So many recruiters take this sloppy, blast approach that it creates little confidence in general with any of them.

I’ve never had a recruiter approach me having been knowledgeable about *my* experience and asking *me* what I’m interested in. They’re always just trying to slot me into something they currently have open, no matter the fit. If they took a longer term approach they’d almost certainly line me up as a future placement.

Here are the basics that will keep you happy in your current job: (1) Great co-workers (2) Good manager that values you and your talents (3) A good salary where you can support you family and able save a bit of money (4) Decent medical insurance coverage (5) Decent commute to work (6) Stable employer with a good financials/earnings and future potential. If you as an employee if you have the above, don’t switch because a recruiter called-you.

It started with an email from a recruiter that promised me a 15-20k raise. I was skeptical, but intrigued, because how can someone promise you that much if they know nothing about you? After talking to him and giving him my resume, he sent me an email with potential opportunity. I interviewed with this company and eventually was made an offer that in total was in the range that he promised. But, through no fault of his, the offer relied heavily on potential overtime, bonuses and profit sharing and in the end would have required me to take a 20k base pay cut. I turned the offer down and never heard from the recruiter again.

At the same time, I also started looking at opportunities on my own and came across an opportunity that although it required relocation (from Baltimore to Dallas) I ended up accepting. In the end the offer resulted in a 30% raise when adjusted for cost of living.

The moral of the story is that I feel that I had more leverage by myself than through a recruiter. That is mostly because the company that I am going to did not have to pay a 25-30k commission to get me and was able to use that savings to make me a very good offer.

BTW, it was an extensive courtship with this company where I had 4 phone interviews and a face-to-face interview in Boston. Then they flew me (and my wife) to Dallas for a weekend to talk to some people and see the city.

Basically, buyer beware when it comes to recruiters.

I will be the first person to admit that recruitment consultants and their service have changed a lot over the last few years. I joined the recruitment industry in 2005 and have seen so much change in others attitude.

I chose to become a recuiter because I had worked in retail for 16 years having worked myself up to a dual role of Multi Site Support Manager and a Regional Recruiter for 50 stores – I loved the recruitment side of my role.

I worked for companies for many years and I now work for myself. When I was employed the only company I was truely happy at was an Independent, the National companies were alll about how many sales calls per week and targets. Although the last job I had still had this in place there was more effort placed on making sure that the candidate was happy and the client was happy – we wanted to build long term relatinships not make a quick buck!

I had a break for 2 years when I moved from the UK and moved to Turkey. I worked for a British Tour Operator as a Hotel Rep. And guess what??? It was all about hitting your sales target!!!

Yes there are many recruiters out there that are out to make a quick buck and there are also many out there who are forced by their companies to make 50 connect sales calls a week (thats quite often 150 times picking up the phone) They can even hit all of their sales targets and still get it in the neck for not making their sales calls quota that week!

I now work for myself. I treat my candidates like my friends. I go out of my way to help every individual by giving them a FREE resume review and giving them advice on how to improve their resume and their LinkedIn account. I make sure gain as much information from my candidates as possible to ensure that I can represent them to my best ability to the client and to also ensure that I am matching correctly so as to not waste anyones time.

I 100% agree with this article because I spend so much time career coaching and building broken confidences of those who have been treated badly in their last/current role or who have just lost the way. A person who is happy and confident in their current role sees their future differently to those who are sinking in to despair.

For those of you giving recruiters a hard time. Please remember that we are not all like that. Some of us do actually care and realise that every single candidate has personal responsibilities, a family, possibly a mortgage as well as their hopes and dreams. And every client also has all of the above, however, needs a good team around them to achieve their goals.

Newsflash:

The best of us do NOT go internal, we strive and fulfill a need. ALL the social networking in the world will not bring what we bring to the table. People who will save or make a company MORE money than the hoard of candidates they get via ads & social netowrking. You can get a line-up of people for a position those ways…..but it’s just that a line-up, not people who are the best suited or the most qualified.

I will say their are a LOT of bad recruiters, but that does not mean they are dishonest. Thats just jibberish.

Recruiters are similar to people in insurance or financial advisory in that most people do not cut it or don’t want to…..but those that do and are very successful typically make 2, 3, 4 times as much as those people who won’t take their calls.

and to those who say NO, NO don’t trust the recruiter……that is the person NOT to be trusted in my experience. You should be able to tell in about 3 minutes if the recruiter know what the hell their talking about and is worth anymore time. Give them that, maybe more if warranted.

Preethi @ Buxton.