Does Using a Single Recruiter Limit Your Job Possibilities?

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If there is a recruiter that you are comfortable with, is it limiting to go only through them? Do recruiters only give you the connections to their direct clients, or do they reach out to all the same companies that are posting jobs on the web?”

“Oh!  You don’t have any positions open right now!

 

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Does using a single recruiter limit your job possibilities?

The person goes on to say, “If there is a recruiter that you are comfortable with, is it limiting to go only through them? Do recruiters only give you the connections to their direct clients, or do they reach out to all the same companies that are posting jobs on the web?

Let’s deal with the reality of recruiting.  Do you think that every employer is talking with every recruiter on the planet?  Of course not. You know that for yourself.  I want you to put yourself in the position of employer and receiving a call from someone that you’ve never heard of before, who is saying, “I have this great guy. You really need to talk to her.  He’s terrific. He’s colossal. He’s fabulous!  You really need to talk to her. Oh!  You don’t have any positions open right now!”  Then they call the next employer that they have never heard of before and the employer has never heard of them before, saying much the same thing and begin getting turned down.

Why? Because there is no relationship with between the 2 parties.  There was no contract in place. There is no access to the jobs that are open at this firm.

Recruiters do not get on the phone and call individual companies on behalf of a particular job hunter with any regularity.  Yes, some do and some say that they will (and don’t) let’s also assume that the person that you’re speaking with is remarkably honest and they are recruiting firm works with every employer in your market area.  If that’s New York City, Los Angeles, or the bay area, what do you think the likelihood of that is?

What do you think the likelihood is that every hiring manager at every firm in your market area will take a phone call from every recruiter and and accept them presenting you to them? I think you are smart person can figure out that that is unlikely to occur.

It is great that you have a good working relationship with the particular recruiter but what do you really know about them?  Yes, you are comfortable with them but sometimes being comfortable is the worst thing that could happen to you.  Sometimes, you need to work with someone who’s going to make you uncomfortable and push you to your limits in order to get through and help you extend yourself.

So, what will recruiter do?  His or her firm is working on filling a certain number of positions that they already have available.  They may reach out to all the firms that are advertising on the web in your area.  How likely you think that is given all the firms that are advertising on the web these days?  There are millions of positions open in the United States. How likely is it do you think they are getting on the phone and reaching out?

Do you think they are spamming your resume to the Western Hemisphere?  Do even want them to spam your resume to the Western Hemisphere?  Of course not.  What you want is a hiring manager and a recruiter who have a relationship with one another, where the hiring manager trusts this individual and the recruiter understands the needs of the hiring manager.

In a given agency, even the largest ones, there are only a finite number of situations that each recruiter has with their clients that allows them to deliver that result.  If you are in a 60 person agency, 3, maybe 4 clients you have that degree of intimacy with?  So, 180, maybe 200 tops, firms in the entire agency that they have access to in that office.

You do the math for your market area.  Are you limiting yourself?  Yes!  It is a mistake to do that.

Yes, you want to work with people who you trust but do they deserve that trust?

Go to their profile on LinkedIn and see how much experience they really have.  I have heard from a lot of people. The recruiter will claim to have 15 years of experience and you go to the LinkedIn profile. You can see that they have been working as recruiter for 2 years.  Worse than that, sometimes you see that they been working 2 years here and 3 years they are in one year here in 6 months there.  It tells you that they are not placing a lot of people that they need to change jobs regularly.

Sometimes, that’s because they have been like to buy the employer but most of the time is because the recruiter is not performing to a high level.  As a result, they have to change jobs way too often.

There are messages behind everything.  Be smart about this.  Don’t rely upon recruiters to do everything for you.  Get out there and start networking because the statistics say that recruiters fill at most 20% to 25% of all positions.  Most jobs are filled as a result of networking and, in particular, by networking to people that you did not know at the beginning of your job search.

So get out there and get to work and stop procrastinating.  Stop outsourcing your job search to people who you barely know.

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Do you think employers are trying to help you?

You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell you as much 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 changes 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.

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5 thoughts on “Does Using a Single Recruiter Limit Your Job Possibilities?”

  1. If you are looking in a distinct geographical area then assume all cruiters
    are fishing in the same pond (downtown Chicago is different from Lake
    County which is different from the I-88 corridor for example). Get yourself
    a simple indexing tool then do a sample search of all ads for a specific
    type of position. If you find 20 ads that are all the same, assume that
    there is another way to get your resume across to the real employer. I’ve
    found plenty of cruiters that are way out of their league, chasing high-fee
    positions when they are typecast in that geographical area as a body shop.
    Absolutely avoid any cruiter who handles temps as their primary source of
    income unless that is what you want to be typecast as- you are not a
    commodity. Anyone truly unaware of the reputation of a cruiter should just
    google sucks
    Whatever comes back should be a clue, then check glassdoor.com
    Caveat- each geographical area has cruiters that are classy even though
    everywhere else they are bottom feeders and vice versa.

  2. If you are looking in a distinct geographical area then assume all cruiters are fishing in the same pond (downtown Chicago is different from Lake County which is different from the I-88 corridor for example). Get yourself a simple indexing tool then do a sample search of all ads for a specific type of position. If you find 20 ads that are all the same, assume that there is another way to get your resume across to the real employer. I’ve found plenty of cruiters that are way out of their league, chasing high-fee positions when they are typecast in that geographical area as a body shop. Absolutely avoid any cruiter who handles temps as their primary source of income unless that is what you want to be typecast as- you are not a commodity. Anyone truly unaware of the reputation of a cruiter should just google sucks
    Whatever comes back should be a clue, then check glassdoor.com
    Caveat- each geographical area has cruiters that are classy even though everywhere else they are bottom feeders and vice versa.

  3. If you are looking in a distinct geographical area then assume all cruiters are fishing in the same pond (downtown Chicago is different from Lake County which is different from the I-88 corridor for example). Get yourself a simple indexing tool then do a sample search of all ads for a specific type of position. If you find 20 ads that are all the same, assume that there is another way to get your resume across to the real employer. I’ve found plenty of cruiters that are way out of their league, chasing high-fee positions when they are typecast in that geographical area as a body shop. Absolutely avoid any cruiter who handles temps as their primary source of income unless that is what you want to be typecast as- you are not a commodity. Anyone truly unaware of the reputation of a cruiter should just google sucks
    Whatever comes back should be a clue, then check glassdoor.com
    Caveat- each geographical area has cruiters that are classy even though everywhere else they are bottom feeders and vice versa.

  4. +Maurice Levie Great advice. However, generally, people post critical opinions, rather than praise. For favorable opinions, go to the LinkedIn profile, folks and recognize that search firms are blamed for the behavior of their clients. Again, Maurice, thanks for contributing to the discussion.

  5. +Maurice Levie Great advice. However, generally, people post critical opinions, rather than praise. For favorable opinions, go to the LinkedIn profile, folks and recognize that search firms are blamed for the behavior of their clients. Again, Maurice, thanks for contributing to the discussion.

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