#JobSearch #RecruiterInsights #JobMarketTips
Hey everyone! 🌟 So, I found myself jobless for three months after being made redundant back in June. With everything happening in the job market—especially the impact of rising interest rates—I’ve learned a thing or two about working with recruiters. Thankfully, I’ve landed a new role, but here are some key takeaways that might help you if you’re in a similar boat:
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Recruiters Aren’t Your Best Buddies 🤔
It’s crucial to remember that recruiters mainly look out for the employer’s interests. They want to place you in a role, often at the lowest possible salary. It’s all about the sale for them. -
Keep Your Salary a Secret 💸
Sharing your current or previous salary can backfire. Many recruiters will pass that info to potential employers, making it tough to negotiate. Instead, share your desired salary range! -
Be Clear About Your Job Preferences 🗺️
When chatting with a recruiter, make sure to communicate precisely what you’re looking for—include specifics like remote work options or preferred locations. This helps to avoid wasting time on unsuitable roles. -
Don’t Share Your Interview Details 🚫
If you’re in the interview process with a company, keep that under wraps. I learned the hard way when a recruiter disclosed info that caused some awkwardness with the company. It didn’t help my chances! -
Clarify the Role You’re After 📋
Sometimes, a job listing might sound perfect, but the reality can be very different. Make sure you’re crystal clear about the position to avoid any surprises down the line. -
Don’t Let Them Pressure You 💪
It’s easy to feel pressured when you’re unemployed. I had a recruiter try to scare me into accepting a low salary offer. If you have your savings, stick to your guns! - Consider Skipping Recruiters 😬
I was getting a bit desperate for a job, which made me rely on recruiters more than I wanted to. However, my experience suggests it might be better to pursue opportunities directly.
TL;DR: Many recruiters, unfortunately, don’t have your best interests at heart.
I’d love to hear from you! What have your experiences been with recruiters? Do you have any tips to share that might help others navigating the job market? Let’s chat! 🗣️💬
Yeah they are just a nuance of creating another bloody process in trying to find a job, and make no mistake that don’t give a rats ass about you other than to make commission off you. Absolutely useless profession like a car sales men but you are dealing with people’s lives
About 3 and 6, a lot of people probably will go through a lot of stress if they were unemployed for 3 months so they’re gonna be a lot tougher.
A good recruiter however, is worth their weight in gold and the experience is much more different if you aren’t unemployed. That being because you have a fall back option so you can make demands on exactly what you want and they can’t tell you that if you don’t take this role there isn’t much to pick from. You can also just disclose what salary you are on if you want and say I’m not willing to budge without an x% payrise.
From there I can just focus on my current role while they do the hardyards for me, and if there really isn’t anything out there; at least I wasn’t the one that put in the leg work to find that out.
Having been on the side of trying to get staff from recruiters, I found them in most instances to be mostly useless. We’d get lists of people that included people that did not meet the bare minimum required and would never be considered. It often felt like recruiters did not read our requirements and just gave us a random list of people.
Recruiters oh boy avoid when and if you can. I learned my lesson 20 years ago
It’s been a while, but I found the opposite of #1, as our recruitment agency would earn a commission based upon a percentage of the salary.
>These people are not your friends. They are friends with the employer and are trying to sell you to them for as cheap as possible.
Had the impression that recruiters earn based on the salary of the hired personnel. So your interests align on that part. that’s why they would rather spend their time on high ranking positions. at least for my industry.
I guess it’ll be different per industry and position.
The REA’S of the job market. Dogs, the lot of ’em.
Silly question, are you referring to internal or external recruiters to the company ?
I think at the end of the day it comes down to the person you’re dealing with. My current role was landed via a recruitment agency (i applied to the role they were advertising) and they did nothing more than advocate on my behalf and try to make sure I understood the requirements.
The only thing I stood firm against them with was not rushing an executive level aptitude test because I hadn’t done an aptitude test in 10 years. They advocated for more pay in the final negotiation on my behalf as well.
The person makes all the difference
I had only one positive experience with a recruiter and the rest were trash – not even following up to tell me the company wasn’t interested.
I’m highly employable – found a new gig, 33% increased pay in six weeks of searching. You don’t call me back? You get blacklisted, I tell everyone in my field to avoid working with you at all cost.
You call me back? I reach out to you first when I’m in the market again.
And yes, I have a list.
Oddly I didn’t even get an interview through a recruiter though. Everything was either head hunting or just me applying myself.
