Uncommon Things to Consider About Recruiters

Recruiters. Job seekers are annoyed with them, employers are confused, so-called career consultants and resume writers are completely in the dark about them and there's even dissension among their own ranks.

As a professional executive recruiter, I'd like to "set the record straight" once and for all about some of the commonly misunderstood aspects of the recruiting profession.

The following are common "recruiter myths" and what you should consider before you accept them as gospel.

1. YOU SHOULDN'T ONLY WORK WITH ONE RECRUITER AT A TIME

You can work with multiple recruiters (2-3 or more) at a time. Recruiters often have a relationship with many companies — but certainly not all companies in an industry. So working with a few recruiters simultaneously can help you be exposed to multiple opportunities. But make sure you let your recruiters know who else you are working with — and what companies they are submitting you to.

Real-World Insight: It's a free country/market and you can work with as many recruiters as you'd like. The issue though is one of focus and service. Do you want to be "databased" by multiple recruiters who call you at an unknown time based on their client demand, or do you want to be represented as a unique talent and have a sole representative working on your behalf similar to a sports or entertainment agent?

The best sports and entertainment agents represent their top clients on a strategic, exclusive basis. Guess what? Many top hiring managers that have to get it right when it comes to their hiring, establish a rock-solid foundational relationship with one recruitment firm to represent their opportunity to top talent. So which is it for you, rifle or shotgun approach?

Let's take another example: You can decide to purchase a home, engage with multiple real estate agents to see "what's available" and spend your time looking at multiple properties in multiple locales as you don't really know what you're looking for. Someone else will work with an architect to build a dream home from the ground up to make their vision a reality.

There's a lot more to establishing the right working relationship with the right recruitment and placement professional than most people think.

2. A RECRUITER WILL HELP ME FIND A JOB

Remember, recruiters get paid by a company for filling a position, so they don’t work for you — they work for the employer paying their fee.

Real-World Insight: What if a recruiter finds that they're on the phone or in an in-person meeting during the weekend with a candidate and there's no company paying the recruiter, no position and no fee on the line at that time? What if the recruiter is willing to start with a clean sheet of paper with the candidate with the intent of "value creation" in mind as opposed to "transactional vacancy filling?" Isn't the recruiter in fact helping the candidate to find a job in this instance?

3. RECRUITERS DON'T WORK FOR CANDIDATES. THEY ONLY WORK FOR "CLIENT COMPANIES."

Real-World Insight: First, what exactly is a "client company"? Companies are fictional entities. Also, over time many "clients" of executive recruiters eventually become their "candidates."

Let's suppose that a recruiter's paying client becomes their candidate. After doing business for years with that client the recruiter commits herself to placing the ex-client while there are no appropriate fit opportunities that the recruiter is working on at the time. An argument can be made that the recruiter is "working" on their former client's behalf - not a paying client's as a "paying client" is nowhere to be found at that time. Finding and developing paying clients entails "work."

Now let's forget about a recruiter's relationship with a former client. If a recruiter makes a promise to place a candidate and spends weeks worth of time and effort to do so, in my book they are in fact "working" on the candidate's behalf.

4. RECRUITERS CAN'T HELP ME MAKE A CAREER CHANGE

Recruiters are often working from very specific executive search assignments where the employing company’s criteria is well-defined. Therefore, they are looking to find candidates with those specific qualifications, not someone with an interest in the field. The better your credentials meet the search assignment specifications, the more likely you will be considered as a candidate, and the more likely you will be successfully placed in the role. If you want to make a career change, working with a recruiter isn’t likely to be an effective strategy.

Real-World Insight: This myth asserts that recruiters are handcuffed by their clients. That's not absolutely true. There's frequently some "wiggle room" on many positions and career change is a distinct possibility and something actually encouraged by hiring managers in some instances if a candidate possesses transferable skills.

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Alan Geller, The Caring Recruiter, is the Managing Director of AG Barrington, a recruitment and placement firm focused on core. Core is anything that an organization does to create sustainable differentiation within its target niche in the service of competitive advantage.