Let it sink in.

We’ll pick up tomorrow on what to look for in a Recruiter and how to differentiate the professionals from the con men.

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A Recruiter’s Introduction

Hi.

I’m an agency Recruiter in the heart of Toronto.

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Have been for the past three and a half years. But with that I’m also a Salesman, a Therapist, a Career Coach, a Guidance Counsellor, a Social Worker, a Psychologist, a Program Manager, a Babysitter, and an Administrative Assistant. Just to name a few.

It also means that I not only have to know my business, but you know all those big shiny companies I try my very best to get you working for?

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I need to know them inside and out too. And they can get tricky.

I need to know the HR department and their processes.

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I need to know Procurement and their processes.

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I need to know the VMS Program Manager and their processes.

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And I need to know the individual department Managers, Senior Managers, Directors, AVPs and VPs of each department.

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Not all of these people like hearing from me and on busy days. Some think I’m a bother. But how else are they going to know to turn to me the next time they need someone like you?

That’s a lot someone needs to know just to help you get a job. It can be exhausting

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I’m happy to say that I don’t know anything about it.

Famous screenwriter William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Princess Bride) has a saying about Hollywood: “Nobody knows anything.” It’s the same in the Recruitment business.

The market is crowded with quack salesmen and career consultants promising the golden secrets to getting you that dream job. Good luck. Nobody knows anything.

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Once a not particularly promising candidate told me that he sought assistance with writing his resume. “Tough break,” I thought. “This guy’s been duped.” Horror passed my face as he named the prestigious college that had helped.

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Nobody knows anything.

How was I supposed to know that my hiring manager thinks that cover letters ending in “Yours Truly” are too personal and prefers “Sincerely,” instead? Doesn’t it matter that she’s prefect for the job?

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Nobody knows anything.

No one can guarantee that the two and a half hours you spent personalizing your cover letter will land you the interview. Maybe they don’t like your font. Maybe they don’t like your layout. Maybe they don’t like your page breaks. Maybe they just didn’t like anything that day.

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You can spend a whole life thinking about what you should-a, could-a, would-a done, if only you’d known. Don’t bother. Nobody knows anything.

The good news is, if you blow an opportunity, there’s a hundred more staring you in the face. They’re not all going to be perfect and they can be hard to find. Don’t give up. If you want them,
you’ll do it. I’m here to help. That’s what I do.

My words are not concrete. Nobody knows anything. What they are is funny, insightful, inspired, encouraging and hopefully helpful.

I’m rooting for you.

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