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Why use a recruiter to find your ideal job?

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by Aquent

on May 13

Aquent is the leading global staffing firm specialising in marketing, communications and creative talent. With 70 offices in 17 countries, our bloggers are better known for their incredible global network and their specialist recruitment knowledge. They are always available to chat, whether in person, by phone, email, via this blog or through their blog.

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Ruth is Team Leader of the marketing, communications and PR division in Aquent’s Sydney office. She is a seasoned recruiter with over 10 years experience in the industry. Ruth recently moved across the ditch from NZ with her family (one husband and two children) and has the combined experience of working with recruiters and being one.

As a marketing specialist looking for work, you may know exactly what you are looking for and just need the contacts to make it happen, or you want a change but are unsure about where to start.

You may be logging onto an online job board (Ed: hey, we have one of those!) and looking in the paper where there are so many new roles registered each day. The key is to find the ideal one – and that’s where the advantages of using a good recruiter come in.

A good recruiter is similar to using a sat nav system. Not only do they direct and refine your search process, they assist with strategies and provide feedback and guidance along the way.

So, what will a good recruiter do for you?

  • Provide you with information about the market, guidance around salary levels, about roles and companies you hadn’t thought about and inside information around a company’s team culture, values and opportunities.

  • Listen to what you are looking for – not just what a company wants you to do. You may have a long list or a shortlist of things you want to see in your next position – this could be anything from values and culture, to flexible working hours, the opportunity for growth and challenge, development and having access to a mentor through to exposure to specific industries or opportunities.
  • Be a matchmaker. The essence of a recruiter’s role is to match talent to organisations and roles. A good recruiter knows the industry, they know where the opportunities are and where they will be in the future. They will be able to tell you if you need to sit tight and gain experience in specific areas before moving on to the ultimate role or that the time is right to make that change. Your recruiter will do the legwork for you and will put you forward for the right opportunities.
  • Provide personal feedback. Guidance around your presentation, interview style and how you are selling yourself. After all it is all about you! It is in your recruiter’s best interest as well as your own best interest for you to be the very best you can be during the interview process.
  • Manage the process for you. This includes arranging meeting times that suit, getting key feedback and insights into the interview process and progress. Provide you with the opportunity to have honest conversations and to pose queries and voice concerns through out the process.
  • Bring it across the line! This is includes negotiation and coordination of the offer process. Which is sometimes a tricky minefield.

It’s all about the relationship – shop around to find a recruiter that ‘gets you’ and is a specialist in the market you are looking to get into. They will arm you with the tools, the roadmap and the guidance to get there.

If you’d like to know more on finding your ideal job, respond to this blog or post a question on our discussion forum How do I go about landing the ideal job? where we’ll be able to answer all your questions.

8 Comments

SueInTheCity
  • Wrote on 28 May, at 09:34AM
In theory I think recruitment agencies are fantastic. You find out about roles that aren't necessarily advertised to the wider community and you get some guidance along the way. Having said that, I worked with agencies for months trying to find the right role for me and got nothing but disappointment. Recruiters would try to talk me into sales (not marketing!) roles that I wasn't interested in, they wouldn't return phone calls or emails and would treat me like their best friend one minute and a complete stranger the next. In the end I approached the companies I was interested in directly and found the role for me within weeks. When I make my next career move I'll avoid recruitment agencies if I can.
Grahamk
  • Wrote on 28 May, at 07:03PM
In all my career I always applied through agencies and direct alike. However I always got jobs direct and always found agencies wasted a lot of time and put me forward for roles that weren't suitable.

Since I have been a manager and recruiting myself I have actually had such a bad experience with a small boutique recruitment company that I have decided to avoid them at all costs.

The recruiter I mention came to interview me about the kind of person I was seeking but proceeded to tell me what I needed and hardly let me get a word in. Said recruiter then advised me that as the market was quiet I would have to pay 20% more than I had budgeted for.
Then said recruiter sent me a few people who were completely unsuitable.

I had also advertised the role myself hoping to avoid commission fees.

