How and When to Use a Recruiter

This was a question posted to a list I am on and my response is below.

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"I need to get in front of recruiters and companies. I am thinking that
direct marketing combined with the face to face meetings I am having
might be a good idea. I see two options. Buy expensive lists and send
out myself or use someone like resumeviper. Do you guys have any input
on this? I could use some input on experiences from a variety of
folks. Maybe there are market differences as well. "

l

Though you don't give the details, but it appears that you are looking for a job?
Getting a recruiter's attention, and you finding a job are two different things. Have you considered that a mass mailings to recruiters is probably the most inefficient, and inaccurate job search technique you could use? Would you try to get a date that way?

l

Nor do you say which industry or does "market differences" imply that? Unlike many job seekers, recruiters don't look everywhere to fill job openings for obvious reasons. They realize (unless they are desperate during a recession) that it's far more productive with a much higher likelihood of making money, if specialized by horizontal and vertical search areas. They look for talent in a specific horizontal function like sales,finance, marketing AND they look for talent by vertical sector like health care, consumer products, energy, AND they look for talent by level as in executive, manager, lead, supervisor, individual contributor.
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This is some of what I know about recruiters:

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* Recruiters are working for companies, not you, so they don't like being found they like finding you. It's their job.

* Recruiters have a limited number of similar positions to fill and usually in a specific sector.
* Recruiters are working for a very few companies as they are expected to source talent from the competition 

* Companies want candidates that are an exact, on-the-money, verbatim match to the job description so guess what recruiters look for?

* Even if you talked to every recruiter on Linkedin, for instance, they may not have the best position that fits you and will make you happy

* Mass mailings are unsolicited spam, do you read spam regardless of email, fax or print?

* Typically there is a less than 5% response rate for direct mail so why not just buy adwords instead and only pay for the click-through?

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This is what I suggest:

Dig the well before you are thirsty, as it doesn't work well to try to do a fast, mass job search. Have your contacts, referrals, recruiters, and search tools in place and on low-key, activation-ready status to fire up when you need to find a new GIG  (how to do that is the topic of a whole other email or blogpost).

Do a  job search using a number of techniques, methods and tools (recruiters being only one) that includes but is not limited to:

* Posting your resume on social networking sites, general job sites and on the function/sector-specific job sites that fit the job and industry you want

* Being introduced/referred to recruiters who specialize in those same areas

* Learn how to really network, make connections and build ongoing relationships in your functional area and field as linkedin's 3 degrees of separation literally and figuratively goes only so far

* Join or network at professional organizations that match your desired job function e.g.:the Product Management Association

* Attend and network at conferences and trade shows in the sector space where you are looking

* Put your resume/cv, work examples, endorsements, etc up on a website or blogsite or both and link to the social networking sites to achieve a higher page ranking for your name and your skills as recruiters search using keywords on the search engines

* Make a hit list of 30 companies in your desired sector or industry and actively pursue introductions to people working there.

* Package, position and brand yourself so that you sound lucid, articulate and cogent when someone asks "what are you looking for? what do you do? how can I help you? "

* Have a 5 and 10 year plan as to where your career and you are going, how you plan on getting there, and results you want to show for it when you do. Start your job search from that blueprint.

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And here are tried and true resources:

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"What Color is Your Parachute?" by Richard Bolles ( I have been a listed resource in Dick's best seller since 1988)
"Zen and the Art of Making a Living" Lawrence Bolt

"Dig the Well Before You are Thirsty" Harvey Mackay

"Ask the Headhunter: Reinventing the Interview to Win the Job" Nick Corcodilos

"Knock 'm Dead" Martin Yate

Any of the networking how-to books by Susan RoAne

Any of the books on goal setting/decision making for careers by Barbara Sher

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Then setup an advisory board for yourself, as it's too hard to do a search alone. Consider your search much like a new product launch and marketing campaign. Use knowledgeable colleagues/friends to advise you on your business solution, feature set, product enhancements, marketing collateral's, etc, etc.

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Conservatively, give yourself 6 months to do this and land successfully, meaning the sector, position type that you initially targeted. If you need a job now, then look at contracting and consulting instead of mass mailings to recruiters. Bottom-line, recruiters are only one piece of an increasingly more complex equation to find your