Guest Author
Searching for a new job can often be a painful, time-consuming experience. I know this because I’ve been both on the side of the recruiter and the job candidate. As a former technology recruiter in Washington DC, I’ve guided hundreds of job candidates through the search process and personally participated in the process myself when leaving the recruiting industry for the software industry.
While recruiters don’t always have the best reputation among job candidates, they can truly be an invaluable resource to accelerate your job search and make your life easier. So how does a recruiter actually provide value to the job candidate and accelerate the search? Let’s break down three ways recruiters assist your job search below.
- Acting as a liaison to potential employers
A great recruiter will always act as a liaison between yourself and any potential employers that you will be interviewing with. This is a huge benefit in comparison to applying directly to a company as the recruiter can continuously reach out to the hiring manager to receive feedback, without casting a negative impression upon you. Recruiters are able to gather quick feedback on your interviews and push hiring managers along to conduct further interviews or extend you an offer, providing you with “inside” access to the hiring managers you wouldn’t normally have.
- Continuously searching for new opportunities
Once you’re in the process of speaking to a recruiter, you should inform them of the exact type of positions that you are interested in pursuing. After that point, any great recruiter will keep an eye on new positions that meet your requirements coming in from the recruiting agency’s clients.
Let’s say you’ve just spoken to a recruiter regarding a network engineer position in New York, New York. The initial position you spoke about wasn’t the best fit because the salary was too low. However, in your conversation with the recruiter, you informed him that you’d be open to any network engineer opportunities in Manhattan that pay over $80,000 per year.
From now on, any network engineer opportunity in Manhattan over $80,000 per year will be brought up to you by the recruiter, reducing your workload searching for a new position. Of course, not every recruiter will be this on top of their game, but if you’re working with a great recruiter, that’s how they’ll differentiate themselves from the rest.
- Negotiating on your behalf
When working with a recruiter, you should expect to have the full backing of the recruiter in the salary negotiation process. There have been a number of occasions where I’ve gone through the salary negotiation on behalf of my candidates, negotiating to get them a higher salary, better benefits, etc. It’s certainly an advantage to have recruiters negotiate on your behalf because many job candidates are uncomfortable or unwilling to have those conversations themselves, but need the negotiations to become comfortable with a new opportunity.
Working directly with a recruiter can provide major benefits to your job search, specifically saving you time and also helping you to avoid some of those difficult conversations with employers. Not all recruiters will be this efficient and helpful, but if you find a good one in your area, he/she will be able to handle the previous items mentioned with ease and benefits your job search significantly.
Rob Paone is an industry veteran technology recruiter, having placed countless entry-level and experienced professionals into positions at Fortune 500 companies. Rob’s goal is to help you accelerate your job search at Career Dreaming, through the utilization of industry best practices and leveraging recruiters. If you’re a fan of podcasts, give the Career Dreaming Job Search Podcast a listen too!