Said recruiter then discovered this and abused me over the phone for about ten minutes. Amazing language was used!

I was dumbfounded at the unprofessional treatment from this recruiter. Im sure there are many that are not as unprofessional as this one but this is a good topic for debate.

Who has some positive stories?
Editor | Scotland
  • Wrote on 29 May, at 09:04PM
Wow Grahamk - amazed to hear about your treatment at the hands of this 'mystery' boutique recruiter (let the speculation begin in earnest ...). If you are boutique, you usually have to rely on excellent word of mouth recommendations fueled by exceptional customer service, but looks like this recruiter is way off.

BLATANT BIAS ALERT: ok, so I am the editor of the website and unabashed fan of MyMarketingJobs, our targeted job search service for marketers. That disclaimer aside, however, I just wanted to raise the issue of totally irrelevant results being returned. SueInTheCity, you mention being offered sales roles as opposed to marketing roles, and Grahamk, you also cite unsuitable candidates being suggested by your recruiter.

Now I use a certain high-profile, one-word online job search agency to keep track of movements within the industry, but I am astounded by how often totally irrelevant positions are returned for my search terms. Now I appreciate the intricacies of tagging and the problems associated with categorising content as much as the next insomniac web editor, but if this is your entire business model - that is, putting people in contact with jobs that match their keywords - then you'd hope that you were on top of it.

One of the cardinal sins of marketing is over-promising and under-delivering, so perhaps boutique recruiters like those who failed Grahamk need to stick to the basics and do them well.
jomac
  • Wrote on 31 May, at 10:04PM
My experience with recruitment agency's haven't been that positive (unfortunately). My opinion is that recruitment agency's are simply sales based businesses whose product is people - or people placement.
oscar
  • Wrote on 3 Jun, at 02:25PM
My wife used both methods - a recruiter and direct. The recruiter mentioned that she had been put forward to an ad agency but wasn't successful. 2 months later she was headhunted by that ad agency and when she enquired whether she had been put forward by the recruiter previously, the answer was no.....go figure!
Either the ad agency was trying to get out of paying a fee or the recruiter was crap, who will know, this is just an experience.

I'm sure there are good ones out there but like in all industry sectors, it's the bad ones that give the industry it's reputation.
Stephanie
  • Wrote on 4 Jun, at 11:38AM
I've worked with a number of recruiters both large scale and boutique and honestly had more luck through doing my own recruitment. I found the agency's were submitting candidates that didn't fit the brief or PD provided and also had the issue with the line of not enough $$$.

I would highly recommend using your own contacts to get the word out there, take recommendations from friends and family, consider candidates that have the right attitude and basic skills and look at training them up your way and fianlly, Marketing departments of universities offer a great pool of candidates at all levels!
Kate
  • Wrote on 19 Jun, at 10:06PM
As a job hunter if I see a advertisement for a position listed by a recruitment agency I tend to ignore it. I go for an organisation-fit rather than a position-fit model when I am searching so going through agencies is almost ineffective as I do not know who and what the organisation is when searching (although some agencies do list subtle hints...). I also think agencies have a hidden agenda and there's an imbalance of power with them stringing you along as they like. I also am a bit wary of privacy and would rather control who has exposure to my details.
neon23
  • Wrote on 23 Jul, at 06:21PM
Like GrahamK, my worst experience with a recruitment agency has been with a specialist boutique marketing recruitment agency that is featured prominently on this site in fact! I have registered with them as a candidate on two occasions, both times leaving a bitter taste.

Not only were they ineffective in finding me a position but 24 months after first registering, they persisted in using information about me that was outdated, telling me I was unsuitable for positions that I in fact was and would forward my interest to the client and get back to me within 24hrs. To make matters worse, this was despite speaking to the agent on a number of occasions, emailing through an updated resume and even attempting to upload it to their candidate portal (which I did, but to this day still has not been reviewed and approved by the agent).

In a sign that all's well that end's well, after not hearing anything back from the agent, I decided to bypass them entirely and approached the client directly about the position, and have been shortlisted for a second interview.

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