HEADHUNTER: This Is How You Get On A Recruiter's Radar — Even If You're Unemployed

It definitely ups your ante as a potential job candidate to be represented by a head hunter, and if you know you have a good job and are good at it, you might already be on their radar.

But how do you end up in a top head hunter's database when recruiters are typically only interested in representing people who are currently employed?

Martin Yate, former director in Training & Development at Dunhill Systems, career management coach for the past 35 years and author of "Knock 'em Dead 2012: The Ultimate Job Search Guide," tells us there's a "huge misconception" when it comes on the correct way of reaching out to a recruiter.

Yate tells us head hunter get paid 10 to 30 percent of a job candidate's salary, on average, by the employer, so the higher profile the person is, the more the head hunter will get paid. And very rarely are high-profile people unemployed.

If this all sounds despairing for those of you who are currently unemployed, don't lose hope yet. Here are some ways to effectively reach out:

1. Focus your résumé. This means that if you've had two or three jobs with different specializations, you should create two or three different résumés before trying to get it in a head hunter's property.

Yate says that your résumé is going to "disappear in the database until a position opens up," then the recruiter will start typing keywords into their files to find the right person. So if your résumé has skillsets that are too different, you might not be discovered.

2. Research the head hunter. This one is obvious, but Yate says you need to do a deep search into Google by plugging in different keywords, such as "accounting head hunter," "accounting consultant," etc. Find out which head hunter works in your desired field before sending out your résumé. If you need a job, Yate says you need to invest two-to-four hours per day, twice a week researching yourhead hunter before you use other online job resources.

3. Be active in LinkedIn groups. This means you need to join groups and post "intelligent" things. Ideally, Yate recommends joining groups with professionals 1, 2 and 3 levels above you because these individuals are the ones who will be able to hire you.

Head hunter

 

"Take the time to agree, or disagree, with a comment, start a discussion on your own, post an article or blog that would be of interest to the people in your group or even post a question, asking for advice," Yate tells us. "Headhunters will visit these groups, and you'll become visible to them."

As for the recruiting business, Yate says they're not going anywhere.

"[Headhunters] are the most sophisticated sales people in the world. It is really hard to survive as ahead hunter … you have to make both parties happy, not just one."

"In an economy like the one we live in today, [the business has] shrunk a lot because of the recession, but we're not going anywhere. Business is going to change, shrink, grow, but it's a very effective way for people to find jobs."

Headhunters Vs Recruitment Agencies

Recruiter

Headhunter and Recruitment Agencies both offer what can be very valuable services to recruiters, particularly when it comes to helping to cut down on the work involved in sifting candidates. While recruitment agencies generally charge anywhere between around 10-20% of the new hire’s annual salary, headhunters’ commissions normally start at 20% and range from there upwards.

 

Of course, one of the main differences between recruitment agencies and headhunters is that the former tend to charge a contingency fee which is usually only payable if the agency actually finds a suitable candidate for the vacancy, whereas the latter are typically held on retainer so that they receive all or part of their commission irrespective of whether they find the right person for the job. Aside from this, however, the levels of service that you can reasonably expect from each of these different types of recruiters can vary considerable                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Although recruitment agencies do have to be extremely mindful of their reputations and of ensuring that they only refer candidates who would be a good match for the role, of course their businesses also rely on volume. Essentially, the more vacancies they help to fill, the more money they make. In some, although not all cases, this can mean that the quantity of candidates referred can take priority over their quality, which means that the fit between the employee and the hiring company doesn’t always turn out to be the best.

Headhunter

Headhunters, on the other hand, get paid something at least, regardless of whether the role is filled or not, and their reputations stand or fall on the quality of the people that they attract. This arrangement allows them the opportunity to really get to know the recruiting company, to understand its culture and its staffing requirements and to find the individual who is ideally suited to the role in every respect.

The higher fees and the retainer agreement with head hunter usually means that their services are reserved for executive and leadership positions right at the top of an organization, but as in some cases what they charge is only comparable with the upper end of the scale for recruitment agencies, it can be useful to consider them for positions which are lower down the hierarchy. After all, making a better hiring decision first time around can save the considerable costs of having to re-advertise and go through the recruitment and training processes all over again.

Go For the Top Headhunters

Before we move onto looking at the specific preparatory steps you need to take to prepare for that first job interview, a word or two on recruiters (or headhunters) are necessary. Notice the headline? “Top Headhunters“. It’s chosen on purpose. You may experience that you short-list several recruiters, you contact them, you pass your resume, and you register online with their typical “e-xxxx” service. And you hear nothing! Your contact them again, remind them (please don’t complain or scold) and still, you hear NOTHING! It can be frustrating, mind boggling, unfair etc., but do remember: THEY WORK FOR THEIR CLIENTS, not us. We are repeating ourselves A very common misconception is that the headhunters – and perhaps especially the top headhunter are there to service us – the job seekers. They are not! Simple question: who secures their pay-check? Well we don’t (except when they find us and their clients employ us). First and foremost, the client of the recruiter is the hiring company, your prospective employer. They work for them. They establish the job posting and zip though possibly thousands of database records (note, the really big top headhunters or recruiters in the world have millions of possible candidates on file; some even refuse to receive further resumes). So when you contact them, do you really expect them to respond to you and every other Tom, Dick and Sally that write in? They may do so if you are really unique, if you fit a current vacancy profile perfectly or if you just somehow managed to catch their attention.

Go For the Top Headhunter

It is said, that when the headhunters scan for candidates for a first interview (they may sip though thousands to shortlist e.g. 50 to talk to in a first round, with the intention to shortlist 5-8 for the client to interview, (sometimes even less), you get exactly 7 seconds of their time in that “sipping process”. If they don’t like your cover letter, or the front page of your resume (e.g. the summary section), you get tossed back in the database again, and they move on to the next resume in the pile.

In some countries it is possible to meet up with recruiters and even also the top headhunters for what some refer to as “coffee meetings”. The intension is an informal meeting where you have a chance to share your background, thoughts and objectives in more detail and the recruiter will have a chance to make a general evaluation of you and establish if you are “worthwhile working on at all” relative to what they currently have in their projects funnel. It’s not easy to get these coffee sessions and not all recruiters are open towards it. But some are and if you do manage to catch their attention, even for “just” such a cup of coffee, do take it – by all means.

So how do you get noticed? You need to be UNIQUE. You must stand out from the crowd. Think out of the box to captivate them, capture their attention – like what this gentleman did:

It pays to be unique when you want attention from top head hunter

So when the headhunters finally call (and they will, eventually – have faith), do appreciate them. You managed to catch their attention somehow and you should (even however difficult it may be) feel honored that you stand out from the crowd. Listen to them, respect them and show that you are genuinely pleased to have been shortlisted for a first interview. Also, even if in the meantime you changed your mind and do not want the job, take the interview. The more interviews you attend, the more experience you build, the more you learn to be top notch ready when THE JOB is on the board!