Do you need a recruiter?

Zajic says she remains in contact with candidates she placed almost 20 years ago. “Recruiters are essentially service providers who specialize in helping professionals find their next career opportunity.”

Recruiters also make sense for those tackling today’s competitive job market, she adds. “As a job seeker, it is easier to network with the top five or 10 recruiters in your area that are already networked with local companies than to try to figure out individual contacts for numerous companies,” Zajic says. “It is also a great way to learn about the different company cultures to see if they could be a fit for you.”

In turn, you also share your network with the recruiters to help them fill other jobs.

What is a recruiter?

Whether you’re looking to start a new career or need to crawl out of an unemployment black hole, Zajic says key to building an effective relationship with a recruiter is understanding the recruiter’s role and the kinds of recruiters available.

The role of a job recruiter is to serve as a third party working to fill job vacancies for one or multiple companies with appropriate candidates. Most recruiters find these candidates by specializing in a specific field, such as finance or technology, so that they can speak the “language.”

There are two types of recruiters to seek:

• External recruiters who work for community, regional, national or global-oriented recruiting agencies. Hiring companies pay external recruiters a fee if the recruiter fills the position, making their services free for job seekers.
• Corporate recruiters who are paid employees of a particular company and fill that company’s job openings—also free for job seekers.

Zajic says she is a “fan” of using recruiters who are free to job seekers. “In today’s market, there is no need for the job seeker to pay a recruiter to find them a job,” she adds.

Choosing a recruiter

Identifying a recruiter to help you embark on a job search is as simple as plugging in the keywords “finance recruiter” in LinkedIn’s people search field, Zajic says. You can then review the recruiters’ specialties and whether they work for an agency, corporation or independently.

Recruiters also fill positions based on their geographical concentrations (globally, nationally, regionally, statewide or locally), so it is important for job seekers to connect with recruiters tapped into the correct geographical job market.

“You have to be strategic about what you’re looking for in a recruiter,” says Zajic.

Pitching a recruiter and how recruiters pitch you

Recruiters also must differentiate you from the onslaught of résumés clogging hiring managers’ email inboxes. Therefore, Zajic says it is integral to find a recruiter that matches your personality so that you can build an authentic relationship.

“Recruiters are essentially salespeople so they are going to look at how they can sell you to clients,” says Zajic. “Therefore, you also have to have your sales pitch ready. Why should a company hire you?”

The “number one mistake” is to call a recruiter and sell your worth, Zajic adds. Instead email your résumé and then call to confidently pitch your strengths based on facts and accomplishments, not emotions.

Zajic offers this positive example of a conversation from a job seeker with a recruiter:
“I am currently a tax manager at a $3 billion organization. I have managed teams up to five individuals. I focus on the areas of … I report to director of tax and work with higher levels of management. I am moving back to Waukesha, Wisconsin, and I am interested in networking to get back into the community. I am just checking in with you, first of all, to see what kind of recruiting you do, as well as whether you think there is an opportunity for us to partner together. If you think so, I am happy to answer any questions you might have and share my résumé with you. If you don’t think so who can you recommend in the area?”

Zajic says if you’re looking for a sales job, but your only job experience is working retail to put yourself through school, you can still pursue a professional sales position. “It’s how you spin it,” she adds. “A person who has worked in retail has already been in the sales environment. The job seeker needs to polish up those experiences and share how that experience lends itself to a professional sales job.”

What won’t work is if you give an uninformative pitch. “We get thousands of messages like ‘Hi, I sent you my résumé and I wanted to know if you received it,’” Zajic says. “The job seeker that gives the recruiter the most valuable information is the person a recruiter is going to call back first.”

Marissa Yaremich is an award-winning freelance journalist with more than 13 years of experience serving in various positions as a reporter, researcher or photojournalist at several media outlets, including CBS’s Inside Edition, The Boston Globe and the New Haven Register. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism from Boston University.