You’ve got a call scheduled with a recruiter, now what?

Tips for navigating your first call with a recruiter, by a recruiter.

The job description seemed perfect. It fit you flawlessly and it was exactly what you wanted out of your next career move.? All of a sudden you hear that all too common email chime and POOF! Now there is a recruiter in your inbox looking to set up a time to chat. The nerves set it in.? Now what???

A lot of people struggle to define the initial call with the recruiter. Is it an interview? Is it not? Does it have any bearing on my candidacy? Hopefully I can answer some of these questions and help demystify the average recruitment process a little bit.??

Know who you’re talking to?

It’s important we discuss that in your job search you're likely to run into two types of recruiters, Corporate (sometimes referred to as “in-house”) Recruiters and Agency Recruiters.? The distinction here may seem obvious but there are tens of thousands of recruitment agencies out there, and not all of them will be terribly clear about their relationship with the client whose job they are representing.? I want to stress that no “type” of recruiter is better than any other, and both have an equal chance of landing you in your next role, but understanding the relationships in play here will be beneficial for you in the long run.??

For example, when dealing with an agency recruiter, I would recommend taking a “trust but verify” approach when vetting the details of a position.? For my reasoning on this, you need not look further than the childhood game of Telephone. Information about the role you’re applying for typically will flow like this when you are dealing with an agency:

Hiring Manager > Account Manager > Lead Recruiter > Recruiter > Candidate.?

As you can see, there is a lot of knowledge transfer going on here and as the details about the role are passed through the grape vine this leaves a lot of room for potential misunderstandings. Knowing who you are speaking with and their relationship with the hiring team allows you to arm yourself with the right questions to verify aspects of the role that are important to you. This means asking those questions on this call, AND with the hiring team should you advance in the process.??

It’s a conversation?

That’s right, plain and simple. This just is two people having a chat. On average, the initial phone screen with a recruiter is just a way for recruiters like myself to do two things: 1) See if you can speak to what you say your experience is in your resume, and 2) Line up salary and benefits expectations (more on this later).? So, there is no need to over prepare, get nervous, or start practicing your ability to recite your resume in a single breath. Ideally, the recruiter should lead the conversation and make you comfortable with discussing all aspects of your career. It’s our job to be familiar enough with the skills needed for a given role to be able to detect, with a reasonable amount of certainty, if you can do the job. This is often times why at larger companies you’ll see recruiters specialize in areas like Supply Chain, Software Engineering, Finance, etc.??

Typically, a good recruiter will be so deeply imbedded with the teams they support that the initial phone screens with potential candidates sometimes will only take 15-20 minutes. The recruiter should be intimately familiar with the team to the point that they know the personality traits that will make a candidate successful, not just the skill set.? If you’re not a fit, they are going to let you know right away, and that’s OK.? There is no benefit for us or for you, the candidate, in dragging you through needless interviews if it’s found that your skills don’t match what is needed.???

When approaching this call, it’s best to do it from a “just chatting” frame of mind.? Similar to if you bumped into this person in line for coffee.? The recruiter is trying to get a feel for who YOU are as a person, as well as a potential employee.? I’ve encountered a number of candidates who approach this call in a very transactional manner.? Some going so far as letting me know, sometimes pretty forcefully, they aren’t interested in even having any further conversation until they know what the role pays (Again,?I’m getting there, I promise).? It’s good to have expectations of a potential employer, but keep in mind there is a human being at the other end of that call whose whole career is based on bringing the best talent to bare and if you’re giving them any reason to think you’re not the best talent out there, things might not go the way you are hoping. Every recruiter you talk to will discuss salary/rate with you.? I promise! But not waiting to hear us out prior to knowing what the role will pay is going to start the relationship off on the wrong foot.??

Salary Discussions (cue dramatic music)??

The moment we’ve all been waiting for.? There is so much misinformation circulating social media on this topic, and if we are being honest, this probably deserves its own standalone article but I’ll do my best to as concise as possible here.? In dealing with a corporate recruiter, when we ask for your salary expectations it is NOT a negotiation.? We are merely trying to determine if your expectations are in line with what the company can offer.? That’s it.? No cloak and dagger here.? I’m sure we’ve all seen the videos in circulation that encourage candidates to hold off this conversation for as long as possible or try to get the company to offer something first. These social media touted negotiation “silver bullets” are anything but.? By not laying out your expectations up front you could be wasting hours, or even days, of your time going through an interview process that was never going to work in the first place.? Moreover, there is no upside to this tactic.? Budgets are typically set at the beginning of the company's fiscal year and HR is usually involved in all steps of the offer process to ensure equity and fairness, so the salary band is the salary band, and no amount of deferring is going change the offer.?? This is hands down the worst piece of advice I’ve seen floating around the internet and I cannot tell you how?glad I am to be able to address it.? Clearly, I've been stewing over this for a while.???

I want to make clear that the above paragraph is referring to setting salary expectations, not what your current salary is. Under no circumstances should you feel compelled to divulge what you currently making to a potential employer, unless you want to. In fact, that question should never even be asked of you.? In some states it is even illegal for employers to ask a candidate what their current salary is, and it’s ultimately its irrelevant to the matter at hand. No recruiter should be putting you on the spot and requesting this information, ever.? Period.???

Setting your expectations with your recruiter is another matter entirely. A good response here is something along the lines of “I’ve done some research and I see people with the title same of the role we’re discussing are making around [X amount], is that similar for this role? If so, that is what I will be expecting for this position”. This response tees up a solid back and forth dialog with your recruiter and allows them to further explain benefits packages, why the information you’ve found is correct or incorrect, etc. It also allows you make clear what your target range is, ensuring there are no surprises come offer time.??

Don’t burn bridges?

As I mentioned earlier, a good recruiter is going to let you know right away if you are a fit for the position. They also should be doing the same if through the conversation it is determined?that, given your background, it might not be a good match. Job hunting and career experience can be intensely personal, and being told you aren’t a fit by someone who doesn’t actually do what you do, can be jarring. However, I promise you that it’s better for you in the long run.? No recruiter wants to see a candidate they put forward go into an interview and not be set up for success. It doesn’t benefit us at all, in fact, it can be very brand-damaging within their organization?if a recruiter has string of unsuccessful interviews. As a candidate, you don’t want to waste hours of your day taking part in an interview you weren’t prepared for either, so I would argue if you get this feedback at the end of a call with a recruiter, it’s a win.???

A lot of times after I've revealed that I don’t think a candidate is good for a particular position I’ll encounter pushback to the tune of “but the job description matches me perfectly!”, and it probably does.? However, even the best job descriptions can fail to capture what a particular hiring manager is truly looking for. I’ve written on this topic before but the fact of the matter is, you’d be hard pressed to find a job description that really captures the true essence of a particular role. Writing job descriptions is difficult, not to mention it requires the involvement of legal teams in most cases, so most are designed to be reused in order to save the company time and money.? What the average job seeker ends up getting is probably less than 60% of the story, but at least it’s a good start.?

So, it may not be the outcome you were hoping for, but all is not lost.? I personally love to start thinking of, and discussing, roles a candidate could fit for while we are still on the phone. I also, like most recruiters, keep a running list of candidates I’ve spoken to and liked in order?to cross reference with as new roles come up. As a recruiter, I don’t believe in the idea of wasted time. I believe there is something to be gained from every candidate interaction I have whether that be today, tomorrow, or six months from now!? At the end of the day, recruiters are in the relationship business so having a strong relationship with your recruiter is your biggest asset lading that next job.? If you follow some of the guidelines I’ve suggest here, it’s likely you’ll be on your way to a first-round interview, and hopefully that change you were looking for.??