Why Recruiters Are Not Your Friend

First, understand that I've owned and operated a successful recruiting business for ten years, so my perspective is one that comes from being on that side of the equation.

It's not that recruiters are hostile to you, as a jobseeker...it's just that you are not where they make their money. Most people have a misunderstanding regarding what recruiters do. I know I did before I started my business. The common perception is that recruiters are always on the hunt for candidates and resumes from anywhere they can find them. There is a small element of truth to that idea but it's a very, very small one.

Recruiters work for client companies who pay their fees, period. They spend their time trying to get search assignments from these companies, and when they get such an assignment they begin searching for the candidate that best fits the profile given to them by their client company.

In the boom years of 2004 - 2008, I averaged receiving at least 40 to 50 unsolicited resumes per week, and quite often after I would get the resume via e-mail I'd get a phone call from the candidate who wanted to verify that I received it. They were assuming that once I received it, my immediate reaction would be to get busy trying to find them a perfect matching job. That type of thinking is the job search equivalent of a needle in a haystack.

Unless your skill set and experience are related to the search(es) that the recruiter is working on at the time, you're not going to get any interest or response from the recruiter. Why?? Because you're not paying them anything!

So, if this is how recruiters work, and you're in the market for a new job and don't know how to find one, what can you do to elicit any help from recruiters?

First, understand that most recruiters work in very narrow fields. Show me a recruiter who tries to be everything for everybody, and I'll show you a very skinny recruiter. Most of them recruit in a field that they worked in before starting their recruiting work. They have contacts, they speak the vocabulary of the industry, and they know the industry culture...all of which are very helpful to them in recruiting for that industry. If you want to send your resume to a recruiter, ask a recruiter you know (or get a referral from someone), call the recruiter, and explain what you want to do, then ask him/her if they know any recruiters who focus on the field where you want to work.

Most successful recruiters have networks of other recruiters that they work with or refer jobs to when it's outside of their particular field. If the recruiter you contact doesn't work in the field where you want a job, it's likely that they will know someone who does recruit in that field. I had a network of 4 or 5 recruiters whose chosen fields overlapped mine to some extent. When I had a search assignment that was a particular challenge, I'd sometimes call one of the others in my network whose expertise overlapped mine, and we would collaborate to fill the assignment and split the fee. When I'd get a search assignment from one of my clients who needed someone outside of the fields where I worked, I'd refer the business to one of the recruiters who worked in that field. When the other recruiter found the right candidate, I'd send them in for an interview. If the candidate got hired, we would split the fee.

The short version of this advice is that if you want to get recruiters involved in helping you, focus on those who work in and know about the industry that you want to join. They may not have anything at that moment that fits you and your skills/experience, but there is at least a lot better chance that they'll hang on to your resume and be able to find it if a good fit does come along. You're wasting your time and theirs if you send your resume out en masse to every recruiter you can find.