Pros and Cons of using job recruiters?

A

AmadeusM

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Anybody here know?

I keep hearing that if a candidate gets the potential employer's attention via services of a recruiter, that candidate's resume gets placed on the bottom (i.e. low priority) since the employer wants to avoid paying the recruiter's fee, if he/she can.

Truth? BS?

Other issues to consider?

Thanks again.
 
Hi AmadeusM-

It's all a numbers game. The vast majority of recruiters don't have a sophisticated system to classify candidate skillsets...it is merely whomever is at the top of their e-mail system to send to a client for an interview. If you really like a recruiter, send him or her "reminder" messages so you stay on top of their list.

The other thing to bear in mind is that most recruiters are more concerned with conducting business to land corporate accounts. The last person they care about is an individual jobseeker unless you happen to be Bill Gates or someone else who will land them the commission of a lifetime.

I've worked with recruiters both to find potential employees and to search for new jobs for myself. In the end, they have NEVER been able to get me in front of a decisionmaker and I've always uncovered new employment via my own channels. Don't invest too much time because your ROI will be minimal. There was even an interesting story in The Wall Street Journal about this topic a few month ago.

~ Blue Jays ~
 
Hi All-

Found the article that I was seeking on this topic:
"...In seeking fresh employment, should you turn for help to the biggest executive recruiters or the smallest? Both giants and boutiques can help -- and hinder -- your hunt.

The solution? Play all sides of the field, mindful that size-related pitfalls abound. Forge bonds with key players everywhere. Though search professionals work for employers, smart ones know well-treated prospects often become clients later.

The world's largest search firms help fill spots at a variety of pay levels in a range of industries. Thanks to their huge staffs, elaborate databases and offices around the globe, you may gain exposure to a broad array of opportunities.

In the U.S. alone, the four leading recruiters handled about 54% of the industry's management searches last year, says Scott Scanlon, the CEO of researchers Hunt-Scanlon Advisors. He figures each conducts an average of 2,200 domestic assignments annually. Their search consultants typically carry heavier workloads than those at boutiques, he adds.

But with heft comes drawbacks. You may find it arduous to land an introductory session at an industry giant. A jobless media executive has spent two months pursuing a drink with a New York senior partner at Korn/Ferry International, the biggest search firm. A mutual acquaintance dropped her a note, vouching for him.

The recruiter's assistant promised to arrange the get-together once the man posted his résumé and job interests in the firm's internal database. The man did, then heard nothing. Prospects can "get lost in a larger firm," the executive frets. He should complain "to the next highest level in a constructive way," recommends Robert Damon, Korn/Ferry's North American president.

Big search firms' weighty workloads can crimp their ability to keep contenders well-informed. Last fall, Heidrick & Struggles International approached an unemployed advertising man about a restaurant-chain presidency. Invited to meet the board selection committee, he repeatedly called the busy recruiter to learn the committee members' names. The recruiter finally gave him the names the night before his 8 a.m. interview. The board picked someone else.

"We don't accept that kind of performance," insists Gerard Roche, senior chairman of Heidrick, the industry's third biggest.

Yet with inadequate feedback, you may not realize a big firm recruiter has "reserved" you -- putting you beyond his colleagues' reach until his quest ends. "You can get tied up on a reserve list for weeks and sometimes months," says Peter D. Crist, an ex-Korn/Ferry vice chairman who runs the boutique Crist Associates in Hinsdale, Ill. Candidates keen to shift allegiances inside a search giant should tell the recruiter, "Take me off the list."

Boutiques offer different pluses and minuses. Most specialize in a function or industry niche. Because they serve a narrow band of employers, you're less likely to be "off limits" if you work for a present or recent client. You're also likely to jump through fewer hoops before you meet clients. And you may become chummy with a senior partner faster.

Though small recruiters may try harder to match your needs with a hiring company's, they often lack suitable opportunities -- especially if you're eager to change fields or have already switched. Ann Kirschner, a New York media and technology consultant, has worked in broadcasting, the online world and higher education. She says boutiques suspect she's "a strange creature from some career zoos whom [they] have not petted yet."

Tiny firms' low volume limits your prospects, too. Whelan Stone, a San Francisco boutique, handles just four assignments at a time. "The odds are diminished that any of those searches might be right for you," concedes Fred Whelan, a partner.

Jonathan Estrin, executive vice president of the American Film Institute in Los Angeles, was once the runner-up for a Rockefeller Foundation position. He appreciated the personal attention he received from recruiter Marilyn Machlowitz. Nevertheless, the boutique owner didn't "come back to me to inquire about other searches for maybe six months," he recalls.

A six-month lag doesn't mean a prospect "made a bad impression," notes Ms. Machlowitz, a nonprofit specialist. It's just that "we're looking for such unique skill sets."

