Monday November 30th, 2009
"Dear Sarah IV: Can I work with more than one recruiter at a time?"

A BIT OF HOUSEKEEPING:  A number of readers in the past couple of weeks have asked if they can reprint/reproduce these "Dear Sarah" pieces for use with their own candidates.  The answer:  Yes, absolutely - as long as they are properly credited, with a link to this blog and my email address (sarah@head2head.ca).   Dropping me a line to let me know you're using it would be great, too - I appreciate a good ego-stroke as much as the next person.

In the last "Dear Sarah" post, we talked about what happens when more than one recruiter submits your profile to a client, and how it can make everyone look bad.

But does that mean you should never work with more than one recruiter?

Well...no.  But.

Some recruiters will tell you that unless you (as a job-seeker) work exclusively with them, they won't represent you or present you to clients. 

Here's why:  Good recruiters will tell you when they're submitting your profile to a client;  the best recruiters  will ask your permission in advance.  But the not-so-great recruiters just submit lots of candidates to lots of clients and hope that something sticks. 

At the same time, many clients will engage several recruiting agencies to fill a given role, so they're getting candidates submitted to them from multiple sources.

That means that your profile could currently be in front of a whole bunch of clients, and the new recruiter doesn't want to look like an idiot by submitting a profile of a candidate that their client saw 2 weeks ago from some other recruiter. 

Going to 8 zillion different recruiters increases the chance of your profile being submitted to a particular client, and after a while it's not just the recruiter who looks like an idiot:  Once a client has been given your profile from 4+ different recruiters over a couple of months, they start to wonder just how desperate/unemployable you really are.

However, putting all your eggs in one basket with one recruiter isn't wise, either, especially if you don't know how successful/connected that recruiter is in your field.

Some guidelines for working with more than one recruiter:

1. Be honest and up-front.  If you're already working with a couple of recruiters, let the new recruiter know.  If you know you've been submitted to an opportunity, tell them about it.
   
2. Depending on your career stage and profession, you probably shouldn't work with more than 5 recruiters at a time.  (If you're quite junior and trying to get a foot in the door, it's probably okay to talk to a whole bunch of recruiters; if you're more senior and working in a field where 'word gets around', you probably shouldn't work with more than 2 or 3 recruiters at a time.)
   
3. A recruiter who refuses to work with you because you've spoken to another recruiter either thinks you're not a particularly good candidate ("I can't trust this person to tell me about the other positions s/he has been submitted to") or doesn't do his/her homework ("I just submit all my candidates to all kinds of clients - I can't be bothered to call you to double-check to see if you've already been submitted"). 
   
   Either way, s/he probably isn't the best recruiter for you, anyway, so don't feel too badly about walking away.
   
   (NB:  There are exceptions to this, especially in industries in which the talent pool is very small and where there may be only a handful of qualified candidates for a given role.  In these situations it's appropriate to work with a single recruiter.)
   
4. Try to build long-term relationships with a couple of recruiters who specialize in recruiting people in your field.  A recruiter who's known you for 5+ years is more likely to 'sell you' into a potential employer than someone you just met yesterday. 

Again, if you're a junior just into your first or second job, it's worthwhile to make the rounds of lots of recruiters - it'll help you get a feel for what's out there, who has the best opportunities, and who might be a great long-term contact.  As you become more senior, you'll be able to leverage these long-term relationships to make your job search much easier - and more painless.

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Thursday November 26th, 2009
The View From Here: Recruiting in Canada (excerpt from CRL Journal)

While the Canadian economy has suffered less than that of the US in the past 18 months (and the recession was declared 'officially' over by June), almost 85% of Canadian organizations report they froze or reduced hiring plans throughout most of late 2008 and the first 9 months of 2009.

The result, for corporate recruiting professionals, was that after more than 2 years of steady increases (5-20% in 2007; 5-15% in 2008), recruiting salaries remained largely unchanged in 2009.  

Average salaries for corporate recruiting professionals working in industries hardest hit by the recession, such as manufacturing and consumer goods, have declined by 2-5%, while salaries for those working in more 'recession-proof' industries, such as energy and utilities and  healthcare, have seen similarly modest increases of 2-6%.

The biggest surprise?  Recruiters working in the retail/leisure industry saw their average salaries increase by 5% - the top of the range, and equal to salary increases for healthcare recruiters.  Canadian retailers had a better Q4 2008 than anticipated, so they maintained hiring levels well into 2009.  But the economic uncertainty drove them to become increasingly strategic about their recruiting efforts, which meant they were prepared to pay a premium for recruiting professionals with specific retail experience.

