A Recruiters Perspective

A Recruiters Perspective Are you working with a recruiter? I use that phrase cautiously because it is not the role of a recruiter to find you a job. They work for the employer. However, there are companies today who prefer to work with recruiters. It saves them time and money in many cases. Recruiters are the first to see trends and know the lay of the land better than most. Do you wantthe real perspective of a recruiter? Hereare some insights froma Senior level IT/Telecom consultant with a combined 30 years staffing experience in the Contingency, Retained and Consulting space. The Job Market Companies are doing a good amount of window shopping. By that I mean positions listed on their web sites are not actual openings but anticipated needs that they are projecting for and are doing nothing more than accumulating resumes. Geographic Preference Opportunities fitting a specific skill set could be anywhere and limiting your geographic options will only make your search that much more difficult. Source of Candidates Finally, I have found one of the best sources of talented candidates to be on LinkedIn. I use this extensively both through first degree connections and posting of opportunities via specific groups which I have joined that specialize in a specific discipline. With profiles and recommendations it is an excellent resource that I have been extremely successful utilizing during these difficult times. Are you looking for a better understanding of what a recruiter actually does? And whats the difference between a recruiter and a headhunter you may ask. The answers to these questions are nicely defined in a post by Sara Welstead. Sara says the difference between a recruiter and a headhunter is The short answer is: Nothing. The only reason anyone gets confused is that recruiters never use the word headhunter to describe themselves, and among recruitment professionals its considered a slightly derogatory term. (Its sort of how real estate people always call themselves real estate salesperson or realtor, but the rest of the world calls them real estate agents.) However, while all headhunters are recruiters, not all recruiters are headhunters. Headhunter is a term used to refer to agency recruiters, who typically work on commission or retained search on behalf of a client, and are the ones most likely to call you up at your current job to headhunt you for another position. Now that you understand the difference, or lack thereof, you should know how to engage recruiters. This post by Jeff Hunter on glassdoor.comlooks at how the business of recruiting has become more specialized and therefore, you as a job seeker, need to make it easy for specialists to find you, ie LinkedIn.