Anyone here done it?

A recruiter found me on LinkedIn and said he was looking for Army officers in the area for a couple of companies looking to fill positions.

He was up front and said that he was paid by the employer if he filled a slot for them. I guess that means it's in his financial interest to get me hired?

Any feedback working with recruiters?

I got multiple jobs through recruiters back in the lat 90s and early 2000s. Easiest thing in the world, and the new employer pays.

Go for it.

quote:

Originally posted by ArtieS:
I got multiple jobs through recruiters back in the lat 90s and early 2000s. Easiest thing in the world, and the new employer pays.

Go for it.

Art,

Sending you e-mail in a few.

I've worked with recruiters over many years, both as an applicant and position filler. In your case you will be paid less money (at the outset) than you would have had you found the job yourself. That's not necessarily a bad thing.

I filled out a packet with job history and references. Does the recruiter use that to filter what employers to refer me to? Does that also cut down on the hiring timeline since the employer would not have to do that?

Recruiters are great, usually. That how I got my current job — I was found.

They’re compensated by the employer to find good talent.

I'm a pharma rep and I've worked with tons of them.

In my experience, some are rock stars and some are complete and utter wastes of life who may set you up for a job that really isn't a good fit. There's more shitty recruiters than good ones.

If you get set up with a good recruiter, take full advantage of them by having them negotiate whatever the hell you want from a prospective employer....vacation days, working from home, pay, bonus, etc...

It's the normal way to go.

Just be clear with him on a couple of things and with any other recruiter you work with:

1) You work with him on a per company basis. This means before he submits your resume to a company, he clears it with you first. The reason for this is if you have applied separately or through another agency, the company often declines because they don't want to get in the middle of who gets paid the commission. Him letting you know first gives you the opportunity to tell him you have already applied.

2) Of course, the corollary is that if he tells you about a company, you shouldn't pursue it on your own or with another agency.

3) You don't have to tell him the other companies you are applying for or are interviewing with. But if you are out of the job market and he has been regularly in contact with you, then you owe him the courtesy of letting you know.

It's a numbers game for the majority of recruiters. They want to throw as many qualified names against the wall in the hopes one of them sticks and they get paid their commission.

A good recruiter will give you inside tips about the contacts and the companies. May give you advice about your resume or how to present yourself. You'll still need to do your own research and work to present yourself well to the company.

I have to add: wait until you get an offer before starting to express your desires as to vacation days, working from home, etc. I know you're not dumb but for the sake of anybody else reading this thread.

They can be useful, but in this case, remember he’s working for the hiring company. His job is to not only get someone who fills in all the requirements of his client, but he’s also tasked with getting that set of requirements filled at a price the client will find attractive. In short, he’s biased in favor of his client which may or may not work for you. I had one recruit me into a position at a lower rate than what I originally offered. I was sold “perks” that enticed me to allow a compromise rate, but those “perks” never materialized, even though the company was pleased with the work. When it came time to resign for a new period of time (this was contract work) there was no budge on neither salary nor benefit, in fact they would have liked for me to further reduce the rate. Just remember who the recruiter works for.

I too, got my current job through a recruiter, a woman with whom I'd gotten a previous job, ten years earlier. She maintains radio silence for quite a while, but if and when something crosses her desk that she thinks I might be interested in, she touches base.

"Are you happy? Are you looking? Would you be interested in an opportunity?" Questions like that.

I've followed up on some over the past six years, but none has really interested me or played out. Still, it's always nice to have someone go to bat for you. You can never tell when it will pay off.

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:
Anyone here done it?

A recruiter found me on LinkedIn and said he was looking for Army officers in the area for a couple of companies looking to fill positions.

He was up front and said that he was paid by the employer if he filled a slot for them. I guess that means it's in his financial interest to get me hired?

Any feedback working with recruiters?

IBM was looking for highly qualified candidates lo these many years ago. We interviewed a BUNCH of applicants but found nobody who would meet the requirements. Then we hired a"headhunter" agency who looked at our requirements and sent us about a dozen recently, or about to be, discharged. We hired a bunch of them into professional positions, and every one excelled!!!!

