Learn to manage your Recruiter to get the best out of your career.
What a nightmare it is out there! If it’s not already stressful enough to be looking for a job, you’ve got to be worried about how to manage the numerous recruiters all handling your potential career and all vying for a whopping percentage of YOUR salary, once you are placed through their recruitment firm.
It’s time for you to take back control.
There’s an old adage around that says ‘Once you land a new job, the very next day, you need to be thinking of your exit strategy’ – there’s some truth in this.
The majority of us, perhaps without thinking, put our slippers on when we land that new role. We get stuck in and we are extremely keen to make a good and lasting impression. We want the hiring manager to know that they’ve made the right choice.
How laudable. But what we should really be doing is something quite different. We should have our eye on the bigger picture, on the end game. What’s the penultimate role we see ourselves in and what career steps do we need to take to get there?
Instead of lurching from one opportunity to the next, or worse, being pushed from one role to the next by reasons outside of our control, there is something to be said for planning your long term career and making it happen, instead of letting life happen to you.
For this, you’ll need a recruitment partner. With the best will in the world, if you are busy doing your day job, it is unlikely that you will have the networking capacity on your own to strategically locate the most promising roles on the way to your ultimate career success.
Here are some things to look for when you are proactively looking for a recruitment partner that will take you from strength to strength and help you to successfully manage your career:
- Work with someone you can meet. There are plenty of on-line agencies out there and there are plenty of ‘global’ marketing agencies with a ‘truly national footprint’, but let’s face it, ‘Big Foot’ doesn’t necessarily mean they will personally look after you. It’s more likely that you will be a CV amongst thousands and will land on a junior recruiter’s desk whose only job it is, is to make commission off your head. As a senior marketer, how confident can you really be that a keen 20 something could possibly have enough deep sector knowledge to find the right career path for you? (Mmmnnn Good Luck….)
- Your recruitment partner should understand the importance of personalisation and leveraging your uniqueness. Together, you will need to craft the compelling reasons on why a company or organisation would want to engage with you. Your recruitment partner therefore needs to spend time getting to know you and you need to spend time getting to know them. After all, you are entrusting your whole career to them.
- Your recruitment partner focuses on results, but more importantly focuses on the cultural fit between you and a potential role. If your values aren’t in alignment with a potential company, neither party will be happy, time will have been wasted as well as money. You need to have absolute confidence that your recruitment partner knows the hiring company well. Ask them that question.
- Every great recruiter is a people person. They like to meet new people and as such, their networking skills are second to none. A great recruiter cultivates relationships; they are willing to share career advice, mentor you and will have been working with a number of companies for a very long time. If you want a recruiter to handle your career, make sure they have these skills and are willing to use them with you.
- By strategically planning your career and understanding that there will be several steps to undertake before a seat beckons you from the ‘C’ lounge, you will be miles ahead of the average candidate.
Partner with the right recruiter for you and you will successfully drive your career.
That’s got to be a whole lot better than letting ‘life’ just happen to you – too, too scary!
For more career advice on how to manage your career and how to stand out from the crowd, have a look at our Advice Centre under the Candidate tab on our web site: www.marketingmoves.com
