It's ok...I'm working with every recruiter!

Does the number of recruiters you work with matter? Thoughts on quality recruitment going forward and too many pimping you out won't land you a dream job.

“So, how many recruiters should I work with?”

It’s a question I get asked by eager jobseekers and they’re always a little disappointed to find out there is no magic recruiter number or equation that will automatically land them a job. There’s varying advice out there on the internet, ranging from “Spam all recruiters in a 5 mile radius!” to “Interview recruiters like you’re going in for an arranged marriage then after a month of deliberation pick one.” Both are obviously a bad option, but people still do it! I’ve seen similar things happen time after time. So, what should you actually do? The answer, as it often tends to, lies somewhere in the middle.

Let’s say we’ve got three candidates here:

• Candidate A signs up with five recruiters and has their CV fired out like a tommy gun to every employer out there, but never hears anything back.
• Candidate B decides to stick with one recruiter, who unbeknownst to them isn’t that great and doesn’t care much about them, and still ends up nowhere.
• Candidate C works with one or two good recruiters and after awhile, lands a job they’re happy with.

You can see here that the number of recruiters Candidate A, B or C worked with wasn’t what decided their fate - it was the quality of the recruiters they worked with.

Sign up with one crappy recruiter, you’ll get no job. Sign up with five crappy recruiters, you could get no job and have your CV spammed to every hiring manager around, and piss them all off in the process. Neither option is going to work for you. That’s why we (just like your nan and your mum always do) advise quality over quantity every time.

When less is more

I’m throwing the cliche out there because when it comes to working with recruiters it’s the truth. You’re much better off in the long run if you build a relationship with one or two quality recruiters who know you, their market and their clients. They should also have a genuine interest in their market, instead of just saying they do (because they all will).

Use the resources available to you, look them up on LinkedIn and other social media, ask your contacts if they’ve worked with them before. In short, do your research! Just like you would with anything, find out all you can before entrusting your CV to a recruiter. Meet up with them, give them a ring - do what you need to do to find out if this is someone you can trust.

You want to find a recruiter who won’t just spread your CV around everywhere, because the real value of a recruiter is in how they use their knowledge and networks. A good recruiter may only match you with a small handful of clients (or maybe more if you’re just that awesome), but the key is that they will be high quality matches. Instead of just firing your CV off, they’ll take the time to make sure both you, the client and the role are a good fit.

Change is coming

Now I’m not scaremongering, but a change in HR and recruitment is coming, or already happening. It may not be right now, especially in NZ, but new tech like AI and advanced matching algorithms will begin to affect recruiting. They already are overseas.

Recruiters who don’t put the effort into their client and candidate relationships will start to feel it and get left behind. If an AI system can make matches and send CVs off for much cheaper than what a human recruiter can, why are people going to pay a recruiter more to do the same thing? Or if other new developments condense the recruiting market, only the cream of the crop are going to survive and continue getting calls from clients.

As more and more recruitment options become available to companies and jobseekers, then recruiters, just like job boards, need to maintain their relevance. This is where emotional intelligence becomes so important.

“Successful recruiters will be the ones that create that true employer branding experience. The human-to-human aspect has always been there, it’s just the level needs to be heightened. It needs to go up from an interpretive perspective as well as a new skills perspective.”

Essentially, recruiters need to offer more to their clients and candidates than just being the touchpoint between them. If AI is doing (or speeding up) the matching process from a skills point, then new age recruiters will need to use their newfound time to act as career mentors for their candidates, using their market knowledge to guide candidates into great jobs.

People love working with good people, make a change and take an interest in building true relationships based on trust and transparency.

At Moxi, we’re always thinking about what’s next and looking for ways to improve. We’re also not CV spammers, we promise. Get in touch and let’s see what we can do together.