College Grads - Complete Recruiters Handbook
So, you're going to graduate and are along the way of sending your resume out to several jobs. Well, it just so happens that one of the ads you put on is through a recruiter. Besides being an online media consultant, I run a recruiting firm who handles executive level job seekers. That means our company only places jobs which are $100,000 base salary or above. For a number of reasons including ethics, we usually do not place recent college graduates.
Coming out of college, I strongly suggest that you do not use a recruiter for the first job. There are exceptions such as for example Heidrich and Struggles together with ManPower, though you can find few. Actually, I wish most colleges would stop letting recruiters post third party employment openings. If it is directly for that recruiting firm and the positioning offers compensation, then it is an exception. We'll enter what it is prefer to work for a staffing firm later in the following paragraphs.
Personally, before I graduated college, I had no idea what a recruiter was. That is, until I acquired staffed by one in a job which I would leave in 4 months to, ironically, start my own recruitment company.
How do recruiters receives a commission:
Recruiters get paid two different ways:
1. Contingency contracts - a contingency contract is whenever a company pays a recruiter (typically 15% - 25% of the base salary) to get them an employee. With a contingency contract, the recruiter only gets paid if they place somebody for that particular position.
Therefore, if your base salary is $35,000, then your recruiter would get $7,000 in commission as soon as you officially became employed with the organization. Actually, the $7,000 would go to the recruiting company and, based on what firm's commission policies were, the recruiter would get a certain % of this money.
2. Retained contracts - nowadays, recruiters are less inclined to obtain these contracts, however it is whenever a company pays a recruiting firm upfront or in stages no matter if they make the placement. It is unlikely that a firm will be retained to obtain recent college graduates.
3. Guarantees - recruiters almost always give their clients guarantees. These guarantees, more or less, are a type of risk management therefore the employer does not have employment applicant leave and is left with a hefty bill. The industry standard guarantee is 3 months prorated on a 30/60/90 days basis. Prorated guarantee explained:
Let's assume, to make it easy mathematically, that the recruiter is charging 20% of the bottom salary and is working on a 30/60/90 pro-rated guarantee. So, if your base salary is $30,000, then your total fee the recruiter would receive is $6,000. With the aforementioned guarantee, the payment schedule would be the following: $2,000 after you were at the company for 30 days, the next $2,000 after you were at the business for 60 days, and the ultimate $2,000 after you were at the business for 90 days.
Common sayings that recruiters use to manipulate recent college grads:
1. "Do that favor for me" - this is one way recruiters will, within an indirect manner, let you know that if you go to a job interview, they will still work with you. In return, inquire further for a favor. Politely request that they listen to the dial tone for some time. If you say it in a dry manner, there is a chance that they will for a few seconds. Not a bad trick.
2. "This company is the best" - if the company was really the best, they might not be going through a recruiter for his or her recent college graduate hires. Companies like Google, Apple, Goldman Sachs do not have to use recruiters for recent college graduates. Dig deeper with this particular statement, quickly head to hoovers.com and have the recruiter what the company's revenue was days gone by year.
3. "We have a special on this job" - which means that they will have a "retained contract." This might or may not be true, however there is no reason to announce this to everybody. More likely than not, I would be skeptical. First, ask them if they have a "retained contract." Then, to see if this is true, do your research. Look at all of the career boards such as for example Monster or Hotjobs and see how many postings you can find. Again, make reference to the "What I will not do to a recruiter" section as, atlanta divorce attorneys case (no exceptions) it is unethical to circumvent a recruiter.
Red lights:
1. Never work with a recruiter who is going to charge you money. There is not one single exception to this rule. A recruiting firm shouldn't sell resume services to you either. You should find your own resume writing service. If a recruiter asks you to pay any kind of fee, promptly report that organization to your university.
2. The recruiter won't let you know the company's name. If a recruiter is hiding the business name from you, how much else are they hiding? Would you ever purchase a car without knowing the brand? Remember, this is your career, you ought to be in the driver's seat.
