Do you expect headhunters or recruiters to play a role in your job search? If you do, there are seven insider secrets you should familiarize yourself with first. These tips for working with recruiters will ensure you are top of mind when an ideal position comes into the recruiter’s area of specialty! Learn what these secrets are by reading on!

1. Working With Recruiters:
7 INSIDER SECRETS That You Must
Know
During Your Job Search

2. For most job seekers, conducting a comprehensive job
search includes—at least to some degree—interfacing with
recruiters (a.k.a., headhunters). But, for many people, this is
also one of the most misunderstood aspects of a job search.
Here are some quick tips and
“must-knows” to demystify
the process of contacting and
working with recruiters, and to help
you build relationships that ensure
you are top-of-mind when the ideal
position for you comes across a
recruiters desk.

3. 1) There are two types of recruiting firms and
the distinctions are crucial to understand.
Retained recruiting firms work directly for client companies
and are paid to screen candidates based on very specific
criteria. Retained firms often handle recruitment searches
for the most senior and highest paying positions.
Contingency firms sometimes work in competition with each
other and only get paid if they find the winning candidate
for an open position.

4. 1) There are two types of recruiting firms and
the distinctions are crucial to understand.
IMPORTANT: Note that in both these
cases, the company pays the fee to the recruiter, not the
job seeker. It is not customary for a job seeker to pay the
recruiting fee, so if you are being asked to do that, be very
cautious.

5. 2) Remember that recruiters work for the
company, not for you!
This is the most common misperception. The
company is their “client” and you are the
candidate—essentially the “product” that the
recruiter is offering to their client. Because of the
way the recruiting industry is structured, most
recruiters will be seeking to work with the
candidate most likely to get hired
(the candidate who fits a very specific
profile provided by the client).

6. 2) Remember that recruiters work for the
company, not for you!
‘Most likely to get hired’ does not necessarily
translate to ‘most likely to succeed,’ so if you find
you are not the perfect fit for a position, don’t take
it personally. For this reason, if you are trying to
make a career change of any sort, recruiters will
not be your best source as you will rarely fit the
profile provided to them by the client.
This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t
contact them. But, do keep your
expectations in check.

7. 3) Recruiters will often tell you that you (the job seeker) should cultivate an exclusive
relationship with just one or two recruiters. In an ideal world this would be great, but I
disagree with this advice.
Recruiters don’t necessarily share information about searches
that they are working on. So, if you only contact a couple of
firms and 20 others have an assignment that matches your
qualifications, you would never know about those
assignments.
That is why I recommend contacting as many
recruiting firms that that specialize in your
industry or profession as is practical.

8. 3) Recruiters will often tell you that you (the job seeker) should cultivate an exclusive
relationship with just one or two recruiters. In an ideal world this would be great, but I
disagree with this advice.
If you have provided your resume, most recruiters
will place it in their proprietary database, and if a
future search calls you up as a perfect candidate,
they will contact you, even if you haven’t had the
opportunity to build a truly personal relationship.

9. 4) Related to point # 3, once you have contacted recruiters and have begun to establish
rapport with at least a few, your goal is to begin to build personal relationships.
Treat recruiters no differently than you
would treat any other contact in your
network. While the initial contact is
generally made via email, now is the time to
pick up the phone and start to build a
dialogue. The best networkers know that
effective networking involves some degree
of reciprocity.

10. 4) Related to point # 3, once you have contacted recruiters and have begun to establish
rapport with at least a few, your goal is to begin to build personal relationships.
Do you have a lead that would help he
recruiter fill a position assignment they are
working on? Make a quick phone call. Did
you see something important in the news
related to an industry specialty of the
recruiter?
Send a quick email. By being helpful, you
ensure the recruiter remembers you the
next time they have a position that is a
match for your background and interests.

11. 5) Again, related to point # 3, do your research.
There are presently well over 15,000
recruiting offices in just the United States
alone. It is impractical and a waste of
everyone’s time to contact all of them
indiscriminately. Do a little research and
determine which firms specialize in your
industry of choice or positions like you are
seeking. This small, segmented list is the one
you should focus your time and attention on.

12. 5) Again, related to point # 3, do your research.
This is called taking the “rifle” approach
versus the “shotgun” approach. There are a
few credible service providers that will assist
you with the research and with contacting
recruiters using the rifle approach, but most
use the shotgun approach. If you decide to
hire help during this stage, make sure you
understand this distinction and which
approach the provider is using.

13. 6) Make it easy for recruiters to help you.
Structure and write your resume in a
format that makes it easy for them to
quickly identify your key qualifications.
This is not the time for a functional
resume! Most recruiters will simply
throw a functional resume away. You
must also be absolutely honest. Do not
be tempted to embellish your resume.
If you are found to be lying about
anything, you will be black-listed.

14. 6) Make it easy for recruiters to help you.
Your accompanying cover letter should be
fact-filled and written specifically to help the
recruiter match you to their open assignments.
When writing letters for clients, I often include
three to five bullet points that clearly identify
the qualifications and experiences that we
anticipate the recruiter will be most interested
in and looking for.
Also, make the focus of your job search crystal
clear. Be specific and tell the recruiter what you
are looking for, the type and level of position,
the size and type of company, your geographic
preferences, and the salary range you are
targeting.

15. 7) Put some thought into your job search and the order in which you will
conduct it.
If you have already contacted a company, your resume
is likely already in that company’s internal database. If
a recruiter now presents you as a candidate for a
position at that same company, the company will not
want to pay the recruiter for finding you because you
are already known to the company.

16. 7) Put some thought into your job search and the order in which you will
conduct it.
This creates a level of complexity in the whole deal
that is almost impossible to overcome and most
recruiters won’t work with you if they suspect you have
blanketed HR departments with your resume.
Selectively targeting a limited number of specific
companies is more effective than broadcasting
resumes to HR departments anyhow, but
understanding this truth about recruiters just gives you
another reason to do so. Just be smart about it, be
selective, and use discretion.

17. Copyright © 2015, Distinctive Career Services, LLC
Michelle Dumas runs of one of the longest-standing and most
respected professional résumé writing firms on the internet, Distinctive
Career Services, LLC (dba Distinctive Documents). Since 1996,
Michelle has empowered thousands of professionals with résumés that
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