Career Burn Notice: Circumventing A Recruiter

Heh, heh, heh... FIRE! FIRE! (iStockphoto.com/Freer Law)

How would you like to kill your reputation with every staffing firm in town – in one easy step?

The scenario. You get an unexpected call from a headhunter at a staffing firm. He's pitching a job opportunity in town with a hot technology company that's engaged him to find somebody for the position, and if you're interested, he'd like to present your resume to them. Based upon the conversation, it sounds like the job is a great match for you, and would be an interesting step forward for your career. Once you've made it abundantly clear to the recruiter that you're interested in the job, he tells you the name of the company.

"Sure sounds interesting," you say to the recruiter. "Let me think about it and get back to you."

Then, in a moment of supposed clarity you decide that you've got a better chance of representing yourself to the employer, than you do if you have the staffing firm representing you. So, you go online to the company's website, ascertain which position the recruiter was selling you, and apply. Then you go on LinkedIn and send a note to the company's human resources department.

You've cut the staffing firm out of the equation. Pretty clever, right?

Wrong. You've just earned yourself a burn notice within the staffing world.

In case you're not familiar with the term "burn notice," it's a reference to a television show in which a CIA agent is disavowed and disowned by the agency. In essence, he's been labelled unreliable, and nobody wants anything to do with him.

Here's how this applies to you. Recruiters at staffing firms earn their paycheck by placing job seekers at companies. They get paid a fee - typically in the neighborhood of 25% of the first year's salary - to find a qualified candidate and get them hired. By cutting the staffing firm who presented you the job out of the loop, you've demonstrated that you're a liability. So let's say the job paid $100,000 annually; the staffing firm was due to get a cool $25k out the deal by placing you.

You cost the recruiter 25 big ones. At minimum, you've muddied the waters in terms of how you were made aware of the job and how your resume made it into the employer's hands. At most, you've shown both the staffing agency recruiter and the employer you can't be trusted – they'll talk about your application at length, and it's pretty likely that no matter how qualified you are for the job, both parties will decide that you're a bad player and not worth pursuing. It's the end of the road for your candidacy in this particular job.

And you'll have earned a flag on your application at both the staffing firm and the employer, telling anybody who's considering you for a job to avoid you like the plague.

Think it stops there? Think again. Recruiters can change firms, and trust me - when your name comes up in conversation as a potential candidate, they'll remember how you cost them their payday. You'll be persona non grata with their new firm, too.

I'm not saying that there aren't exceptions to this situation. There are always exceptions; but you are taking a substantial risk to your reputation by circumventing the recruiter. However, if you've already applied for the job with the company, that's another story. Let the recruiter know.

Bottom Line: You may have an "in" at the potential company, or simply feel that your chances are better if you apply on your own. Fight the urge to act outside the process. The recruiter is simply doing his or her job, and by identifying you for the role they've staked their claim on you for the position. Going around them at that point will be perceived as high treason, and may hurt your cause in the short and the long term than any gains you may realize.

• Want to boost your chances of getting noticed when applying for jobs online? Follow this link!
• What should you do if your employer finds out you're looking for a new job? Find out here.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

The Recruiter Only Rings Once...

You're plugging away at work, and your cell phone buzzes. You're busy as hell, and you decide to let the call roll over to voicemail.

You get a break about ten minutes later, and you check your phone. It's a recruiter from a staffing firm reaching out to you to talk about a job opportunity they're working on, and he said he'd like to talk with you about it because you might be a good fit for the position.

The fact of the matter is, you're tied up right now, you're perfectly content in your job, and the last thing you feel like doing is taking 15 minutes talking to some recruiter about a job when you're trying to keep above water.

Let's take a moment to talk about staffing firm recruiters and what they do; these men and women are hired by companies to find talent for open positions. They get paid by their client companies when they place somebody on the job. So, when they get an open position, they go through the effort of trying to find the job candidate most likely to fill that role, so that they can make a few bucks then move onto the next position. It's their job to keep a pulse on who's out there in the job market, and who might be a good fit for their openings.