That’s very generalised way of thinking of recruiters. I’m a recruiter, and there are absolute dogs in the industry for sure. But if you hired an electrician and he did a bad job would you say all electricians are terrible and pointless? No. But generally it’s just being honest about what you want, the good recruiters don’t disclose what you got paid at your job, the good recruiters want a happy candidate and happy client. It’s about that middle ground.
Would say good recruiter to bad recruiter ratio isn’t great though, that’s for sure.
Not sure I agree with 2 – I told my recruiter I was on $X + $20k and they turned around and said an even higher number that’s how I got a 50%+ pay rise changing jobs lol.
Also don’t agree with 7, as I got further into my career the recruiters I talk to tend to be better as they somewhat know their stuff rather than the generic crap ones from Hays etc & they often have these niche interesting roles which you’d never find yourself.
From experience, the only way not to be disappointed is to have zero expectations from agents.
> These people are not your friends.
It so weird that people think others in a professional setting are your friend.
I just straight up avoided them. I applied my own.
Lol, why would you do number 4? That was obviously not right
I assume you’re referring to agency recruiters.
For starters, #1 is just plain wrong. No one is friends with anyone in business, but if you don’t understand that the client pays their salary, not you, then I don’t know what to tell you. However, under no circumstances are they ‘trying to sell you for as cheap as possible’. It’s exactly the opposite. The higher your salary the more money they make.
To be honest you sound bitter and difficult and the type of candidate a recruiter would struggle to place, but they’re the problem, right?
Sorry to hear about your situation. Me and my partner have the opposite experience. Energy and healthcare industry respectively.
I’ve had 8 jobs and 4 jobs were via recruiters and the wage were at least market competitive and better than other offers I had at the time.
I had a recruiter try get me to interview with them and then interview with the actual company looking to fill the role.
Why?
Having dealt with them from the other side recently I disagree with point 1. The recruiters I’ve spoken to get a percentage of salary, and we’ve told them what the band for the role is. They’re trying to find someone at the top end of that, or even that we’d push the band higher for. That could make it feel like they’re trying to sell you cheaply, when really they’re trying to make the employer pay more.
Regardless of what you tell them about the role from either side they’ll also pitch a bunch of people that both aren’t suited for the it, or maybe are but would never take it, I think mostly to pad out their numbers.
But yeah, never tell them anything that doesn’t directly concern them.
1. I do a lot of hiring, they’re not our friends either
Can you explain number 4? I dont quite understand what happened.
So far I’ve only had positive experiences with recruiters (been through 3-4) as they earned a % commission depending on my package –
higher package = higher commission
It was always a win/win thus we’d always try to stretch as far as we could to get me hired at the highest rate
Honestly my experience with recruiters have been pleasant. One job I got, the recruiter gave me all the insights on the company, culture, my boss, questions they’ll ask and salary expectations. I got the job with top salary band.
I get the occasional reach out from recruiters about jobs they have and if salary, job, wfh, company/industry doesn’t align with mine then I’ll politely say no thanks to the opportunity but let’s keep in touch. They understand my position and I understand theirs. It isn’t personal, just business.
Also recruiters get a commission based on the salary you get employed for. So it’s an incentive for them to get you the maximum amount
Had a recruiter try and be almost like a friend I was naive at the time when the job didn’t go through never heard from him again.
I hate 99% of them
more proof AI won’t take jobs. we have job search boards even a toddler could use and companies still employ recruiters for some reason. just like how we have sign posts but still employ people to hold signs.
Recruiters are like real estate agents, scum!
Can you fix your English man, had a stroke reading this. 4. Makes no sense whatsoever.
I know there are some bad recruiters and some good recruiters, but I have never gotten a job through one and probably never will.
One of the ways they claim they add value to candidates is that they are able to “introduce you to opportunities you may not know about yet”. Most of the time this means companies that people haven’t really heard of.
To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with working at those companies if you need a job, but for me if there’s a company I would consider working for then there’s a good chance I already know about them. In that case I could either just apply directly, or find a way to get a referral. I think if you are the type of person that finds this useful, you either don’t know your industry well enough, or your industry is massive.
Apart from that, a recruiter doesn’t really add much value to me, and their constant meddling in the interview process (“checking in” with you constantly, and “coaching” you on the interview, etc.) is just bothersome and annoying.
So yeah, every time I get a moment of weakness and decide to speak to a recruiter it’s been more miss than hit.
Genuine question – how does #5 even happen? Like did you just rock up to an interview without knowing what the role was? Why didn’t you get a JPS or similar for the role?