Glassdoor Blog » Recruiters

#ERE Expo: Come Learn More About Glassdoor At Booth #514

Glassdoor Team — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 16:13:41 +0000

Heading to the Fall ERE Expo? So are we and we’d love to see you there.

Glassdoor will be at booth #514 where we’ll be showcasing what Glassdoor has to offer and how we can help employers progress their branding and recruiting efforts.

Plus we invite all ERE attendees to attend a poker tournament sponsored by Glassdoor on Wednesday, September 7 at 8 p.m. at Rivals Waterfront Sports Grill (3460 South Ocean Drive, Hollywood, FL). All proceeds from the tournament will go directly to the ERE Foundation, which over the past few years has donated thousands of dollars to support educational opportunities for disadvantaged youth, with an emphasis on those parts of the world where the funds will have the greatest impacts.

#ERE Expo: Come Learn More About Glassdoor At Booth #514 is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

Should You Always Take A Recruiter’s Advice?

Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter, MRW — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 14:00:05 +0000

A client of mine (we’ll call her Caroline) whose newly designed and compelling resume had attracted multiple, focused interviews at target companies and garnered various compliments for its impressiveness, received a call from a recruiter.

The recruiter requested she make formatting changes to standardize the resume to fit her recruitment needs in how she submits all candidates to her clients (i.e., her clients being defined as ‘the companies’). This strictly bulleted and non-design savvy format dulled the resume and made it less likely to set Caroline apart in other, non-recruiter-focused scenarios.

Caroline asked me later: “Why do recruiters have rules that would make a cool resume look just like everyone else’s?”

Explaining that recruiters often have client-focused (i.e., company-focused) rules they follow when submitting to their clients, complying with these resume formatting requests are opportunities to maintain the relationship with the recruiter and facilitate smooth processes. As such, adjusting the resume can support both your and the recruiter’s goals.

However, you should not strictly write for recruiters’ eyes.

That said, and I make this clear with new clients before delving into the resume process, I do not advise writing your resume strictly for recruiters’ eyes as you may limit your overall results. Here’s why:

Often, recruiters’ niche needs for plain-vanilla, bulleted format preferences do NOT provide an advantage to job seekers to distinguish and market themselves. In fact, it often makes it easier for the recruiters/their client companies to minimize the risk of hiring and thus eliminate candidates, versus maximize the candidate’s opportunities.

When working with recruiters, they can be tremendous advocates to job searching candidates, but at the end of the day, THEIR client is the company, and they are serving the COMPANY’S desires/requests. So, if candidates’ fixate all of their attention on recruiters’ preferences, it can become a disadvantage to their overall job-search.

Put another way, Master Resume Writer (and former recruiter), Dawn Bugni, The Write Solution, says, “First, I tell clients, if you’re working with a recruiter, do what they tell you to do. They are your best advocate and greatest resource during the process. Work with them, honestly.”

“However, I go on to say, recruiters are focused on a specific target. They build relationships with hiring authorities in their industry and get to know preferences. What works for them and that specific client job order may not benefit you or interest your next target. Do your research and ensure you’re putting your best foot forward.”

Interestingly, a recent blog from career expert and fellow Glassdoor blogger John Sumser asserted that the odds of a conversation with a recruiter landing you a job are .0035%, further reinforcing my advice that you not develop a resume focused purely on recruiters’ preferences.

A richly designed, non-traditional resume is an advantage.

Use of charts or graphs and inclusion of value propositions, personal promises, pull-out quotes and testimonials often result in non-recruiter-focused, non-traditional resumes. Or do they?

Here’s the thing: in my conversations with recruiters, some of the resume ‘rules’ they espouse (including page-length limitations, bullet-only, plainer formats, font preferences and the like) are crafted more as a rule of thumb because candidates are unfamiliar and/or untrained in developing well-written, strategically designed resumes.

In other words, recruiters’ advice often is based on the number of poorly written resumes they receive, and a desire to fit a square-peg, square-hole need as efficiently and quickly as possible.

In my experience shepherding candidates through job-search success by writing and designing resumes with flair, and resumes that entice with richly woven stories, I am adamant that job seekers must market themselves innovatively, courting the reader, enticing them to want to know more, and not boxing themselves in with job-search derailing, homogeneous resumes.

Job search is marketing!

Job search marketing is akin to product marketing. Start with a methodical, strategic approach to sell your relevant competencies and transferable talent in the language of future performance, then prove what, how and WHY you did what you did, as well as why it mattered to the company.

