Recruiter: Friend or Frenemy?

e-commerce, a photo by ganderssen1 on Flickr.

Recruiter: Friend or Frenemy?

There’s plenty of online and book advice about building a better resume or cover letter for your job search. Blogs and job-hunting forums are everywhere. And for the working wounded, outplacement firms offer these services as the consolation prize for getting downsized, courtesy of your former employer.

But your improved resume, cover letter and interview suit are just the rudimentary tools of your job hunting arsenal. How you connect to the people who can ultimately hire you is where you should spend the majority of your efforts.

Recruiters seem like the obvious people to start networking with. After all, they are paid to find candidates and fill jobs, right? It makes sense for every active job hunter to be open to a conversation with an executive search professional. And as a recruiter myself, I agree.

But all relationships should come with full disclosure. When you engage with a recruiter, you need to understand what they really do, where their alliances are, and what they really expect from you to make the relationship a fruitful one.

Headhunters or agency recruiters are sales folks—their livelihood is contingent upon fees they receive from multiple clients. If they don’t fill a role, they don’t get paid. Other executive search professionals are retained by a firm for a flat fee, in exchange for extensive research, candidate screening and ability to ferret out the best candidates for the client. These recruiters are often bound by the retainer, so they might only have the ability to represent you to that one client.

If you proceed with the agency recruiter, understand that their fee is based on a percentage of the annual salary paid to you if you get the job. So the coaching and advice they will offer you, from salary negotiations to choosing between multiple offers, will not exactly be altruistic—there’s a lot at stake for them.

If you hook up with a retained recruiter, ask them about successful searches they’ve performed recently. Is their specialty representative of your background or the kind of work you’re looking for? Even if they are able to get their client interested in you, their alliance is still with their retained client. Don't expect an objective discussion abut your goals.

Don’t get me wrong—many job seekers build wonderful alliances with headhunters and retained search professionals, and many have gotten multiple job offers over the course of their career through the same recruiter. But those relationships develop after many years, and the friendship is the byproduct of something earned by both sides.

Corporate recruiters serve a different master. Their alliance is with one company—their employer. They have their finger on the pulse of where their company is going, which jobs will offer the most growth and who the players are. They feel a responsibility to the corporate brand. They may not be working as your agent, but if you are a good technical and cultural fit, this recruiter is exactly the kind of ambassador you want to get your foot in the door of their company.

You may at times find yourself in the black hole of the interview process with even the best of recruiters—when they say they'll call and they don't, or when you know you are the perfect fit but when you're asked to submit your resume, you hear crickets. Why do these moments between job candidates and corporate recruiters go sour?

It may have nothing to do with you. Job openings get cancelled, the Hiring Manager decides to hire from within the ranks, or the recruiter pitched your background to the manager and she decided to go in a different direction. It would be nice to get a follow up call or email about your status, but corporate recruiters work on 20-30 open roles at once. They don’t always have the luxury of letting every candidate know where they stand. Don’t be afraid to reach out and ask—you’ll feel better if you are able to get closure, especially if the reason you are out has to do with budgets or a change in the job scope; something that is completely out of your control.

 Corporate recruiters are not job counselors—but the best ones will give you good advice. If you are marketable, flexible and easy to work with, you’ll end up with an invaluable ally. of course you need to be able to handle the truth about yourself as a prospective employee--don't ask for advice on how you can improve your interview skills if you're really not open to change.

 If I have a candid discussion with someone and I don't think they are an ideal fit for a role, I love it when they ask what they could have done better. I love when they ask what they did wrong on an interview. I’ve found that when candidates are truly open to constructive criticism, they will take the time to improve their resume, update their appearance, change their messaging or whatever else needs to be tweaked. A frank discussion between myself and the candidate on something as simple as staying to the point or giving better eye contact has yielded a job offer. 

 When recruiters recognize that you are technically and culturally a fit for the job they are working on, they will bend over backwards to accommodate you. But if you aren't courteous, flexible, open-minded and enthusiastic about a discussion, even if you aren't actively job-hunting, the relationship will end. You just need to remind yourself who recruiters work for--and it isn't you. 

Memorable

Memorable, a photo by Filipão 28 on Flickr.

How To Make Yourself Memorable For Your Job Search

If you’ve been actively job hunting for a while, by now you’ve gotten over any fears of letting the world know about it.

Or have you?

Job candidates are always told to hone their resume-writing skills, and they are reminded to finesse their interview skills all the time. And every Monday morning they don’t hesitate to answer job ads online—the lowest-hanging fruit that rarely achieves results unless they’re a senior engineer or a credentialed actuary.

But you have to rise above the typical noise that the throngs of job hunters make.  So how do you ride that fine line between boldly tooting your horn about what a great hire you’d be, and sounding annoying?

When you market yourself to Hiring Managers, a dose of humility goes a long way. You should focus on solving their business problems. Stop thinking about how good the job will look like on your resume, or how getting it will get you the 2-bedroom with the view.

A successful job search is the second cousin to a successful sales pitch--especially when it doesn’t sound like a sales pitch at all. The smartest salespeople know that if they engage their prospect in meaningful dialogue, the prospect will reveal their biggest concerns. The sales person, in turn, will offer customized solutions to address his needs.

Notice that I used the word customized. Listen to what the Hiring Manager’s biggest problems are, and show him what you’ve done that can specifically relieve him of his pain.

The most successful salespeople are almost always subtle. They bring up only the specific features of their product or service that are appropriate to the customer. As a job hunter you can subtlely show off your accolades, starting with your resume. List your metrics—your measurable on-the-job results—in the upper third of your resume. Continue to focus on your metrics in your dialogue as well. When you explain to a Hiring Manager that you surpassed your quotas by 120% and established 25 new accounts last year, driving $1. 2 million in new business, you’re bragging in a low key way. With metrics you’re speaking the Hiring Manager’s language, and he’s starting to picture you in that vacant seat on his team, taking away his pain and solving his problem.

