April 15, 2019: Question Series #14
Written By: Marc Moskowitz
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You can’t live with them and you can’t live without them. I’ve heard that often when it comes to working with recruiters, both as a job searcher and as a hiring manager. I’m here to tell you that you can and should live with them, especially the great ones. They can make a big difference in your career and in your abilities to find the best people for your team.
I want to tell you a couple of quick, personal stories about my experiences with recruiters and then give you some valuable tips to working with them, in order to get the most value from the relationship. Like anything else, you will get out of it what you put in.
The first story is one about how I received a high-level job offer, with the assistance of a recruiter that I didn’t even have an established relationship with yet. Amazing huh? I had gone through interviews and was submitted to a company via Recruiter A. Things stalled out a bit and we never got a call back from the company. Parallel to this process, I had applied for another job via Recruiter B’s website. I had a phone call about that other role, but it turned out it wasn’t what I was expecting. Recruiter B had suggested I look at another job she had, which turned out to be the same job Recruiter A had submitted me for. A small world indeed!
I had mentioned that I was already submitted for that same job and figured that was the end of that thread. However, Recruiter B, after liking what she had heard from me, made a selfless move, knowing she wasn’t going to get paid on this placement, and picked up the phone to the hiring manager. Within a few hours, I was talking directly to the hiring manager from my car and within a week I had a job offer. Truly amazing. I stayed at this job for eight years and accomplished a ton. To this day, I still have great relationships with both recruiters and we have become mutual champions of one another. Without hesitation, I would support either of them with their businesses.
The second story is about finding talent that would fit into my team and work with my style extremely well. Great recruiters who have developed personal relationships with you will have the advantage of knowing your personal style and the style of your team/company. I made a few calls to my trusted recruiting partners and within a few days, I took a chance on someone that didn’t fit exactly on paper, but whom the recruiter was 1000% percent confident would be a fit and a high-performer. Based on the trust that I had built, I took that chance and it worked out fabulously.
Those are my two short success stories and many of you may be skeptical and thinking that not all recruiter stories end happily ever after. You would be correct in that thinking. Not all end well, but the list below, and my overall point in telling you about a small fraction of my success, is that you too can take steps to increase your winning percentage. No one has a perfect record, but you can win the majority of the time.
Here are my tips for having successful relationships with recruiters and getting the most value out of them:
- Remember that relationships are two way streets: You have to give at least some portion of what you get. The more even it is, the better the relationship will be.
- Spend time developing deep relationships with three recruiters, preferably at different firms: It’s OK to have more than three recruiting friends, but it gets hard to really have a good understanding in both directions. Focus on your favorite three and you’ll be rewarded.
- Remember that it’s acceptable to say no to a recruiter’s candidate when hiring from them: It might seem contradictory to what I’ve said elsewhere in this article, but the goal is to find the best people to make you successful. If a candidate isn’t that, just say no. If you have a good relationship with the recruiter, it won’t be a problem. In fact, it’ll make both of you better at your jobs.
- Support your trusted recruiters via referrals to other hiring managers and companies, by showing up at business functions/happy hours, and by assisting them when asked: Seems simple, but you’d be surprised at how few people really show this kind of support. I promise you, it’ll come back to you tenfold.
- Keep your trusted recruiters up-to-date on your career and what your long-term goals are: Recruiters get around (in a good way), and if they know you’re not happy at your current job (or what your long-term career goals are), you’d be surprised how often you might get an opportunity that isn’t posted publicly or elsewhere. Companies are always looking for top-notch people, so if your recruiter knows you are a top player in your space, they often times will go out of their way to make an introduction.
What do you think? What are your top tips for working with recruiters?
Thanks for reading!
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