Using Recruiters

A good recruiter can help you quickly.  Your to-do’s:

  1. Have a concise resume that highlights things you did professionally
    • that made money for your employer
    • reduced cost for your employer
    • significantly saved time for your employer (labor hours)
  2. Work with only ONE recruiter, and tell him that you are only working with him
  3. Do NOT submit your resume to any job boards, web sites, companies, etc.  The only person other than yourself who should have a copy of your resume is your recruiter, if you choose to work with a recruiter.
  4. Return your recruiters phone calls immediately.  She called you for a reason.  It pertains to your financial well-being.  Call her back ASAP.
  5. Tell the truth in everything.  If you lie, you will be found out and dumped immediately.  Full disclosure is the basis upon which trust is built.
  6. Be realistic about the money.  If you want to get a 20 percent raise, go try and do that yourself.  You can realistically expect to see maybe 8-10 percent if you are damn good at your job, and if you are currently employed doing what the new employer might want you to do for them.
  7. Stick to the market you are in.  Do not ask your recruiter to get you a job as a neurosurgeon when you are currently a subsea engineer.

If you follow these simple, respectful, rational rules of the road, a good recruiter can probably help you reasonably fast.

How do you find a good one?  Good question.  The best way to do it is to contact your local Recruiters Association.  Ask them who won most of the 2009 awards for recruiting, get the name of the firm that won the most, then find out who in that firm won more than anyone else.

Call the firm and ask the receptionist who usually bills the most each month in the market in which you work, and talk to that recruiter.  It goes like this: “Betty, I am Jerry Davis, and I am an industrial widget engineer.  Who is the person who recruits industrial widget engineers who billed the most last year?”

Betty will help you.  She might say they all did well, and maybe so, but get one or two names from her and then ask to be transferred to one of those two people.