In other words, shine a beam of light on your assets, include personal promise sound bites, benefits of employing you and chunked-up illustrations of the core competencies within which you have had rich and performance-centered experience. Relate all of this directly to the target reader’s needs. (This means taking time to really research your target audience).

All of this usually means deploying non-traditional formatting and design strategies to lead the reader and to make the resume glimpseable and understandable in a non-linear world.

Should You Always Take A Recruiter’s Advice? is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

The Odds Of Getting A Job With A Recruiter

John Sumser — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 18:00:47 +0000

“Many are called but few are chosen.”

The business of matching people with jobs is horribly flawed, loaded with waste and abuse and impossible to navigate. While you may have heard about headhunters actively recruiting people from their current assignments, it’s a relatively rare thing. Fewer than seven percent of the workforce is ever contacted by a recruiter.

The odds are one in 12 that a recruiter will contact you, on average. In reality, the odds are way worse than that for most people. Recruiters work in markets where there are shortages and/or high demand. Most people work in occupations where there is relatively low demand. If you remove the seven percent who actually get calls from headhunters, the likelihood becomes infinitesimally small.

But wait, it’s worse than that.

Most headhunters work on a pure performance-based commission structure for compensation. The very nature of their pay forces them to focus on the jobs and skills that are most in demand. Since there is no sustained cash flow, most recruiters work in operations where capital is in short supply. Cash is king in the recruiting business.

Contingency headhunters plow through an enormous number of connections and gate keepers in their search for a candidate who feels like the right (and salable) package. They take on more assignments than they can fill (closing one in eight or one in 10 deals is normal in the business)

In order to complete a single search, a recruiter may review as many as 300 resumes, culled from a variety of sources, none of them submitted by the candidates. That pile is sifted into a short list of approximately 10 resumes through a series of telephone calls and decisions. Those 10 people are heavily evaluated before being presented to the customer.

So, assuming that the headhunter you’re talking to closes 12% of the positions she tries to fill, the odds are:

1 in 12 (8.5%) That a recruiter will ever call you
1 in 30 (3.3%) that you will make it to the short list
1 in 10 (10%) that you will be selected
1 in 8 (12.5%) that she will fill the job she is talking to you about

In other words, the overall odds are about 1 in 28,520 (.0035%) that your conversation with a headhunter will land you a job.

You are better off buying scratch-off lottery tickets.

The Odds Of Getting A Job With A Recruiter is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

Five Myths Recruiters Believe That Impact Your Job Search

John Sumser — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 18:56:56 +0000

So you’re going to try to get a recruiter to pay attention to your resume. Or, maybe you’ve gotten a call from a recruiter who wants to talk with you about an opportunity. Or, maybe you’ve decided to respond to some job ads you’ve found online.

If you are going to interact with recruiters, you need to understand some of their basic beliefs.

Recruiters don’t really make hiring decisions. They winnow a big pile of resumes into a little one. They make judgments about who is fit for a job and who isn’t. Not the final judgment, mind you. Recruiters make the decors that narrow the list of prospects from 100 to 10. Then they rank and present the ‘short list’.

Recruiters belong to the category of people who can’t give you all of the help you need. They can, however, exercise a veto on your candidacy. Recruiters are gatekeepers and evaluators. Here are five keys to understanding what recruiters believe:

“For all jobs, there is someone who is good enough.”

Recruiters are evaluated on the percentage of open jobs that they fill. That makes them supreme realists. They are faced with overwhelming piles of information and high pressure deadlines. They are always willing to compromise job requirements in order to get the position filled. A recruiter’s reputation really rests on his or her ability to sell a candidate who is less than perfect. This means that your interactions with a recruiter always need to show your willingness to comply with their recommendations.

“Shorter resumes are better than longer resumes.”

Recruiters sift through huge piles of information. Just because you think that your illustrious career deserves three pages of single spaced detail doesn’t mean that anyone has the time to read it. Stick to the high points. If you can’t get your resume into a single page, get help. Boring a recruiter with too much detail is a certain path to being weeded out.

“The best person for a job is really the best available person.”

This is really a subset of the idea that for every job, there is someone who is good enough. Deadlines drive hiring decisions. They are not looking for the best candidate for the job. They want the best candidate for the job who is available to take it. A sign of a good candidate is the willingness to wrap things up in your current job quickly. Proving that you are invaluable in your gig makes you harder, not easier to place.