3. The recruiter wants to put things on your own resume which you are uncomfortable with. If the recruiter is helping you with some formatting, then maybe you have an excellent recruiter, however should they desire to put certain claims of knowledge on your own resume which you are uncomfortable with, promptly tell your university.
4. The recruiter does not execute a full interview with you. Because of this the recruiter is "chucking resumes" at their client. "Chucking resumes" is a term which I coined as some recruiters will keep sending resumes regardless of background or fascination with order to staff a posture. Should this happen, promptly tell your university.
5. The position they're filling does not pay a base salary. In case you are ever approached by way of a recruiting firm to interview for a posture which will not pay a base salary, tell your university because no reputable recruiting firms focus on commission only positions.
I sent my resume right into a recruiting firm but nobody answered:
This is par for course and will not reflect either positively or negatively on the recruiting firm or you qualifications. The reputable recruiters are paid by their clients to find someone very specific. Therefore, if you don't happen to be in the right place at the proper time, you probably will not receive a call. Avoid being discouraged and, again, these are waters you probably should not be treading.
For instance, if my company is working on a biotechnology software sales job, we are not going to call everybody who submits their website because we have an obligation to find somebody specific.
How do I be seen by a recruiter?
Again, I do not recommend recent college graduates using recruiters, but here's how to increase your odds:
The subject line of the email should be: Auburn University '10 - Major: Physics New York, NY
As you can see, your college goes first, in that case your graduation date, in that case your current location. The reason why this works is because recruiters receive so many resumes per day which read "resume" they don't have enough time to check out them. I can't speak for each recruiter, though this is my personal recommendation.
Important: do not send your resume into a recruiting firm more often than once a month. Also, do not do a mass email to a lot of recruiters at once.
Do I need a cover letter:
No. This is one of the biggest myths about resume submission. Actually, it really is quite annoying to receive a cover letter as you have to scroll down to see the applicant's resume. When submitting a resume right to a company, they will expect it, so be sure to achieve this. Though, most employers won't read every resume cover letter sent. To improve your probability of having it read, do the cover letter in bullet points.
Methods to gauge whether a recruiter will probably be worth speaking to:
How intelligent and knowledgeable do they sound?
How many openings does the firm have? How good are those postings? Most recruiting firms have their open jobs posted on their website. If you visit a company taking every job available, you might not want to work with them.
Questions to ask a recruiter:
Remember, be polite, but get your answers. If the recruiter will not want to answer your inquiries or is rude, report them to the university.
1. Just how long has this job been open for?
2. How many times has the recruiter worked with this company?
3. Do you know just how many people are interviewing for this job?
4. Do you have any tips for the interview?
5. Why would you be a good fit for the job?
Remember, be polite.
What you ought to not do to a recruiter:
Recruiters are in business to staff individuals. In no way, should you speak with a recruiter, then circumvent them and go directly to the company. Even though Recruitment don't love recruiters who work with recent college graduates, this gives you no to go to the company. Business ethics aren't stressed enough in a few classes, but if you wish to be successful, learn them quickly.
Working at a recruiting firm:
Just like any other industry, working at a recruiting firm could be either rewarding or unchallenging and uneventful.
The typical day at a recruiting firm consists of doing research on your own clients, gathering pertinent resumes and interviewing candidates. If you decide to just work at a recruiting firm, make sure that you are not staffing an industry which you are not interested in. Also, if a recruiting firm wants you to cold-call potential customers, decline the position. Nobody in a HR division has time because of this. Make certain the recruiting firm includes a good business plan.
Recruiter Lingo:
CV - curriculum vitae - this can be a fancy word for resume.
Placement - that is when a recruiter successfully staffs a worker at their client's company and receives the subsequent commission.
Headhunter - another term for a recruiter, however as of late, recruiting firms haven't used this term
C-level recruiters - the word "C-level" identifies the titles at firms which start out with a "C" - 95% of the time, these are the executives at the company. So, CEO, CFO, COO, CTO are high-up titles in a company.
CEO - CEO
CFO - Chief Financial Officer
COO - Chief Operations Officer
HR - recruiting department of a business