How to NOT approach a recruiter

New year, new approach!

For all you job seekers out there, let’s change the approach of reaching out to recruiters. Firstly, I will start with how NOT to approach them, as majority of the messages I receive on LinkedIn and via email are from people who do not know how to approach. Usually in a case like this, I respond to them with the correct way of approaching a recruiter, which of course is also not appreciated sometimes.

If you want to get the attention of a recruiter so that they may keep you in mind even for future vacancies, you would want to approach them the right way. I will share three most common examples of how NOT to approach a recruiter and also suggestions on how to do it the right way.

‘Please look into my profile. Do you have any job for me?’

To be honest, I used to do this too before I became a recruiter. Usually, if you send a message like this to a recruiter, they do not have the time to look through your profile (or CV), analyze it and then try to match you with what they have. The ideal way to approach in this case is to have a look at the company website first yourself. Looking for something available there, if you find something good, apply, and then approach the recruiter with a brief intro of your background, with a link to the vacancy you have applied to and ask them to consider you for the position because you would be a match due to XYZ reason. This way, the recruiter knows that you have done your research on the company, you are actually interested and not sending mass messages to all the recruiters just for the sake of getting a job, and you make it easy for them to evaluate you and consider you for the job.

‘I saw you are recruiting/I saw this position on your website’

Well yeah, you will have to be more precise than that. Some people send me this message without any context. I would not know in that case what they want to do, or what they need me to tell them. The recruiter does not have the time to probe more to find out what you want. That should be clear with your first message to the recruiter. It also depends on how you write the first message, shows the recruiter your professionalism, and even if they do not have anything for you at that moment, if you make a good impression, they remember you for later also.

‘Please consider me for future opportunities’

Yes, if you have a good profile I will but at the end of the day, I receive hundreds of messages like these, and it is more than likely that the recruiter would miss out on your profile even if something relevant comes up in the future. The right way to say this is that you would be very interested to be considered for a future opportunity, and then keep a lookout on the website yourself and top up on your message to the recruiter, that hey, I have now found another vacancy that I can be suitable for, can you please consider me for this? The recruiter is not obliged to keep a lookout for you for vacancies, that is your job. It is the job of the recruiter to then analyze your profile to make sure you fulfill the requirements and call you for an interview.

The conclusion? Always be brief, precise, get to the point and share what you expect from the recruiter.

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