A Job Seeker Rethinks Executive Recruiters

A Job Seeker Rethinks Executive Recruiters Executive Recruiters in a Whole New Light There was a reporter for the local paper who covered the local professional football team and the National Football League. He made a great statement once about mediocrity. He said, “Many years ago, there were 12 National Football League teams and 12 good quarterbacks. Now there are 32 teams and 12 good quarterbacks.” Wow. What a comment on mediocrity.As a job seeker, and I’m sure I speak for almost all job seekers, we tend to downplay recruiters and HR professionals  in our job searching lives. We all have had the situation where an executive recruiter never returned our call even after they recruited us for a job opening. It’s so disappointing. To us, they’ve been mediocre performers. It’s partially a sign of the times. It seems like nobody returns calls these days. We also have to realize that the executive recruiter works for their clients and not for us. It seems that there so many recruiters and so few good ones. Executive Recruiters in a Whole New Light Quite some time ago, an executive recruiter was helping me to change my resume for a job he had. He gave me a statement which, to this day, is one of my major branding statements and a substantial part of my 30 second speech! I have had quite a few recruiters contact me and remain interested despite my never quite fitting their opportunities (at least yet). It really is incredible to see their level of interest when so many others won’t even take our calls or respond to our e-mails. .ai-rotate {position: relative;} .ai-rotate-hidden {visibility: hidden;} .ai-rotate-hidden-2 {position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;} .ai-list-data, .ai-ip-data, .ai-fallback, .ai-list-block {visibility: hidden; position: absolute; width: 50%; height: 1px; z-index: -9999;} I had an executive recruiter, after hearing about a company that interviewed me rejecting me, go back and make an offer to the company to try to get me hired as a temp with an option to hire so they could see how good I was. That’s innovative thinking! Advice for Job Seekers So my advice for job seekers is to network with recruiters. Follow up with them. Keep yourself in their minds as they receive new positions. Make it so they are always thinking of you. I try to let those executive recruiters who have been good to me know every week or two that I am still available for work and am looking. They really appreciate it and it keeps me fresh in their minds. For me, there has been such a payoff because I have had recruiters remember me and call with opportunities that otherwise may have not been sent to me. So recruiters can be a great friend to someone looking for a job. No, there aren’t great recruiters on every agency or company team, but if you look some are out there. Find them, stay in touch, treat them well, and good things will happen. .ai-rotate {position: relative;} .ai-rotate-hidden {visibility: hidden;} .ai-rotate-hidden-2 {position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;} .ai-list-data, .ai-ip-data, .ai-fallback, .ai-list-block {visibility: hidden; position: absolute; width: 50%; height: 1px; z-index: -9999;} Henry Motyka is a guest blogger for Blogging4Jobs.  His work experience is very eclectic covering fundraising, finance, consulting.  Plus, hes an MBA.  Connect with Henry on Twitter @henrymotyka or on LinkedIn.