A JobSearchCoachingHQ.com member writes with a bigger question than just this. Listen to the show for this well-constructed question and my answer.
SUMMARY
“As you know, a job seeker cannot hire a contingency recruiter. Contingency recruiter’s work on behalf of companies, so there’s no such thing is working with a single recruiter, as no single recruiter represents the wide array of jobs available on the market.” I want you to understand how well measure this is right off the bat. They are basically saying, given how the economy is and how job searches done and how firms conduct themselves, no one recruiter has access to every job that is open. Absolutely correct.
“As a consultant who changes jobs about every 18 months” (so now he’s looking for consulting agencies), “I have literally dealt with hundreds of recruiters in the past 5 years. The problem is is that the contingency recruiter business is staffed with people who have no relationship with the employer’s whose jobs they are calling you about and cannot tell you the money. Even the most superficial things about the hiring company and its wants and needs.”
“If I cannot hire recruiter and if no single recruiter, no matter how good, will represent all the jobs for which I may be qualified and desirous of, what is the best way to find those recruiters who have the jobs I’m looking for?”
There are couple of suppositions in this question that I want to deconstruct here.
“The contingency recruiting business is staffed with people who have no relationship with their clients.” The reason for that is that clients have developed push-back with a lot of the recruiters that work with. They want that hands-off relationship, although they talk about wanting to have a close working relationship with a few search firms, they view contingency recruiting firms and consulting agencies as being nothing more than commodity providers. Thus, the issue isn’t the recruiter, it is the corporation. But I digress a little bit.
“If you can’t hire a recruiter and no single recruiter, no matter how good represents all the jobs for which I may be qualified, what is the best way to find the recruiters who represent the jobs I’m looking for?”
I’d like to turn this around and call attention to the fact that you are outsourcing your job search to recruiters. Why would you ever why would you ever outsource your career to third-party, recruiters and consulting agencies who have no interest in you? Who can’t tell you anything? Now, you say you want the best who represent the jobs that you are looking for, well, obviously, you tried the way of looking at job boards, getting on LinkedIn and doing a whole host of other things, I’m sure. Well, the answer isn’t just with the recruiter it’s with you and the choice that you’ve made to outsource to recruiters.
You have to put yourself in the position of being found. You have to develop a brand for your work. You have to market yourself directly to firms in order for them to know you so that when it comes time for them to need a consultant like you, or attempt like you (I don’t know the kind of work that you do. I’ll call you a consultant because that’s the way that you refer to yourself).
As someone who is worked in consulting and is done so for the last 5 years, you’ve probably already accumulated a database. Probably small, but you need to maintain contact with people. You need to network. You need to put yourself in the position of being found in marketing yourself as as a successful individual who can help organizations.
You’ll probably say, “but I’m doing my job all day! I’m coming home at night and I’m tired and I’m putting a lot of effort and you are asking me to do more.” You are absolutely right. The fact of the matter is (and it is a fact), if you outsource your effort to recruiters, you will get more of the same. That’s because there is no answer to your original question.
Let me talk about myself. I’ve been in the search business for more than 40 years. I have successfully filled more than 1200 full-time positions plus a boatload of consulting assignments. I’m good at what I do. People love me. Don’t believe me? Read some of the quotes on my LinkedIn profile. There are a ton of them there.
For you, you have to develop a reputation for yourself, a brand for yourself, where people in your geographic market area or in the market area that you want to serve know about you. You have to attend meetings for the specialty that you serve.. If there is no group, start one. Start to create one, be the go to person. Create a LinkedIn group. Same topic. Make yourself known. If that is what is needed. Promote yourself. Write. Be interviewed for podcasts. Be interviewed in the trade press. There are lots of different ways.
Get a subscription to HARO (Help A Reporter Out). Do a Google search for it. Start reviewing the 3 times a day emails that you get with offers that reporters and broadcasters and TV networks have for experts about particular subjects. A lot of it is going to be useless to you and then you get the special ones were suddenly you’re in front of a huge audience and have an opportunity to promote yourself.
You have to be a marketing machine. You need to develop the expertise to cellular service and not outsource it to people who you obviously don’t think can really help you. You are right. They cannot help you as well as you can. Their job is not to brand you. Their job is to fill jobs with clients. Their job is not to represent you.
So, yes, some of them will have jobs for you that will fit you? It will be hit or miss, you already know that. The solution is not with the agency, not with the consulting firm. It’s with you.
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
If you have a question about job hunting, email me at JobSearchRadio@gmail.com. I can’t answer every question . . . but you knew that!
Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday. The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.
JobSearchCoachingHQ.com is there to change that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.
Please give “Job Search Radio” a great review in iTunes. It helps other people discover the show and makes me happy!