Another disadvantage: Tiny search firms sometimes operate less smoothly than industry heavyweights. Medical-device consultant Joel Weinstein billed a boutique for his travel when he flew to San Antonio from Boston for a job interview in July 2002. He was vying to be a U.S. division general manager at a Japanese company.

But Mr. Weinstein not only failed to get hired, he nearly failed to recoup his $1,000 in expenses. It took four months, a letter from his attorney and the client's threat to stop using the firm. The recruiter blamed billing system problems.

"I maintain a 'Do Not Use' list, and this guy's name is at the top of it, along with his entire boutique," says Mr. Weinstein, now CEO of VueSonix Sensors, a medical-device startup in Wayne, Pa. "It's no wonder that some recruiters have a tarnished image..."
​
~ Blue Jays ~
 
Got my last two jobs(including current one), through recruiters, and some compannies, like Dell(at least here in OKC), ONLY hire through recruiters. So they definitely can work.
 
it depends; I've gotten calls from recruiters that screen sothe hiring company remains anonymous, and weed out candidates. What field are you looking in?
 
Vascular and abdominal ultrasound.

Lined up ONE interview so far, graduated on the 9th.

I am getting desperate enough to try Alaska and Canada as well.

Everybody seems to want experience, but nobody seems to want to give you the opportunity to earn that experience. Brilliant example of true human nature.
 
Seems you're having the same problem as me. I've tried recruiters but haven't got any jobs yet. Not even interviews.

The only hint of interest i got was when one of the consultants emailed and called me up and told me she found a job for me. That got me really excited. However when i tried calling the number she gave me it was a Vodafone helpline. A MOBILE PHONE COMPANY. I was kind of annoyed. I specifically listed in my requirements that i wanted a lab job. I'm a science graduate and i don't want to be working in data entry for a mobile phone company. That i can get on my own.

I think what's great in using job recruiters is that you can reach more prospective employers but as someone said above it can all get lost in the system if the company's too big.

I'm not getting super-desperate like you yet but getting there. I think by the end of September i'm just gonna take any job that comes my way. But for now i'd really prefer to work in what i studied for.
 
I am starting to feel like Robert De Niro in "The Fan", in the scene where he's selling knives and the store manager is asking him if he has any kayaks.

ha ha ha ha :D :D :D

Before I truly get desperate (Canada, Alaska, Australia, New Zealand...), I got several hundred of small towns in the upper Midwest to try first.
Just yesterday I sent 30 resumes that way, and managed to cut my tongue on an envelope.. :D
 
I have had to change jobs many times, and have fooled with recruiters many times. I wound up having to find my own job, and recruiters still call me trying to goad me into accepting some high turn over rate, low pay, mindless position.

If you have been looking since the 9th of August, 2005, and are getting dissapointed about not having multiple,, high paying offers already, you might want to go ahead and end your life now. You will have nothing but misery in the future. ;)

Seriously, have patience. It took me 8 years of schooling, researching, chasing dead ends, pulling in favors, and everything else legal and moral that I could think of to get the one I have now. It has also taken over 4 years to start paying better money.

Search the want ads, cold call HR departments EVERYWHERE WHETHER THEY HAVE AN OPENING LISTED OR NOT, and do not get discouraged. It will take time, but is a good fight.

Also, go to all the trade shows you can, and network, network, network. The first time I interviewed for my position there were only five applicants, all submitted by people on the inside of the company directly to my manager.

The second time I was successful in my interview b/c it was just me and the manager on the phone. He called me up and made an offer.

The point is, develop those contacts. I would guess 90% or better of all people hired find out about a job by word of mouth, and are successful in getting that job b/c they had someone on the inside pulling for them.

It is not that you don't have experience, you just don't know anybody.

Good luck, and let us know how it turns out.
 
Terry Newton said:
call HR departments EVERYWHERE WHETHER THEY HAVE AN OPENING LISTED OR NOT, and do not get discouraged. It will take time, but is a good fight.

Good luck, and let us know how it turns out.
Click to expand...

Sure will.

On the HR note, I kinda avoid those bastards and mail to the department manager directly. Department managers have initiative, they know when they need someone long before HR does, can relate to students, since they are in the same field and started the same way, and they take ownership in the well being of their department and institution.
HR people on the other hand, have no knowledge of the fields involved, they toss new grad resumes most of the time, just to fullfill their 8 to 4:30 PM commitment. And, if they're not too busy chatting in internet chatrooms, and/or applying make up, they send those reject notices.
They're useless tunnel-vision bureaucrats who cannot think.

The rest of your text has some pretty good advice. You're right, I am not the most patient man, especially when I consider what kinds of efforts I had to put in to graduate.
 
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