“People who aren’t currently working are not good enough.”

While being easily available is critical, being too available is the kiss of death. Recruiters view the unemployed as damaged goods. In some cases, they will not even look at the resume of someone who doesn’t have a job. If you are out of work, always have a project that you are pursuing that is work related, even if you have to volunteer. Never let the absence of a paycheck keep you from working. In most places, a project you do when between employers is called ‘consulting’.

“Hygiene, demeanor and dress are essential attributes of a great candidate.”

This ought to go without saying. Recruiters make a million judgments based on first impressions. A recent shower, a shave, clean clothes, shined shoes (really), business attire and deodorant (but not cologne or perfume) are the bare minimum. Good eye contact and clear evidence of preparation are the second layer. Well thought out answers to obvious interview questions are the third layer.

Getting a job involves a kind of warfare. Be well armed. Recruiters don’t have the final say on anything but they do winnow the pile of applicants. They are looking for a reason to reject you.

Five Myths Recruiters Believe That Impact Your Job Search is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

Why Recruiters Don’t Get You Jobs

John Sumser — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 21:03:02 +0000

If you poke around the internet long enough, you’ll find someone who suggests that you should get to know recruiters. The idea is that since recruiters find people to fill jobs, they’ll be in a position to find you one. Since they know where the jobs are, they will certainly know where there’s one for you.

It sort of makes sense. Recruiters have jobs and access to the flow of job openings. Why wouldn’t that be a good place to lay some ground work?

In fact, it doesn’t hurt to be on the radar of a good recruiter. But, it’s important to understand that they are hunting for people to fill specific openings and may or may not ever come across the right thing for you. It’s an interesting paradox.

Recruiters look for people to fill openings all day long. Still, it is unlikely that they will find the right one for you. Why is that?

Recruiters are not agents for people in search of work. They are agents for the other side of the equation. Their real job is to eliminate people from consideration while they try to find the perfect candidate.

“So,” you say, “But I’m a pretty darned good candidate. Any smart recruiter would have an easy time finding a job for me. Somewhere in all of those openings is exactly the right job for me.”

If you try hard enough, you might even find a recruiter who will offer to find you a job. The results will be the same. But you will have successfully gotten a recruiter to agree to look for you.

So, why is it that these professionals, with just the right amount of access, can’t be perfectly helpful? Why isn’t the secret of job hunting as simple as getting to know a fistful of recruiters?

A high volume recruiter may fill as many as 100 jobs over the course of a year. (This level of output is restricted to corporate recruiters who make their livings by pushing candidates through a system). Filling a job usually starts with the best 50 or so prospects which are then whittled down to a field of eight or ten.

Getting the recruiter to put you in the pool gives you odds of 1 in 5,000. The very, very best she could do for you is to increase those odds to 1 in 10. But, the only way she could ethically do that is if you actually were one of the best ten. Since the recruiter is usually evaluated on the performance of the people she’s responsible for hiring, she’s not likely to help on you unless she’s certain that you’ll outshine the competition.

If that were the case, you wouldn’t need to know the recruiter in the first place.

So, the reality is that knowing a recruiter gives you a 1 in 5,000 shot at getting a job. That’s better than the lottery but not nearly as good as trying to get to know the people you want to work for directly. Recruiters are just intermediaries.

Why Recruiters Don’t Get You Jobs is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

Career Advice For Recruiters: Industry Outlook & Job Tips

Hank Stringer — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 21:23:19 +0000

Hi Hank,

I’ve recently been offered a chance to work with a 3rd party recruiter representing a large investment bank. They cold call and place stock brokers. My commission would be 30% of the firm’s fee, 8% of the broker’s trailing 12 months (I think).

They promised $300/week draw for starters and say $100K is possible within 3 years. Hours are M-F 7:30-4:30 with major holidays and no benefits. It’s a small start-up of about 7 people and growing.

I have another opportunity to make $40K at a regular, steady job with benefits but not much chance to increase pay other than the regular yearly raise. I have a 2-year-old to support and want to make a good life for us and feel the recruiter position offers a chance to move ahead but at a risk.

What is it like being a 3rd party recruiter?
What is the outlook for this market, specifically recruiting stock brokers, in the financial services industry?
What tips or advice can you offer?

Thank you,

Greg

_________________________________________

Hi Greg,

Great questions. The fact I started my recruiting career as a 3rd party recruiter 31 years ago gives me some experience so here it goes:

What is it like being a 3rd party recruiter?

