Being The Top Candidate: Navigating the New Job Market

Over the past four weeks, the job market for agency recruiters has done a complete 180 from being a very candidate-driven market to being almost entirely company-driven to the agencies who are still interviewing and hiring.

This is due to the massive influx of recruiters on the market due to the COVID-19 situation, resulting economic uncertainty, and limited cash reserves resulting in layoffs between 10-90% of the agency's headcount.

These times are unprecedented even for business owners who have functioned through 9/11, the 2008 recession, and the ups and downs in the oil & gas market throughout the years. The truth is, we don't know what's going to happen but we are all realizing that the new reality will be here awhile and may get worse before it gets better.

It is not an ideal time to be an unemployed recruiter on the market, but there are a few things that every candidate can do to help themselves stand out in the market.

• Know your numbers (part I): Every recruiter's primary purpose is to make money for the company by doing deals - simple enough. Knowing EXACTLY how much you've billed throughout the years, how many deals you've done, your average deal size, how many deals are full desk vs collaboration deals is the ONLY way to directly demonstrate the value you can provide to any recruitment manager who is actively hiring! For salespeople, knowing your book of business inside and out is massively important - how many new clients you have generated vs how many accounts have you inherited, how many deals you've done with your own clients, how many recruiters are supporting your jobs, etc. This is important in the best of times, but is triply important right now as the competition for each open role is much higher than normal.
• Know your numbers (part II): Spend some time getting acquainted with your numbers so you can speak to them with authority in an interview. Ideally, you should have some type of proof of billings so you can back up the numbers you speak to. It is really important to get this part right since not knowing your numbers is a really big red flag in this industry and will likely hold you back from getting represented by a recruiter (like myself) or moving forward in the hiring process.
• If you think you might be getting let go, PULL YOUR NUMBERS! You likely will not have access to them after your system access and email get shut down. This is not confidential information as no prospective employer should ask for client or candidate names, just information about your deals (deal size, start date, fee %, salary, etc.). I can't harp on this enough - numbers are extremely important.
• Have your references ready: Every recruiter should have at a minimum two manager-level references teed up and ready to go. If you can't get two managers to provide a reference, at a minimum you should have one manager-level reference with a higher ranking colleague as a backup. As the market is deteriorating, having strong references at the ready will really help you immediately be a cut above the rest!
• Polish up your resume: It is definitely time well spent to work on your resume right now! Some best practices on the resume front are to make it as accomplishment/achievement-oriented as possible, and including relevant KPIs so the person reading your resume can understand the expectations you're used to working under. If you have any client side responsibilities, or are running a full desk, outline them - there is a huge difference between people who do sales vs account management vs candidate side only.

Having all of this information at the ready is essential in current times! In every interview, especially early round interviews, it is more important than ever to have all of this information down pat. This is not the time to be coy or reluctant to share information - every open role has more competition than ever, so being straightforward, upfront, and having your narrative ready to go is the best way to take your own search into your hands and stand out from the competition.

Additionally, if you want to work with an external recruiter (rec2rec), make sure that the recruiter will help you and not hurt you. If you've made a lot of jumps, don't have a strong billing track record, or are on the fence about if you want to stay in agency recruiting, working with a rec2rec will not be a value add right now.

As a rec2rec, I am still actively networking with the top agency recruiters but I am not able to represent every candidate I speak with as companies are being more specific about the . In order for us to work together, you must be a full desk or sales-focused recruiter, have a strong billing track record, are committed to agency recruiting, and are money motivated.