For more on the Canadian recruiting industry - and how recruiting salaries have changed in the past year - read more in the December 2009/January 2010 issue of the Journal of Corporate Recruiting Leadership, out now.

And look for Head2Head's 2010 Recruiting Salary Report, released in late December, with full details on recruiting salaries for all recruiting roles, across all industry groups, in Canada!

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Sunday November 22nd, 2009
"Dear Sarah III: What's the difference between a 'headhunter' and a 'recruiter'?" Recruiting lexicon tips for job-seekers.

A BIT OF HOUSEKEEPING: A number of readers have asked if they can reprint/reproduce these "Dear Sarah" pieces for use with their own candidates. The answer: Yes, absolutely - as long as they are properly credited, with a link to this blog and my email address (sarah@head2head.ca). Dropping me a line to let me know you're using it would be great, too - I appreciate a good ego-stroke as much as the next person.

Note to recruiters (job-seekers, just scroll down to the next bolded heading!)

This week, Jeff Lipschultz and I were guests on Daisy Wright's Blog Talk Radio show.

At first I wondered how we'd fill in a whole hour, but I needn't have worried: As I said in the first "Dear Sarah" post, those of us who work in recruiting - and spend most of our time talking about, thinking about, and writing about recruiting - would do well to remember that for the average person, recruiting is something they only think about once every few years. Information that we think of as common knowledge - and therefore not worth even talking about - is definitely not common knowledge for the average person.

(Speaking with Jeff after the show, we agreed the lack of recruiting knowledge is particularly evident in Gen Ys, even among the best-and-brightest. Given that Jeff's in Dallas and I'm in Toronto, I wonder how many A-listers North American recruiters are missing out on, simply because these candidates don't know how to get our attention.)

If you're a job-seeker - or a recruiter/hiring manager who frequently interacts with candidates who are new to working with recruiters - you might want to send them a link to the podcast of the show.

HALF THE BATTLE IS LEARNING THE LINGO

The first question in the show was about the difference between a 'headhunter' and a 'recruiter' - and in fact it's a question I get probably once a week. Like any other profession, recruiting has its own lexicon that isn't necessarily well understood by the average job-seeker.

So below, you'll find explanations for some of the most common recruiting terms. It's definitely not exhaustive, but it's a good start. (Remember: Being familiar with the terminology tells recruiters that you've done your homework and 'get it'.)

What's the difference between a 'recruiter' and a 'headhunter'?

The short answer is: Nothing. The only reason anyone gets confused is that recruiters never use the word 'headhunter' to describe themselves, and among recruitment professionals it's considered a slightly derogatory term. (It's sort of how real estate peole always call themselves 'real estate salesperson' or 'realtor', but the rest of the world calls them 'real estate agents'.)

However, while all headhunters are recruiters, not all recruiters are headhunters. 'Headhunter' is a term used to refer to agency recruiters, who typically work on commission or retained search on behalf of a client, and are the ones most likely to call you up at your current job to 'headhunt' you for another position.

'Recruiter', on the other hand, is used to describe anyone who recruits candidates. This includes headhunters, but also includes corporate recruiters who work within organizations, are less likely to 'headhunt' candidates, and who are more involved in recruitment strategy.

When do I go from being a 'job-seeker' to a 'candidate'?

Recruiters use the term 'candidate' to refer to any person who may be a potential applicant, interviewee, or hire. Like 'headhunter', 'job-seeker' or 'job-hunter' aren't terms recruiters use very often. (Personally, I've always wondered why they don't use those terms, but so far no one's explained it to me.)

Here are some of the most common ways in which you'll see yourself described as a candidate:

Potential candidate:
This is any person who is part of the talent pool for a given role and/or meets the parameters (of skills/experience/geographical location/education, etc.) for that role, whether or not they are interested in or have applied to particular job.

For example, a job board may say it has "30,000 potential candidates" in accounting. What that means is there are 30,000 people registered in their database who have indicated 'accounting' as part of their skills/experience, and who may be interested in an accounting-related role.

Passive candidate:
'Passive candidates' are people who aren't actively looking for a new job, but who may be interested in making a move if the right opportunity came along.

Among recruiters looking to fill intermediate and senior roles, passive candidates are considered the most valuable, because they tend to be high-performing achievers who are too busy making a contribution to, and moving up within, their current organization to become sufficiently dissatisfied to embark on an active job search.

(When you hear recruiters talk about using social media for recruiting, it's usually about using social media to establish and maintain long-term relationships with passive candidates. A-list overachievers, especially at the Director-level and above, aren't likely to respond to some recruiter who calls them out of the blue to try to sell them on a new job; it may take months of 'wooing' the passive candidate to get them interested in considering a move.)

Pre-screened candidate:
The process of going from "5000 applications" to "a short-list of the top candidates" as the 'screening process'.

