Welcome back from the Holidays! Today we explore the sixth of my ten ways to make recruiters love you. I haven’t been around for a while due to holiday commitments, vacation, and general busyness with other things, but now with the new year started, I should be able to post more than I did the second half of December.
The series that I am writing was inspired by my friends over at ItzBigBlog who wrote on the Candidate Bill of Rights. I did a critique of their series in on of my own that focused on Candidate Rights. This series is designed to help job seekers understand how to interact with recruiters so that their relationship will be solid and fruitful. Today’s topic is "Follow Up"
Follow Up – Recruiters are entitled to consistent communications regarding the status of their candidate, regardless of the how busy the candidate might be or any change in the status of the candidate as regards his or her job search. Recruiters make their living by being available for phone calls, they are always available or have a system of notification such as pagers, forwarded telephones, or voice mail. There is no acceptable excuse for not calling your recruiter back, other than death – either yours or his.
I guarantee that the most often leveled complaint about recruiters is that they don’t follow up, they don’t return phone calls to jobseekers when the jobseeker is trying to find out if they have received their information, if the interview went well, if they are moving on to the next step,..etc….etc…etc. And that is completely and totally understandable. In today’s age of instant communications, there is no excuse for not getting back to a jobseeker when you have new information. It is easy to return a phone call or type a quick email response. When I am initially establishing a working relationship with a jobseeker, I let them know up front that I deal with so many candidates and clients that it is NOT a good use of my time to call and tell them I haven’t gotten any new information for them. I invite them to get in touch as often as they like, and promise to return their calls, but calling with nothing new helps neither one of us. Since as recruiters we don’t control the hiring process of our third party client companies (oh how I wish that we could) we also can’t control their timelines and feedback loops. The best that we can do is to establish the communications rules with the jobseeker and get information to him or her as soon as we have it. Some recruiters don’t follow up because they don’t like to say "NO" but, that shouldn’t be a problem for a really great recruiter – honest communications are the cornerstone of building a strong, long lasting relationship.
Follow up on the part of the jobseeker, now that is an entirely different story. There is no excuse for not returning the phone calls, emails, or other communications attempts that are made by your recruiter (except for the aforementioned fatalities.) This is especially true if you have progress from the presentation stage [where the recruiter has merely presented your professional credentials to a company] to the interviewing stage, where you are interfacing with actual personnel from the recruiter’s client company. I have touched on the fact that sometimes jobseekers, even great ones, stop returning calls and what a vexing problem it creates for recruiters. Sure we are all big boys and we can move on with our lives, find a new candidate, get the position filled, but it does set back our reputation a bit with clients when the superstar we were representing a few days ago suddenly won’t return our phone calls so that we may present an offer from our client. If you think that not returning calls for any reason is acceptable, think again. Recruiters have long memories, and their software can help remind them of jobseekers who don’t cooperate or who just plain screwed them over. If you think that it won’t matter you are wrong. Plus, recruiters talk, your bad actions can get around very quickly, especially in a small community like the restaurant industry.
Follow up is one of the keys to keeping relationships strong. Believe me it is vitally important that you follow up with your recruiter. It will keep both of you happy working with one another throughout your career.
Next week we will tackle "preparation" as it involves your relationship with the recruiter. Stay tuned.
Series – 10 Ways to Make Recruiters Love You
1) Confidentiality – Recruiters are entitled to have confidentiality and security of the information shared with prospective jobseekers regarding the companies with whom the recruiter is working and the positions which he is trying to fill. Any sharing of information with colleagues or co-workers should only be done with express prior permission of the recruiter. (read the entire post here)
2) Credibility – Jobseekers that apply for positions or express interest in a position during recruitment will do so and substantiate that he or she is willing to accept a new position based upon the criteria that is outlined to the recruiter. This means that a jobseeker is ready, willing, and able to commit to a job change for an acceptable offer. (read the entire post here)
3) Accuracy – The resume and all other documents presented to the recruiter accurately depicts the experience, work history, and accomplishments of the jobseeker. All items will be a true representations of fact. (read the entire post here)
4) Consideration – Decisions to accept or reject offers will be made on the basis of facts and parameters discussed with the recruiter prior to the jobseeker receiving an offer. There will be no eleventh hour “gotta haves†that are sprung on the recruiter. (read the entire post here)
5) Consistency – Decisions to accept or reject offers will be made on the basis of facts and parameters discussed with the recruiter prior to the jobseeker receiving an offer. There will be no eleventh hour “gotta haves†that are sprung on the recruiter. (read the entire post here)
6) Follow-Up – (today’s post)
7) Preparation
8) Respect
9) Communication
10) Information
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