Staffing firm recruiters might find about you in one of several different ways:

• LinkedIn. Staffing firms buy subscriptions to LinkedIn, they can see who has an applicable profile, whether the candidate is looking or not.
• Job Boards. Monster, Career Builder, etc... any place that an active job seeker might post their resume, a recruiter comb for candidates.
• Referrals. One of their clients or other candidates might drop your name as a qualified candidate. Somebody staked their reputation on your name.
• Cold Calling. This doesn't happen quite as much as it used to, but it still exists. A recruiter looking for a computer programmer, for example,  will call into a company asking for the IT department, and then strike up a conversation with whoever answers the phone.

The bottom line is, a recruiter will reach out to you to talk about a job opportunity, and how you react may impact whether you will be considered for this – or any other – job they work on.

Going back to the scenario detailed above, it's easy to get annoyed at recruitment calls, especially if you aren't expecting them. But try to think about the value in taking or returning the call.

• Recruiters are human, too. They have feelings and emotions, and if you treat them with dignity and respect, you're going to make a better impression and probably establish a positive working relationship - even if you aren't interested in a job change.
• Recruiters are doing their job. They need to generate candidates for their open jobs, so their call is all in a day's work. 
• Everyone the recruiter talks helps build their network. The old adage recruiters follow is that everybody you meet is a candidate, a client, or a referral. If you can be one of the three, you'll raise your value to the recruiter.
• Aloof candidates pay the price. Candidates who never return calls or act annoyed by recruiters usually get placed on a "do not call" list as unresponsive or difficult. Just try to remember, your job may be secure today, but your company may go through layoffs tomorrow and you could be on the chopping block. If you blow off a recruiter enough times, then you try calling them only when you need something, they'll probably be disinclined to want to work with you.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. He is a Human Resources professional and staffing expert with almost two decades of in-house corporate HR and staffing firm experience, and is a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) and Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC).

Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

Get the Job by Minimizing the Chaos

DSC_2215

Great news! Remember when you entered your résumé into Melvin Motor Company's (MelMoCo) database for that dream job? You were so excited! The position practically had your name on it!

The recruiter at MelMoCo agrees! She's calling you now - and you're so excited when you answer the phone!

You're with Fido at the dog park. And all around you dogs are barking. And peeing. And chasing other dogs around. And performing other unspeakable doggie acts.

Yeah, that background noise is going to be fun to explain.  Please feel free to reapply with MelMoCo sometime next decade, when the H.R. department has completely turned over.

As a recruiter, I called candidates to conduct initial interview screens for jobs. And, more often than not, I've learned that people with a cell phone will pick up a call just about anywhere. To wit:

• In the drive-through at McDonald's, while confirming their order with the register;
• While attending a meeting;
• Grocery shopping, with the kids loudly demanding Cap'n Crunch;
• In a car, driving, with the windows open;
• Boarding an airplane;
• At the hairdresser, under one of those big dryer thingys;
• Watching television;
• Playing on the Xbox; and my number one all-time favorite...
• In the bathroom (yes, really)

Side note: It drives me bananas if I'm in a public restroom and somebody comes in talking on their cell phone. It's damn rude. So, I will flush the toilet - repeatedly - to make sure that whoever is on the other end of that phone call knows where it's originating. I suppose this makes me a sociopath, but I can live with that. :)

Anyway... the most remarkable aspect is that the CANDIDATE USUALLY TOLD ME WHERE THEY WERE WHEN THEY ANSWERED. I didn't even have to guess.

Sometimes, calls are unexpected - people aren't even looking for a job, and they get a cold call, so they answer the phone call like any other. For those of you whom this description fits, I hope the call goes well.

For those individuals who are actively looking for a job, consider doing the following:

• When an unfamiliar number pops up on your phone, unless you are somewhere quiet, let it roll to voicemail. Listen to the message immediately. Then call back from a quiet room.
• If you absolutely need to answer the call (and are somewhere socially acceptable to do so), tell the caller you are currently occupied, and set a time to call them back from a quiet room.
• If you are at home, and want to answer the phone, make sure the dogs are put away, the kids are quiet, and the television is off.

Your resume is probably one of several the recruiter has chosen to call for a particular job. Don't make it so easy for her to move you to the "no" pile.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. He is a Human Resources professional and staffing expert with almost two decades of in-house corporate HR and staffing firm experience, and is a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) and Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC).

Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.