Top 10 Ways toMake a Recruiter Smile

Tri-cities Unemployment Group

May 9, 2011

Elyse Williamson

Staffing Consultant for Frank’s Employment

Staffing terminology

Sourcer – finds names, credentials Recruiter – develops professional relationship with individual

Sales – develops relationship with company; takes the job order for the active search

Staffing Consultant – sourcing + recruiting + sales

Headhunter – may charge you $ Temporary or contract; temp-to-hire, direct hire; full time or part time

Staffing professionals all dance along the bottom line.This affects: How we network with you, short term and long term;

How we assess your credentials and qualifications;

Whether and how we respond to your interest in a specific opening;

How we are involved in each step of the placement process.

Staffing professionals work with applicants, but ultimately for our client companies.

Hiring company sets criteria for each search. Staffing professional works within those criteria.

Recruiters want to be able to say “yes” to your interest in a specific opening. “Yes” is what makes money.

You are the only person working full-time to find you new employment.

Most employers hiring right now have very specific criteria for qualifying candidates.

Improving local economy and job market. Businesses still really under pressure.

• Not quite ready to hire in terms of confidence about their bottom line, but they need to hire in terms of their product/service demand.

Employers expect that new employee will be productive immediately, with shortest possible learning curve.

Hiring focuses on present and immediate need, only secondarily on future need.

The employer’s staffing need drives the search for an agency professional. This has implications for you.

Your résumé must convincingly show that your expertise is a bulls-eye match.

• The phrase “it’s not on my résumé but” must vanish from your vocabulary for now.

Every interaction you have with an agency staffing professional is an interview – every email, phone call, skype exchange, in-person chat.

The job market is still filled with people who are unemployed, but also increasingly with employed people who have postponed a career move.

Customize your résumé, cover letter, and interview preparation for those positions that strongly match your career goal. That’s what your competition will do!

Pay attention to the content of the ad, especially the instructions for applying.

#1: Submit an error-free résumé.=(

Easily 90% of the résumés we receive have more than one error:• Typographical, grammatical, punctuation

• Formatting

• Content

=)

An error-free résumé shows that you care about the quality of your work.

It makes it easier for the recruiter to visualize you as representing him/her well to the client.

#2: Target and customize your résumé and cover letter.

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90% of the résumés we receive are too generic.

Most résumés present only tasks, not successes or accomplishments.

Recruiters are using components of the ad to prescreen – 99% ignore this!

=)

Your résumé and supporting documents must persuasively “sell” you for this kind of position.

• Details

• Quantification

• Accomplishments

• Successes

#3: Resist the temptation to reveal personal information.

=(

Marital status Age Religious convictions Political activity Financial burdens

EEOC issues must be fully documented, taking time away from dancing on the bottom line!

=)

Focus on the aspects of your personality and interests that are relevant to the workplace.

The staffing consultant is friendly, but is not your buddy. We are HR.

#4: Make the contacts yourself, just as you would in the workplace.

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Not your spouse or partner

Not your parent or child

This looks lazy, ill-prepared, lacking in initiative

=)

You are interviewing with every contact!

#5: Be truthful about your work priorities.

Truthfulness gives the recruiter confidence that you will represent him/her well with the client.• Money

• Benefits

• Commute

• Portfolio of responsibilities

• Long-term priority of full time or part time

• When priorities change

#6: Treat your interview with recruiter as “remote” meeting with company.

Dress as you would for interview at the company.

Be on time, no more than 10 minutes early. Be prepared: familiar with job description + résumé.

Bring supporting materials, such as portfolio.

Answer questions directly. Send thank you by email next business day.

#7: Respond to rejection as information.

=(

Argument

• Especially when a requirement is stated in the ad

Insult Threat Applying over and over for the same job

=)

Respond as you would in the workplace: proactively, not defensively.

Every interaction is an interview, including how you respond to “no.”

#8: Focus your public brand for the job search.

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67% of employers use or plan to use social media searches as hiring tool

Recommendations: 52%

Comments: 36%

Affiliations: 32%

Pictures/videos: 23%

Friends’ comments: 21%

=)

Double-check your privacy settings

Multiple searches (google, bing, yahoo)

Use this to your advantage

• LinkedIn

• Website

• Blog

#9: Represent the recruiter well in your contact with the client.

=)

You represent the recruiter and the agency when you have contact with their client.

When you are well-prepared, it shows that the recruiter is doing her/his job in saving the company’s time.

Follow recruiter’s lead about contact with the company after interview.

• If you contact the client directly, without the recruiter’s consent, you make it seem that they’re not doing their job.

#10: Great referrals build bridges for the long term.

=)

Refer people whose work you respect. Post positive feedback on yelp and other sites when you meet a great recruiter.

If you work with a great recruiter, send business their way once you’re employed.

Initiate a long term rapport via LinkedIn or other professional networks.

Remember: recruiters are people, not computers.

We usually work on 10-20+ active searches at a time.

We work 2000+ hours per year and most of us have 5000+ active applicants.

Every contact must be documented. We have bad days too. We are under pressure from demanding clients and demanding candidates.

We want to say “yes,” not “no.”

Elyse WilliamsonStaffing ConsultantFrank’s Employment

elysew@franksemployment.com

http://www.franksemployment.com

http://elysew.wordpress.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/elysewilliamson