By David Burden | Career Transition, Working with Recruiters I’m a Job Seeker: Should I Work with a Recruiter?

Should I work with a recruiter? When I speak with candidates, I’m often asked this question and it’s a fair one. As I noted in a previous blog article, it is very important for candidates to ask questions of the professionals who are part of their networking strategy.  To best understand how to work with someone, it’s important to know what they do and how they work.

What is a Recruiter’s Role?

I am a third-party Talent Advisor. This means that organizations hire me to find the best candidates for jobs. I am paid by the organization, NEVER by the candidate. My goal is to find the best match possible between my client’s mission and the candidate who will add the most value and resonate with their culture. 

When I recruit on behalf of an organization, I am in communication with their HR/Talent Acquisition team as well as the person to whom the role reports. This means that I have far more to share with you than the job description. I vet candidates and clients on the specifics of the role, management style, culture fit, and their vision for the position.

Believe it or not, sometimes candidates with the exact same title in a similar organization don’t make it to an interview. If I have concerns about presenting you for a role, I’ll tell you. We might be able to work through this or we’ll learn that this really isn’t the best move for you. We can still work together on other opportunities. 

What YOU Get from Me

What’s important for you, is that when I do present you to an organization, I’m introducing the three-dimensional you. When you work with a recruiter, like myself, your resume does not end up in the black hole. Rather, I schedule time to speak with the person who you would report to. This is when I talk about you and your passion for the role. I also answer questions that could distract from your achievements if a person is just reading a resume “cold”. One way or another everyone always asks, “Why are they looking?” That’s easily enough answered. “I’m glad you asked that. Yes, Marta has been in her current role for less than a year. She’s doing a great job at her current organization. However, X’s opportunity in Y is something that she had to explore.”

Who’s Side am I Really On?

So if you’re working for the employer, are you really on “my side?” Fair question, and I really understand why you would ask that. Look, the organization pays me, but I am not their employee. They hire me to give them the best advice possible on the talent available for their particular opportunity. They also want to build the best employment brand possible.

When an organization hires me to work with them as their recruiter, part of my role is to coach the client on how to attract and retain the best possible candidate. In addition to the role we’re working on today, my focus is to help build their organization long-term. I do this through relationship-building with executives; leaders who entrust me to help them connect with passionate, accomplished individuals to live out the organization’s mission. 

This only works if my client and my candidate trust me to have honest, confidential discussions on what the next, best move is for both. When this happens, I place candidates who resonate with the organization’s mission and culture. For me, a successful placement is one where both the candidate and client are happy. If there are doubts on either side, I have not done my job well. I don’t want you to remember me as the person who introduced you to the role where you are not happy. Nor do I want my clients to remember me as the person who advised them to hire a candidate who leaves the organization because of a mismatch/better opportunity.