3rd Party recruiting can be a highly rewarding sales/marketing career. Like any career you get out what you put into the work. Most don’t realize recruiting is a bi-directional consultative sales process with humans at both ends of the decision making process. And the influencers and true decision makers at either end are not always easily known or available.

It’s about understanding a job position, culture, fit, timing and matching with the appropriate qualified talent all while presenting a compelling description of the job that convinces the talent to be available in the time your client company needs – whew! And until you learn how to speak to people and guide them through the recruitment/hiring process one doesn’t have a great deal of control.

So what is it like? To me it is a blast, I love it. I have recruited all over the world, I meet deeply interesting people, I learn about great businesses and the latest technologies. But know, it took me a long time to get to this place. The successful recruiters I know like adventure, are not fearful of learning, and like to do what others can’t then. They are project motivated and will work to completion.

What is the outlook for this market, specifically recruiting stock brokers, in the financial services industry?

If our government continues to favor onerous legislation on businesses, the jobs market will not be strong. If they don’t, the market will be OK. Wall Street was hiring like crazy a few months ago as the market sensed a slowdown in the current administration’s legislative activities. But with the recent financial regulations bill and continued high unemployment the market has swung the other way. If we vote in fiscally conservative candidates in November and the current agenda slows down the market should react favorably. And if taxes are not raised as they are expected to the market may take off. Sadly, our markets are too closely tied to politics versus supply and demand economics.

What tips or advice can you offer?

Now, I am going to make a guess that the positions you have been asked to recruit for are compensated as highly commissioned sales positions. And if this is the case, the company has expectations of a higher % of turnover. I would ask the question: how many of your placements will make the trailing 12 months? Which leads to the question: when will you be paid for finding and placing the talent? Find out.

I suggest you interview with 1 or 2 other recruitment firms, the more the better. There are a number of business models in the recruitment market and learning as much as you can will help with your decision. I came from the old school model. In 1979 the market was much like it is today, high unemployment and in addition had very high interest rates resulting in a tough employment market. And get this, I started on straight commission. We had to find the job, convince the company to pay our fee, recruit a list of candidates, present and manage the process through to close. A number of recruiters do it the same way today and I believe learning by working both sides of the equation is the best and fastest way to learn the business. Not easy, but can be highly rewarding and can be a great career if you stick with it. BTW: My goal is to recruit until I’m 70, then I’ll look back on a rich 50 year career dedicated to my craft.

Thanks and good luck,

Hank

Career Advice For Recruiters: Industry Outlook & Job Tips is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

What NOT To Do When You’re Starting To Work With A Recruiter

Vickie Elmer — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 18:46:48 +0000

Recruiters are in demand these days by job seekers eager to move into new assignments and by employers seeking hard-to-find staffers.

So recruiting a recruiter takes thought and effort.

Some things will either turn a recruiter away or ruin any relationship you’ve started. Most missteps reflect badly on your integrity or honesty and some just make you look uninformed about the recruiter’s role. A recruiter’s role is to find and fill jobs for an employer, which is her client.

So here are seven serious mistakes to avoid when working with a recruiter:

1. Don’t lie about your achievements, salary or expertise. Most are verifiable and your misinformation may be discovered, said Kathleen Kurke, who’s president of the Pinnacle Society, an elite recruiters organization. It’s all right to present yourself in the best possible light; it’s not all right to hide the truth or inflate your salary by $30,000.

2. Do not target a recruiter outside your industry or profession. Dig up those who specialize in your field – even if they work far from you. Geography matters less than concentration in your field, says Kurke, who’s the national practice leader for Starbridge Group, which works in the education, training and technology arenas.

3. Avoid listing skills and experience you don’t want to use in your next job. If you are an excellent sales manager, but want to move into business development work, focus your resume on the next job and leave out the things you want to leave behind, Kurke said.

4. Don’t leave unanswered basic questions. Tell the recruiter who referred you; be clear about your willingness to relocate. Explain your situation succinctly and your target job. “Answer my questions so I don’t have to ask them,” said Bob Corlett, president of Staffing Advisors, which recruiters for nonprofit, association and entrepreneurs.

5. Don’t “dance around the issue” of whether you’re in the market for a new job, Corlett said. If you’re a passive job hunter, you may get extra points in some sectors, but the key things are your credentials and expertise. Recruiters will be discrete, partly because they want good candidates in their database.

