If you wonder why you rarely hear back from recruiters you submit your resume to, or get very few interviews through them, it is most often because your experience and qualifications simply do not ideally match the needs of their client; and their client is the employer who has either paid or will pay them for filling the position you applied to, not you. For the most part a recruiter is beneficial to you if you match the specific needs of a paying client.
When dealing with third party recruiters (those that work for agencies or search firms) you must understand the reality of how they operate and appreciate that their primary job, is not to assist you in finding a job.
To hire for a permanent position through a recruiter the company pays a fee, a fee which is normally based on the starting salary for the job. The higher the starting salary, the higher the fee. The percentage charged will depend on the fee schedule used by the agency the recruiter works for and can vary widely from one to another. For example, the fee for a job with a starting salary of only $25,000 per year can be anywhere from 10% to 25% or $2,500 to $6,250, and the fee for a job with a starting salary of $50,000 per year can range from 10% to 40% or $5,000 to $20,000.
In all cases, you see that it can be quite expensive for a company to use the services of a third party recruiter on a regular basis and it's for this reason that most companies actually do not use them, and that those that do only use them to fill a small portion of their jobs. When you look at the fees employers pay and add to this the fact that in most cases all or the majority of what a recruiter earns is based on filling the job, you can easily understand how selective an employer will be when they hire through a recruiter, and how careful the recruiter must be about who he or she sends, for fear of losing the employer or losing out to another recruiter.
What makes this even more challenging for recruiters, and thus for you as the candidate, is that there are hundreds of agencies and search firms and thousands of recruiters who work for them; and in many cases they are competing with other recruiters, sometimes even at their own firms, to fill the same jobs. You should now be able to understand why employment agencies focus on finding employers who are willing to pay, and why their recruiters focus on finding and referring multiple candidates in hopes of filling the jobs they get, and not specifically on trying to help Job Seekers.
As I stated before, a recruiter will be beneficial to you if you match the needs one of their paying clients. Your best strategy as a candidate is to register with many agencies that deal with your industry or discipline to ensure that you have a chance at being considered for the very small portion of the job market represented by the industry; regardless of what any one recruiter may tell you about their working on your behalf and promises to place you in a job.
Now I hope this does not appear to be an article against recruiters, or that they should not be a part of your job search strategy because they absolutely should. Recruiters have access to jobs you do not and after all it does not cost you anything except that time it takes to register or send you resume, which is something you are doing anyway. What I am saying is that you need to appreciate that the job of a recruiter is not to help you find a job, it is to help the employer; so you should never rely on recruiters as your only means or even your primary means of finding work.
If you want someone to work on your behalf and focus on finding you a job then you should consider finding an Outplacement Consultant or Job Developer. They are the opposite of recruiters in that they work with/for the candidate. The obvious major difference is that the fees for their services are paid by you (or the downsizing employer you are being let go from). The main advantage is that these professionals have a much more extensive network of contacts and greater access to job and career opportunities as there is no fee to the employer to work with them and hire through them.
Whatever you choose to do, remember that recruiters are paid to fill jobs and would love nothing more that for you to be the candidate their client needs when they review your resume. It is their skill, expertise and opinion the employer is paying for to help them fill the position. It is their livelihood at stake if they send the wrong candidate. A recruiter or employment agency might not be able to help you to find a job but if you sign on with them so they can find you when they have a job to fill they just might.
Please submit a comment or share your reactions before you leave and if you’re a Job Seeker looking for help in finding a job or part of a business with jobs to fill please contact me: Phone 416-628-5953 or 1-800-379-5629, Email nigel@thinkbdm.com, Skype nigel.corneal.