Once you’ve put your metrics out there, forget your track record and shift the conversation to the future. At this point, forward thinking is needed. Like a good salesperson, you’re only as good as your last deal, so you need another way to stay memorable. Make new connections to others in the Hiring Manager's organization, reinforce your brand and stay visible. Join the company's talent community on their Facebook corporate page and be a part of the dialogue. Comment sparingly on blogs and articles, and include your LinkedIn URL in your signature. Trust me, folks will check you out if you make honest contributions to the conversation.

This concept of self-marketing is a subtle shift in how to position yourself as a job hunter. You don't want to do is come on too strong--but the last thing you want to do is blend in with all the other job hunters. Which version of you is more memorable: when you're a guest at the party or when you work the party like you're the host?

What A Good Day In Your Job Search Looks Like...Part Two.

New Light Through Old Windows, a photo by _basquiat_ on Flickr.

Last week you read about five examples of what a good day looks like when you're job hunting, if you applied a few important tools to your arsenal.  Here are five more that ensure success:

You gave yourself an attitude adjustment.  You finally got into the mindset that an employer isn’t going to offer you an interview, job offer or even a conversation if it’s all about what you need. You realized they want to talk to you only when you demonstrate how you can solve their problem. You laughed at how pivotal this simple attitude shift was in your approach. Now you understand that every conversation, email or comment you have with influencers needs to prove how you can add value to their organization. Now you carefully gear every communication to show how hiring you will add to their company’s productivity, their bottom line, or will save them money--and not focus on what a job offer can do for you.

You recognized good feedback when you heard it.  After you had a great conversation with a hiring manager, you felt a real connection. Your answers to his questions seemed to resonate. So you boldly asked why he felt you’d be an asset to his company. He mentioned the points you made that were memorable. He even suggested other points he wanted to hear more about. As you ponder next steps with this manager, you think about his feedback and remember to apply what he said to future influencers you network with.

Your timing was right.   After a great career conversation with a company leader, you realize that your timing was perfect. You know it wasn’t because the stars were aligned or because your moon was rising in Aquarius—it was because you wrote on your calendar three months ago when this manager was going to reassess his hiring needs, and today was the perfect day to follow up. And it paid off.

You found two entirely new industries where your skill set and personality could add value.  You’ve been a public relations genius in the pharmaceutical industry for years but you’ve always had a deep interest in changing lives. So today you decided to consider a stretch position for yourself—where you can bring needed skills to solve a new company’s problem but you get to learn new competencies that interest you, too. You consider doing PR for a large hospital or an international non-profit. You already started making lists of companies and leaders where you may have a common connection, and you’ve started to reach out to them.

You helped someone in their job search and didn’t expect anything in return.  You remembered that the true meaning of networking is staying in touch with your circle because you’re contributing to a greater community. Yes, some day you might reach out to these folks for help in your job search. But today someone reached out to you and asked for help, and you offered them a contact name and an introduction. You knew that networking isn’t about working a room and collecting leads and business cards from everyone just for your own benefit—you knew it’s about the give and take, the sharing of information.

 And today you remembered that.

What A Good Day Looks Like When You're Job Hunting (Part One).

Sunshine through the blind, a photo by libertygrace0 on Flickr.

What A Good Day Looks Like if You’re Job Hunting (Part One).

Like any important project, your job search needs momentum or it can never move forward. There will be days when you stare at your phone, willing it to ring—or even worse, you default to hours of spray and pray--answering tons of job ads on Monster whose titles come closest to your current or most recent one, hoping for someone to respond.

Then there are days when your actions move your job search forward. Here’s what those days might look like:

You added two valuable people to your network.  Mind you, I’m not talking about the two strangers you added to your LinkedIn account. These two were the result of live conversations you had with someone you have a working or personal relationship with, who knows your value and suggested you connect. When you spoke to these two new contacts, you also asked them for leads of others you can connect with. This expanded your network beyond options you were already aware of.

You refined your personal brand and your elevator speech.  You temporarily forgot your interest in switching careers or industries. Instead, you reiterated what you are known for right now—that thing you do that makes you so memorable. Leveraging what you're famous for, you distilled your message down to better articulate your brand to everyone who learns about your job search.

You updated your LinkedIn profile with an added skill or two.  That’s because you spent time in an online course last month learning HTML, or you took the course your company offered that helped you get Six Sigma certified. You plan on updating your business profile regularly to keep it fresh and interesting, sharing updates with your circle regularly.

You added to your business acumen.  Last week you tuned in to your company’s hour-long quarterly financial forecast, instead of reading a blurb about it online. You also sat in on the meeting of another department that generates the lion’s share of revenue for your company. You got to know someone in Finance and learned which teams impact your company’s bottom line the most. You discovered that your current department is a cost center than a revenue generator, and you just decided it makes sense to switch teams.

You improved your answers to common behavioral interview questions.  Being prepared for behavioral interviews means you have an arsenal of well-rehearsed, detailed examples of your approach to past business problems-- how you succeeded and what you and the company gained from the experience. To demonstrate maturity, you also have carefully-selected examples of mistakes you've made in past jobs and what you've learned from them. But after two recent interviews, you haven’t proceeded to final rounds or a job offer. So today you thought about how you might modify your examples. You rehearsed them with someone whose opinion you value and asked for honest feedback, no matter how painful the answer might be. Now you feel confident your new answers will have a more favorable outcome. 

Like your day so far?  Next week: Part Two.