6. Don’t ask for basic career advice. Recruiters won’t help you change careers or plan your transition, Corlett said. Most will not assist with resume updates either. Those are the domain of an outplacement counselor or career coach or friend.

7. Don’t be follow-up junkie. Too much checking in and inquiry feels like you’re stalking them – don’t do it.

Think about things from the recruiter’s standpoint too – and win points by referring other great candidates her way. “It’s sort of like managing up when you work for somebody,” said Kurke. You need to give them value and ask them for assistance climbing the ladder.

(For some smart strategies for luring a recruiter onto your team, see my recent Washington Post article “Do your own recruiter searching long before you’ll be job searching.”)

What NOT To Do When You’re Starting To Work With A Recruiter is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

How To Talk To A Recruiter

Rusty Rueff — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 15:39:48 +0000

About a third of jobs are filled through recruiters, retained or contingent. If asked, most people think a greater percentage are filled from recruiters and are a little surprised when they find the actual fill rates are lower than expected. That said, when the recruiter calls, it’s important to know how to respond in the best way as recruiters are usually working on more than one job at a time. They are building a database for the future, and if you help them, most will remember. I believe what goes around comes around, and these conversations could prove to be very important. So, how do you talk to a recruiter?

Accommodate as best you can. If a recruiter catches you and you have the time to talk, take the call. If you don’t have time or are in an awkward spot, ask them to name times that best work for them (or ask them to send you an email with times). Then, try the best you can to accommodate their schedule. While lots of people like to think they aren’t busy, they are and you could lose their attention if you are too busy to talk to them within a reasonable timeframe.

Probe a little. Try to learn as much as you can so you can turn around and give them what they need. Find out the answer to two perfect questions “What is the ideal candidate for this job?” and “What is the hardest part, you [the recruiter] are finding about filling this job?” You can find the answers after you have heard the job spec, and work to boil down for them so you can get to the heart of what they are searching for. From those two questions, you should be able to play back exactly what you have and don’t have to be the perfect candidate for them. Being the perfect candidate means filling the requirements and also being a convenient candidate for them.

Make your story simple to re-tell. Never more important than this phone call or meeting is having a structured, easy and ready-to-go re-tell story about you. Remember, their job is to go back and sell you to the hiring manager/client, and if they have the compelling and easy to re-tell story then they are going to feel more confident in taking your story forward to others. Just because a recruiter pitches a candidate, doesn’t mean the hiring manager is going to say, “Yes”. Giving the recruiter something they can repeat easily and readily is important. The best thing to happen after they get off the phone with you is that they are excited to tell the hiring company: “There is someone you just have to talk to”.

Be generous. Offer not only time and calendar flexibility but also offer to help them build a profile on you. For example, you could offer to repackage your resume to help them help you better. Also, even if this is your perfect job, don’t hesitate to offer to put them in contact with others who you feel would be good for the position. It never hurts to show you have enough confidence in yourself to invite in the competition. Plus, you may not be the perfect candidate but one of your friends might, and that could turn into good for everyone.

And then, keep the name, number, email, date, and notes on what you talked to this recruiter about. You never know what the next job is that they are going to have. It may be your dream job and you want to be able to reach to them first on that one!

How To Talk To A Recruiter is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

After The Recruiter Says No: How To Handle Job-Search Rejections

Yahoo! Hot Jobs — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 18:36:09 +0000

You had high hopes for this job: The job requirements matched your skill set perfectly. You aced your interview questions. And you imagined hearing those sweet words so many of us long to hear:

“You’re hired.”

Instead, you got another job rejection letter. According to recent U.S. Labor Department data, 5.5 unemployed Americans, on average, are vying for each job opening–so most interviews will end in rejection.

And that can be a crushing blow–but it can also be a career-making moment. When you don’t get the job, what should your next steps be?

Don’t beat yourself up about it.
John Kador, the author of “301 Best Questions to Ask on Your Interview,” second edition (McGraw-Hill), recommends you try to learn from each rejection–while understanding that it may not be your fault. “Sometimes you didn’t do anything wrong,” he says. “Someone else was more qualified or more connected. Companies sometimes go through the motions of interviewing applicants when they’ve already selected a candidate.”

While the experience is still fresh in your mind, writing down what you’ve learned may help you put a positive spin on the experience–and give you something to refer to later, according to Lewis Lin, of SeattleInterviewCoach.com.

