Should I Call Recruiters Directly to Find Me a Job or Wait for Them to Call Me? | JobSearchTV.com
By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
Should I call up recruiters directly to ask them to find me a job, or wait for them to call me?
FEELING DEPRESSED About Your Search? Struggling? Feeling Fatigued?
The question for today is, “Should I call up recruiters directly to ask them to find me a job or wait for them to call me?”
I’m not sure what you think recruiters do…When you are calling them up, are you paying them anything for this? And you expect them to “find you a job?” Seriously, when you say, “find you a job,” you have the equation all wrong.
The equation for a recruiter, headhunter, any professional that is in the employment business is they are there to fill jobs and get paid for their efforts. They are not there to “find you a job” except coincidentally in that process. So, in terms of waiting for them to call you, (1) See if you can identify people who work in your field. Seriously. Don’t just call recruiters up at random; see if you can find people who work in your field.
(1a) See if they have any jobs open that fit your background. They are not there to find the job for you. They are there to fill a job with you or someone like you. I say it that way because if you act like a jerk, There is someone there who is not going to act like a jerk who they are going to work with To fill this position with because they don’t want to get embarrassed in front of their client. That’s because the client is going to stop calling them If there are too many people that they refer who act stupid.
So, you always want to be in the position where recruiters are contacting you. That’s because it is clear that they have a role open that might fit you. You can always look at job ads on job boards for local newspapers, websites and a whole host of other places to find individual recruiters who have positions open that fit your background. Again, I want to be clear – – “that fit your background.” Don’t spam your resume and send it like so much garbage. They don’t have time for this. If you do that you are Being like the people who spam them with Viagra ads that landed in their inbox all the time. It is just a colossal waste of time! To call them up and simply say, “Hey! I’m looking for a job,,” It is no different than spam.
However, I don’t want you to be passive. If you are in a professional field, what I want you to do Is have a quality LinkedIn profile that is keyword optimized So that you attract recruiters who have positions open for someone like you. You want to have your resume on a job born because that can ask you pretty wide net to people who are looking for people like you. You want to have your resume on Indeed, SimplyHired and Other sites in order to draw people to you who have positions open AND you want to be setting up search agents on different job boards so that they notify you When positions get listed. You want to be out there networking.
If you’re not in a professional field, networking can take a different form. For example, if you are a recent grad you can go on LinkedIn, go across the ribbon on the top and see alumni from your school who may be a year or 2 ahead of you and you network with them. In blue-collar work, you can network with people you have worked with previously and see if they know about a position.
However, to call up a recruiter out of the blue To find a job for you? You are just kidding yourself.
Recruiters Are Not Your Friends
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ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a coach who worked as a recruiter for what seems like one hundred years. His work involves career coaching, as well as executive job search coaching, job coaching, and interview coaching. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with over 2400 episodes.
Are you interested in 1:1 coaching, interview coaching, advice about networking more effectively, how to negotiate your offer or leadership coaching? People hire me to provide No BS career advice whether that is about a job search, hiring better, leadership, management or support with a workplace issue. Schedule a discovery call at my website, www.TheBigGameHunter.us
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