How to deal with recruiters
Can someone give me some advice on how to handle recruiters? Just aboutevery job that I apply for is through one and I' m starting to have mydoubts. Obviously I' m not expecting to call a recruiter and have themsay here' s a job. The problem I' m having is that I will send my resumeregarding a job that I' m interested in. I will either get a phone callback, or I will call to confirm that they have received my resume.Which they do. At this point we will discuss my experience over thephone, or I will make an appointment to talk to them in person. At theend of the conversation they will state that they don' t think that Ihave the necessary experience for that specific position. Which Ididn' t have a problem in the beginning, since there was at least oneaspect of the job that I was not fully qualified in. Then I came acrossa job that was perfect. I sent my resume in, then called them to getmore information on the position. After discussing the details, I wasasked to set up an appointment to meet with the recruiter. I spent anhour discussing the position again, which I felt was perfect. At theend, they stated that they did not feel that I was a good match.Granted I' m not exactly an expert on interviews, but I also don' tconsider myself a complete idiot. I also don' t mind if I' m not theright candidate for a job, but it' s obvious that my resume is nevermaking it to the employer for them to decide. As I stated, this is notone recruiter. It' s every recruiter that I come across, all of thembeing reputable. Even the ones that call me after reviewing my resume,which they obviously must feel that I would fit the job. Is this normal? It' s getting to the point where I don' t want to respondto an ad that was placed by a recruiter. But as I stated, the majorityof the jobs are through recruiters. I don' t want to pass these jobs upjust because I' m not communicating correctly with them. You definitely are not communicating in an ideal manner. There is a lesson to learn here. When I started out, I had similiar results. At first I was frustrated like you, but then I asked myself/the recruiter why is my resume not getting through. I looked past what they were saying, that I didn' t have so and so, because I know that I have it. I realize that it was the keywords. I had to rephrase my terminology so a laymen can understand. Recruiters don' t really know what you do, they just know what the client is asking for. They are sales people and you are the product. They' re not your friends, but you can learn a lot from their interactions with you. Actually, the fact that they don' t really know what you do can work in your favor. You can get in to interviews that you technically don' t have the experience for, but you know you can do. Here are a few more tips: Don' t pick up when they call. Let them leave a message so you can do research. Once you know what exactly the position is and which company it is for, then you talk to them. This is actually quite easy most of the time as you can just google for the job and company. When it' s not possible, call them and determine that first, then tell them you will get back to them. This is very critical as some recruiters don' t have a clue. You want to eliminate any wasted time with these types. They accept openings from clients that also don' t have a clue which ends up with an underpaid and overdemanding job. Unless your job is to negotiate, the recruiter should have more experience in getting you top salary as it is in their own interest to do so. They also know what the salary range is. I think it is pretty obvious that the problem isn' t the recruiters. You' re either not laying yourself out properly in your resume, in your screening interviews or both. And/or you may have an inflated idea of your qualifications. Sit down with a career counselor. Your local college should have one, unemployment office or check the phone book. Bring in the job postings of the things you' re interested in and your resume. They can tell you where these are going astray. Then they can do mock interviews with you and see where that' s falling apart. I' ve worked with several recruiters over the years and know it can be frustrating at times. First let me say that I agree with everything Creative PM said. I' d also add that you need to drive the discussion about fit for the position. One thing I often do is when I feel the conversation with the recruiter is starting to wind-down (before its wound down to the point that they are about to tell me what they think of my skills in light of the position requirements) I ask them something like "so we' ve been discussing this for a while now, at this point would you have any concerns forwarding my information to your client?" I' ve found that recruiters have less to lose by being honest, so usually if they do have a concern they will say so "well the client said they needed X and I don' t see any of that". Like Creative PM said, recruiters usually don' t know the job, let alone the jargon. I' ve had the X they are concerned about turn out to be another term for something we' ve just discussed in-depth for over 15 minutes. By asking them the question, I get the opportunity to address it and show that I do have that experience/skill (if I actually do), before they have totally decided one way or the other. If I honestly don' t have it, but still believe I can do the job, I will often talk about another skill that transfers well and how that skill, coupled with my advanced knowledge of Y, really puts the learning curve at about the same place. If they buy it, they might try to sell it to the client. However, if you use this tact and they go out on a limb for you. You better be able to pull it off if you get the contract. Because if it turns out that you can' t do the job they won' t want to work with you again. But sometimes it just isn' t a good fit, or they know their client well enough to know that the personalities wouldn' t mesh well. I also think tmsmalley had a great idea with the career counselor. If it is an issue with how you handle yourself in an interview, they will tell you and like the saying goes, you can' t fix it if you don' t know it is broke. Here's my take on this from both an applicant's and hiring manager's point of view. First, let's assume that there is a legitimate job out there. Some recruiters will post jobs just to get resumes. Some will copy a company's job ad and try to pull in resumes. If it is a real job, the recruiter will get more resumes than is really needed. They don't't forward all the resumes to the hiring manager... why would I want to see 100 resumes??? I want the best three or four. So the recruiter will cull the resumes and even if there are 10 fully qualified candidates, he is only going to represent three or four. If I, as the hiring manager, don't like those candidates, I will get the next three or four. So even though you are the "perfect" candidate, you may be behind 9 other "perfect" candidates and never get a shot. However I think the bigger issue is the phantom job listings by recruiters. I would suggest that you use recruiters as a means of sharpening your interview skills and for free review of your resume. Pick up tips from them. If you get a legitimate job from them, great!. But the only person who will get you a job is YOU. | |
|
Career Tips
|