How to make recruitment agencies work for you

Sunday, July 29, 2007

How to make recruitment agencies work for you by David Bain

There are two different ways that you can use recruitment
agencies to find your ideal job. This article explores how you
can find your ideal job without wasting too much of your
precious time.

Most people have experienced the recruitment agency black hole.
This is when you register with an agency, fill out every form
that they ask you to complete and attend a lengthy interview
with a recruitment consultant. Then you hear nothing.

It is so frustrating when this happens because you have been led
to believe that you will be flooded with interview offers as
soon as you register. It makes you less likely to believe in
recruitment agencies and more likely to 'go it yourself' in the
future.

There are two different ways to use recruitment agencies to find
your ideal job. They are as follows:

1) Register with as many recruitment agencies as possible and
wait for them to get back to you when a job opportunity appears

2) Register with one or two carefully selected recruitment
agencies that specialise in your particular job sector and get
to know at least one of the recruitment consultants within that
agency as well as possible

Unfortunately most people go for number one. This means that
they are only told about jobs that are particularly hard to fill.

So how do you make sure that you are told about they key jobs as
soon as they become available? Simple. You need to be KNOWN by
recruitment consultants in your industry. Whenever they receive
a new job requirement from one of their clients, you need to be
the first person on the recruitment consultant's mind.

In order to be one of the first people to be informed about an
excellent new job opportunity you need to initially carefully
select one industry specialist bespoke recruitment agency. You
then need to meet one of their senior industry specialist
consultants face-to-face to explain your specific requirements.

However, in addition to meeting the specialist recruitment
consultant face-to-face, you also have to stay in touch.
Consultants browse through thousands of CV's (Resumes) every
month, so if you don't phone them every two weeks then there's a
good chance that they'll forget about you. Another star
candidate will have risen to the surface by then and you will be
a historical statistic.

The mantra for dealing with recruitment agencies is Stay in
touch Stay in touch Stay in touch

Don't rely on the automated candidate finding systems that each
agency has. Unless you form a personal relationship with one of
the consultants, constantly asking them about new opportunities
then the chances are than you won't even find out about top jobs
that are available.

Good luck with finding your ideal job in the near future!