Comments I often hear when I speak to candidates or clients for the first time are that they’ve had a “bad experience with recruiters” or “haven’t heard many good things about recruiters”.
I’m sure all of us, if not most of us, have had a bad experience in a restaurant before. Maybe the food wasn’t quite up to scratch or the service wasn’t what you expected, but it doesn’t mean you suddenly stop going out to eat, it just means you leave that establishment behind and you try somewhere new! I feel like this analogy is very applicable to recruitment. Just because you may have experienced a negative encounter in recruitment before, it doesn’t mean it’s going to happen to you again. They’re not all bad.
There are a lot of very good recruiters out there who really take their jobs seriously. They’ve worked super hard to build their networks and to build relationships and they really care about maintaining that.
I love being able to provide a useful service to jobhunters and hirers, so let me tell you why it really is worth using a recruiter.
Knowledge of the market
The best recruiters will know their markets inside and out. They will know the available talent out there; where they are and how to reach out to them. They will also have a clear idea of salaries and day rates, available skill-sets and current hiring complexities.
They will be able to judge what the competition is currently like. Are there a lot of people looking for jobs at the moment? Are there a lot of businesses looking for the same talent?
Ask your recruiter and they will be able to tell you all of the answers to these questions in detail.
Recruiters can save you A LOT of time
I often think trying to find your next career move or finding the perfect person for your role can almost feel like a full-time job in itself. It really can take a lot of time. Time, which often you just don’t have. Especially if you are already working full-time or focusing on other needs in your business.
Endlessly searching through job boards. Chasing up jobs you’ve applied for. Writing job adverts. Sifting through CVs (many of them who are just not suitable). Arranging interviews. All of these processes are extremely time-consuming.
And so this is where a recruiter can come in. It’s their full-time job to do this. Let them do all the hard work and come back to you with the results.
They can offer career advice and guidance
Not sure what you are looking for in your next career move? Recruiters can talk through suitable options for you.
Not only can they discuss job opportunities with you, but they can also offer CV and portfolio advice, and guide you as to what style may be best to aim for depending on what role you are looking for.
They can also advise you on what skills are growing in your market and what qualifications may be worth looking at to boost your chances.
They can give you salary advice
Recruiters are a great source of knowledge when it comes to salary negotiation. They can inform of you of the current market rates and can help you guide on what level to pitch your vacancy at or advise you on what salary you should be aiming for in your next role.
They can advise you on what other employers are advertising similar vacancies at and they also guide you as to what salary other employees are aiming for.
And finally, they can find you best people for your business (and the best jobs).
A recruiter can network on a much larger scale. They can find you candidates that maybe you aren’t aware of, and they’ll also know about jobs and projects before they are even advertised.
Recruiters work hard to build their networks and spend every day doing this. We are very connected to the market and will be able to present a lot of suitable people to you as well as opportunities a lot quicker than you will be able to do yourself.
The best people aren’t actively looking on job boards- they need someone to approach them in the right manner, and pique their interest with a brilliant opportunity. And so this is what we focus on. Finding everything about about your business first so we can discuss the opportunity with them in detail.
Clients will often reach out to us to hire for them on an exclusive basis using our network instead of going out to market with a role. Because of this, you will have access to jobs that aren’t available to everyone, meaning you have a greater success of securing an exclusive opportunity.
