Two Things You Do Bug Recruiters

You are confused because they are supposedly here to help you, but they seem to be part of a black hole in your resume. They don’t share much information and rarely get back to you.

This was my experience. I did not understand the role of the recruiter / candidate (you, the job seeker, are the “candidate”). I thought they were there to help me find a job or to find it for me. In fact, it does not work that way at all.

If you are frustrated with recruiters, you must read this post: How come the recruiter never calls me back? ATTENTION: SPOILER ALERT – THAT’S YOU!. Dan Levine shares two frustrations that HR professionals have when they contact you.

The first is when you immediately ask “who is the client?” Sometimes they can’t tell you, but that’s the main thing you want to talk about. Dan shares a great idea of how you should do it instead of being a stumbling block (read it here).

The second is when you ask about the compensation package. I know why we are doing this. If a recruiter calls me and wants to offer me a job for x $ and I need to earn $y or $z, there’s no point in talking much about that job, right? Correct!

Dan suggests that we (job seekers) take a different approach (read it here). I agree with him. I would like recruiters to be more open about remuneration, but whether they are or not, we need to start looking at recruiters as really good networking contacts, not just as a tool.

“Really good networking contact” is a long-term relationship that does not depend on one job for which they called us. As Dan says, maybe give them a recommendation instead of brushing them off. You do this often enough and you should have a recruiter who thinks you’re pretty cool and could do something extra for you.