Interviews with RecruitersFirst time in my job searching ever that I got a call from 4 different agencies. Normally, agencies and I don' t click for some reason. So anyway, I was excited since I was desperate to get out of my current job and hoping that they would really help me get interview dates started. At least one agency seemed to be fast and eager and I like their vibes. Problem is this. After two weeks, they haven' t followed up and I' m getting depressed again. Now, I don' t know much about anything to do with recruiters or agencies.. but after being interviewed with them.. what' s the usual next step? Do I call them up? I know I emailed one agency to let them know that I found at least three jobs on their websites that I would like to apply. Could someone kind of walk me through with the whole agencies/recruiters thing? How do they work or what' s the process? Thank you. I don' t know how recruiters work. I know how they CLAIM to work, but their claims very rarely coincide with how they normally act. I have no faith in recruiters for this and for other reasons. According to the explanation that several recruiters gave to me about "how they work": the recruiter contracts with a company or employer to line up candidates for the position at hand. They contact you and tell you about the position (sometimes making more of it than what is actually being offered) and once you state that you are interested, they then contact the company or employer. They "sell" you to them. They then set up a time for you to interview at the company or employer' s office and the recruiter calls you back and tells you the name of the company and who you will be interviewing with at the location. The recruiter should (they do not always do this part) provide you with a website address to the company or employer so that you may familiarize yourself with who they are and what they do. At the scheduled interview time, you go to the interview and meet with whoever to go thru the entire interview process. As soon as the interview is over, you contact the recruiter to tell them your thoughts and feelings of the job and how you perceived the interview to have gone. The company or employer is supposed to contact the recruiter with the same information about you. The recruiter is supposed to keep in contact with the company or employer regarding the decision making process and then, when the decision is made, the hiring authority will contact the recruiter who will in turn contact you. If you discover a position that you are interested in, you are told by the recruiter to not contact that company or employer but to, instead, contact the recruiter who in turn will contact the company and will negotiate some type of interview for you. The problem with this, is that a lot of companies and employers do not want to go the route of a recruiter because they would then have to pay the recruiter for the "leads" to candidates. And, instead of contacting you to inform you of this, the recruiter blows you off. Now, ideally, the recruiter is supposed to contact you at least 2 times per week to update you on the efforts being made on your behalf and you are supposed to contact the recruiter on a 3-4 times weekly basis to check on what their efforts are bringing. Does this happen? H3LL NO!!!!!!!!! The recruiter does not contact you and does not return your attempts at contacting them. Remember also, that companies and employers who are working with a recruiter are probably working with several. Which means that just because the recruiter you are working with contacts you about an interview, there are several other recruiters out there doing the exact same thing for the exact same position. In the same vein, also remember that you are not the only person that this recruiter is, ostensibly, getting interviews for. She/he may be setting up three or four people to interview for that position. Beware (or not) recruiters are, first and foremost, salesmen/women. They "sell" you on a job and they "sell" you to the company or employer. Like a person in sales would do, they play up the qualities of the job, the work environment, etc. They do the same when "selling" you to the interviewer. (which may actually be a good thing) Recruiters are also, as has been discussed here, often people who cannot get a job in the field of their choice and just throw their hands up in the air and think, "Oh, what the heck." and become recruiters. They are almost always cheerful to the point of where you want to slap the cheer right off their face. This is my biased, prejudiced, probably b!tchy take on recruiters. Oh, and did I mention, I have never met anyone who actually got a job through one.
Bias it is. I should first say, I got a job through a recruiter. I agree with Kelly that some companies are not very reliable, others are. I worked with four or five different recruiting companies when I first moved here last year and my experience has been wonderful. While other companies disappeared I have a few I like to recommend to my friends, relatives, etc. Be careful on your choice first, I am doing a job search again and posted my resume on Monster. I had a recruiter contact me about a job I was looking at. it?s a company I only dreamed about and contacted them myself. The recruiter had a different position that I am going to interview for next week in the same company. I would be patient with them and beware of different recruiting companies, they all have different ethics. There are no correct ways to deal with them, just be polite and persistent. The positions they contacted you for may be on hold. Remember it works both ways, the employer is taking a long time to respond or they may be like Kelly said unethical?and corrupted. But why would they contact you if there were no opportunity available? The employer might have changed their minds in working with them and or there is no job available. Call them back to follow up, if everything fails, continue searching the same way you did. Be patient and do not let them know about one another recruiting company, if you are working with many... Good luck. Your comment pretty much sums up what I feel about recruiters. I just don' t feel that they help you much.. maybe it' s just me. I"m sure other people have been helped by them, but prolly in different kind of situation. I mean, I' m not looking for a bottom job or entry level type of jobs after all. It is hard to send the resumes directly to the companies since well, there are no names mentioned just the recruiter' s. But I hope nobody I know tells me that I didn' t try the agencies. I even sent Thank you letter to them for meeting with them the next day. GGRRRR!!! At the same time, I' m really hoping that they would really step up and help me. Because I really need to get of my current job. Job hunting is so super stressful. It pretty much takes over my life. But I guess that' s what I have to do to get a new job. Just a quick note: not all agencies are placing people for entry-level jobs... Your experience will probably depend on the specific agencies with which you work. They are all different. My DH has had wonderful luck with both contract staffing agencies and direct-placement recruiting agencies. His last job search, last year, resulted in three solid, high-paying job offers, two through recruiting firms, one of which he accepted, and one through the company directly. He also got a host of serious inquiries from some other very professional outfits. OTH, he worked with some real dillies who did not follow up, didn't have a clue what he does or what the job function entails, etc. He had worse luck with companies directly. So, really, I'd say "it depends." There are two important things to remember when dealing with recruiters. First, they don't work for you. Their clients are the companies that pay them to find employees. You are just the raw material for them to make money. Second, recruiters are in business to make money. They are not social service agencies or not-for-profit organizations. Once you understand this you can adjust your expectation levels accordingly. They are not going to hold your hand. They will not call you back unless it means money to them (either immediately or in the near future). If you have the time, I would suggest interviewing with any recruiter that will see you. Use these interviews to sharpen your interviewing skills and to get feedback on your resume and personal presentation. Ask questions regarding the job market in general and your specific field. Get a feel for salary levels and what employees are looking for. If you can get a job through these interviews, great. Otherwise get as much out of the "experience" as possible without raising your hopes. One thing you need to remember is that it' s your job search, not the recruiters. The only person who will ever get you a job is you. A recruiter is a means to an end. Meet with all of them, follow up with them (I' d say once per week) and yes, you should have sent a thank you letter. But in the meantime continue posting to jobs on monster and any other job board you use, and network, network , network. First of all Thanks to everyone who replied. I do understand that it is my job to go job hunting. However, since I was interested in those jobs that were advertised, I sent my resumes to those. Only some of those job ads have no names of the companies, instead my resumes went directly to those recruiters. So what I' m saying is that recruiters should at least help us more in getting our resumes into the hands of those companies. At least give some advice or what notes. And yes, I did sent a Thank you letter after meeting them. But anyway, I am continuing my job hunts. The last time I went job hunting and interviewing was like 8 years ago and I find that in today' s age... it is so much harder. Everything mandates or preferred someone who sent cover letter, stated salary requirement, had related experience, and knowledge of softwares that are unique to one' s industry. It was never this difficult years back. And so many more responses and interviews set up back then. I' ll just continue to send out my resumes and hope that I get a new job this year. I really need to get out of my depressed and totally boring current job. I need to feel more alive and challenged and excited about my job. | |
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