Did it in high tech. It worked out well for me, but as mentioned there is a wide variation in the quality of head hunters (what they were called then). They may get you in at a lower rate, they may not. They also may get you in. The company is paying them to provide people and as a result may give more credence to a CV coming through them than over the Internet or via snail mail.

It is a bit like the old saw about consultants - The company ignores or pooh poohs suggestions from its employees, then hires a consultant to solve their problems. The consultant goes around and talks to the employees, gets their suggestions, packages them up, presents them to the company and charges the company a lot of money for “his” or “her” recommendations (which are really just the employees’ recommendations repackaged). Having paid a lot of money for these recommendations, the company takes them more seriously than the recommendations of their own employees.

Replace the term “head hunter” or “recruiter” with “hiring consultant“ and it starts to look like a really good analogy.

that's the process that got me in my industry 20+ years ago when I left the Army.

worked for me. they can 'pitch' JMOs to corporate America pretty easily. also the companies are able to say to the gov 'we hire veterans'...

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Well, some of the information you got was good, some of it was absurd. I know, I was a recruiter and owned the company for over 30 years. Rey HRH gave you good advice, the people telling you that the recruiter would cost you some salary $'s, could not have been more wrong. Companies have salary structures that they will adhere to whether they get the new employee with or without a recruiter. They know that employees talk and often salaries get known. Any employee that is being hosed by the employer regarding his salary is going to leave, and the company doesn't want that for sure. Also, a good recruiter wouldn't work with a company that is paying games with salaries like that. Most companies are used to using recruiters and they are not dismayed by the fee, they just want a darned good employee and don't want to wait forever. I also did not like hearing that a recruiter was trying to recruit someone they placed for a job elsewhere. That's dishonest and does not speak well about their ethics unless the company did something to justify that action. When in doubt, ask the recruiter for references, but understand that a good recruiter can be an important friend.

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:
I filled out a packet with job history and references. Does the recruiter use that to filter what employers to refer me to? Does that also cut down on the hiring timeline since the employer would not have to do that?

You have it a little backwards. The recruiter has a list of jobs open and from his candidate files, he filters for candidates that fit the jobs he has open.

When he doesn't have good candidates that match his open jobs, he goes looking for candidates that he can add to his candidate pool. As he finds excellent candidates for which he may not have an open job but expect to have in the future, he'll contact them anyway.

Either way, it's good for you. Ask him for specifics of the company and hiring manager so you can start your research. This will also let you know if he does have a specific job in mind. This will also let you know if you're interested.

It's not going to shorten the hiring process. A company can post their job description on Indeed.com or any other job board. They can either be passive and wait for applicants. Or they can have an in-house HR to actively look at LinkedIn profiles or the job board resumes. Or they can contract with a recruiter to look for them. Or they can also be open to free lance recruiters to submit candidate resumes for them. All these activities is just to get sufficiently qualified candidates for the vetting and selection process. The process is going to take the same amount of time with any random candidate that they start with.

Filling out the packet, I'm ambivalent about. It may be because you're still in the military and you don't have a linked=in profile. But as you develop a civilian career and have a resume and a linked-in profile, I expect recruiters to know a little bit more about you instead of having you fill out a job history form. That sounds more like he wants to put it in a database.

I'm not trying to be racist, but if the recruiter has a heavy foreign accent, that's a tell that you're dealing with a spray and pray recruiter company. You're not going to get too much support from them.

Beyond the facts of your career, a good recruiter will spend time getting to know you initially to get a feel for you over the phone for at least 15 to 30 minutes.

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:
I'm not trying to be racist, but if the recruiter has a heavy foreign accent, that's a tell that you're dealing with a spray and pray recruiter company. You're not going to get too much support from them.

Ha. I had one call me once, had a totally vanilla, white bread-sounding name like Bill Jones, but with a heavy Indian accent. His LinkedIn profile has that bogus name too. I was sitting in a meeting when his first email arrived and I saw it on my Blackberry. During a break two co-workers who were also in the meeting told me he had contacted them at the same time. He was basically working for a competitor and they just wanted him to get a feel for the mood in the sales org. at my company. If all of us were willing to talk with him and jump ship, that would mean the mood or outlook was bad, and vice versa.