Tutorial on Recruiters: What Do We Do & How to Reach Out to us

Why work with recruiters in this market? We are the gatekeeper for jobs and can guide the way if we think you are a good fit, so you need to know how to get our attention and work with us. I appreciated this Harvard Business Review article on recruiters. The key points below:

1. What is our job. We understand the role an employer wants to fill and then find/screen candidates for it. The article says recruiters often have not done the job they are recruiting for, but luckily for you I have! (I was an associate in big law and counsel at tech companies, and have done litigation, corporate/securities, and tech trans, so I do grasp what the hiring manager wants.) The article correctly summarizes our work as “part salesperson, part cheerleader, part coach, part therapist, and part strategist to both candidates and hiring managers,” and we do that for say 10 openings at a time with 5 candidates for each. “Yes: Most recruiters are managing more than 50 candidates at a time, some of whom may be passive candidates who need convincing to consider new opportunities. If recruiters responded to every random inquiry, they wouldn’t have time to fill jobs. That’s why it’s so critical to reach out to them with a targeted approach.”
2. Types of recruiters. Internal recruiters are employees of the company they recruit for and often cover a specific area (e.g., legal or finance but not product or engineering). External recruiters are hired by companies to find them candidates in a specific area and can be paid upon successful placement. Executive recruiters can be internal or external and hire VP/senior manager/confidential roles. I’m an external recruiter and executive recruiter.
3. How to approach a recruiter. The article correctly says our job as recruiters “isn’t to help you; your job is to help [us] do [our] job and fill roles.” Before talking to a recruiter, update your LinkedIn profile and resume, and be ready to interview. (I agree. If you come to me saying you want a job in six months, it’s too early because companies don’t want to wait that long for current openings.) Find the right recruiter, someone who recruits for the industry and function you are interested in. Tell the recruiter what job you’re interested in, how your skills/experience line up to the job, and what value you bring, all in a couple paragraphs or less. Bonus tip not mentioned in the article: come recommended by someone I know or point out how you have worked at top places. That will definitely get my attention!