Tips For Forging A Good Recruiter Relationship

One of the first missteps, says Ray Brown, a senior technical/engineering recruiter with Volt Technical Resources, is that job seekers forward resumes to a staffing company and then never follow up. "In a lot of cases candidates don't feel it's necessary to forge a relationship with the recruiters/staffing agencies that they choose to work with," says Brown, a technical recruiter for nearly eight years.

"It's really not that much different than if you were to speak with a potential hiring manager in any organization. Sometimes job seekers make the mistake that the recruiter is just the 'middle man' between them and the company that they want to work for. In doing so, they can sometimes alienate the recruiter. Just remember that a majority of what you say to a recruiter is funneled back to the hiring manager in some form."

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Another big no-no to avoid is to be upfront, honest and open with the recruiter, says Heidi Golledge, executive VP of CyberCoders.

"Candidates tell the agency that they have not applied to jobs which they already have " either through another agency or on-line directly with the company. This hurts their chances of getting the job because it makes the employer think that they are desperate, and it wastes everyone's time," she explains.

Golledge relates the story of one candidate eager to interview for a software engineer job but whose deception ended up shutting the door on the career opportunity. The agency was moving to secure him the interview but it turned out the candidate has already interviewed with the hiring company.

"The client asked us when we last talked to the candidate and we told them it was that afternoon. The client then said they had already made the candidate an offer and was waiting for the candidate's reply. The candidate was trying to get us to submit him for the job to get a $10k salary increase. The employer withdrew the offer."

While dishonesty and deception can kill the chances of forging a good working relationship with an agency, the biggest mistake candidates can make is not realizing the value of signing on for career help, says Chris Gibbons, president/IT staffing consultant with Dunhill Professional Search of Wilmington NC.

"I've had candidates who put their resume all over the Web, sent out resumes to 50 plus companies, and then asked if I could help them find a job," says Gibbons, who's been a staffing expert for eight years. "In some cases, I still can, but this would not be a candidate that I would actively try to find something for because they've already flooded the market."

The executive recruiter says all the above-mentioned "don't-do" scenarios not only stall the job search effort, but can effectively kill any chance of success.

"Don't lie to a recruiter that you're working with about your expectations, salary, background, etc. and let them know upfront what steps you've already taken in your job search."

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