Be gracious in defeat.
How you conduct yourself after a rejection letter can determine whether that recruiter will consider you again–or perhaps refer you to another recruiter. Liz Lynch, the author of “Smart Networking” (McGraw-Hill), says, “Send a handwritten card thanking them again for their time, reiterating your interest in the company, and expressing your hope that they’ll keep you in mind for future positions. And whatever you do, do not diss them on your blog!”

Ask for feedback.
Kador advises saying that you accept the recruiter’s decision before you ask for feedback: “No one will talk to you if they think you’re going to argue or appeal.”

If you don’t trust yourself to keep your cool, you may want to skip asking for feedback. If you do ask, email is the best medium. “Telephoning is probably too intrusive,” says Lynch. “And whatever feedback you hear, don’t be defensive.”

Lin cautions that “you’ll get canned responses most of the time” due to fears about legal issues, but he recommends phrasing your request for feedback like this: “If you don’t mind me asking, do you have any feedback on how I can improve for future interviews?”

He adds, “You want to keep the conversation as professional as possible. Who knows? You could be their backup candidate.”

Keep trying.
In most cases, you should actively pursue new openings at the company. The phrase “we’ll keep your resume on file” is usually an attempt to soften the rejection, according to Kador, who says you should keep applying for relevant jobs and staying in touch with the recruiters you’ve met. “If a posting says no calls,’ I wouldn’t call,” he says. “But that doesn’t mean you can’t write.”

Bring the recruiter into your professional network.
If, down the road, you can help the interviewer or recruiter by recommending a candidate, for instance, or forwarding a relevant article, Kador says you should “go for it– make yourself known as a resource.”

Lynch, too, recommends keeping in touch with the hiring manager in a “low-key way” and says that, when you do land a position, you should write him or her a note and include your new business card. Then you can send the manager an invitation to connect on LinkedIn so you can easily stay in touch.–Charles Purdy, Yahoo! HotJobs

Also on Yahoo! HotJobs:

After The Recruiter Says No: How To Handle Job-Search Rejections is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

Win the Job Through Admitting Your Ignorance

Jeff Hunter — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:14:04 +0000

I’ll say it over and over until you want to smack me around (I can hear you now “Too late!”): getting a recruiter on your side is critical to landing your dream job. And as we talked about last week, if you want to get a recruiter on your side you need to earn their trust. A recruiter is like your agent. You want them to use their credibility with a hiring manager to influence a positive outcome for you.

How do you build trust with a recruiter? We’ll review a number of tips over the coming weeks, but here is the way you need to start: ASK QUESTIONS!

First, please, take a risk and shut-up. It may be the hardest thing for a candidate to do, but talking too much is always a bad idea. I call it “Talking Your Way Out of a Job.” It happens all the time, with great candidates blathering away, boring the recruiter. The recruiter ends up convinced of one thing and one thing only: I can’t possibly put this person through to the hiring manager. I’ll look like an idiot!

In short, no trust!

Candidates think that they have to sell themselves by having a great pitch. But it is hard to talk your way to trust. Better to ask lots of questions, listen to the answers and then show you were listening by asking questions about what you just heard.

I advise candidate to ALWAYS start a conversation with a recruiter with the following question “Would you mind if I took a minute to ask you some questions about the job?”

Recruiters spend their days listening to people instruct them: where to look for candidates, what qualifications matter most, what the business needs and what is unique and special about every candidate. Most recruiters start their day expecting to be talked at constantly and rarely end up disappointed. So I guarantee that you will blow a recruiter’s mind if you ask them for permission to get their opinion.

Now that you have the recruiter’s attention, take the next step. Say the following: “I have read the job description, but I would like to know you opinion about what is the most important qualification for this job.”

Again, the recruiter’s mind will spin with delight “Wow! First the candidate wants my permission to ask questions, and then they want my opinion! I can’t believe it!” Step two to build trust.

And now, for the final killer stroke. Whatever the recruiter tells you, ask “Why?” As in “Why does the recruiter think that that particular qualification is so important?”

This three step process (May I, What, Why?) will always build trust with a recruiter. At the very least the recruiter will believe that you are interested in their opinion. And a good recruiter understands that only engaged, intelligent people ask serious questions. Ironically, questions (an admission of ignorance) builds trust in your experience, confidence and intelligence.

So if you want to win the job, start by being ignorant.

Next Week: Study the bio.

Win the Job Through Admitting Your Ignorance is a post from: Glassdoor Blog