Depending on the role and number of applicants, there may be several stages to the screening process, including 'paper screen' (a review of all the resumes/applications, discarding any that are obviously unsuitable or incorrect); 'phone screen' (the recruiter makes a 5-minute phone call to the candidates who passed the paper screen, and again discards any who are obviously unsuitable); 'detailed phone screen' (a second phone call, longer and more detailed). At each screening stage, the candidate pool is whittled down.

A pre-screened candidate refers to an applicant who has passed one or more screening stages.

Submitted to client:
Once the screening process is complete, the recruiter will submit a shortlist of the top candidates to the client (i.e. the potential employer) so that they can select the ones they'd like to interview.

What that submission contains depends on the client: Some clients want to see a brief summary of 10+ different candidates; others want more detailed info on just the top 3 candidates. Depending on the relationship between the recruiter and his/her client, your name may be included with your profile, or it may be hidden.

This is why recruiters always ask you if you're working with another recruiter, and, if so, to whom that recruiter has already submitted your profile. Employers often engage more than one recruiting agency to fill a given role; when two or more recruiters submit the profile of the same candidate, it makes everyone - including you - look bad.

It can be even more sticky if the client ends up hiring you. Remember, recruiters get paid only when the employer makes a hire. If two or more recruiters submit you, either one of them goes unpaid, or they have to split the commission. Either way, the recruiters are going to be cheesed off, and won't be in a hurry to take your call the next time you're looking for a job.

Have a recruiting-related lexicon question?

Send it to sarah@head2head.ca.

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Wednesday November 18th, 2009
Head2Head on the radio: Tips for job-seekers about working with recruiters

Today, Sarah Welstead, the Director, User Experience at Head2Head was a panelist on Career Coach Daisy Wright's radio show for jobseekers.

We answered questions from real job-seekers about how to get the most out of working with recruiters.

Click here to listen to the show!

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Tuesday November 17th, 2009
"Dear Sarah: Who pays recruiters and how do I get one?"

Think this blog post is 100% wrong?
Tell me why on the "I totally disagree with Sarah" page.

If you're new to the job market - and even if you're not - your biggest source of confusion about recruiters (aka 'headhunters') is probably a simple one:  Who the heck pays them? 

(Yes, if you're a recruiter here on ERE, you - presumably - know all about headhunters and how they get paid.  But as I explained in the first "Dear Sarah" post, this series was created so that the next time you get a  question from a non-recruiting friend or relation, you can just send them this link rather than having to spend too much time explaining.)

First, a word on lexicon:  Though you and your friends may talk about 'headhunters' - i.e. the people who call you and try to sell you on a Fabulous New Job Opportunity - that's not a word used by headhunters themselves.  It's sort of like how real estate salespeople never call themselves real estate 'agents', even though the rest of the world does. 

There's a fair amount of recruiting-industry lexicon with which you may not be familiar, actually.  The more you know about the lexicon, the more 'in the know' you'll seem to recruiters, so I've provided brief descriptions below.

Anyway, it's the client - i.e. the company who makes the hire -  who pays the recruiter, not the job-seeker. 

Here's how it (typically) works:

1. The client decides they need to fill a position (also called a 'role')
2. They send their requirements (also called a 'job requisition' or 'job req') to a recruiting agency.  In most cases, the client will send their job reqs to more than one agency at a time
3. The job requisition will be assigned to one or more recruiters, who will then look through their database, make calls to their network of contacts, and/or search online to find potential candidates.  It's at this stage that they might call or email you to see if you're (a) interested and/or (b) meet the skills/experience parameters of the position
4. If they think you're a good potential candidate, the recruiter may arrange to interview you
5. If the interview with the recruiter goes well, s/he will send your profile (which could include your resume, a summary of your strengths/weaknesses, and recommendations) to the client
6. The client is likely receiving profiles of potential candidates from several other recruiting agencies at the same time
7. The client reviews your information.  If they think you might be a good fit, they tell the recruiter to schedule an interview with you
8. When the client makes a hire, they pay the recruiting agency a fee.  This fee is typically 16-20% of the new hire's annual salary
9. The client pays the fee only to the recruiting agency who sent the successful candidate (i.e. the one who got hired).  The other recruiting agencies receive nothing.

This is called contingency fee-based recruiting, because the fee is contingent upon a hire being made.

(There are other recruiting models, and fees can vary - such as much lower fees for junior/high volume roles and higher fees for very senior/executive roles - but this is the basic contingency model and the one you're most likely to encounter if you're working with a recruiting agency.)

Typically, recruiters are paid a base salary by the agency they work for, plus a commission based on the contingency fees they generate for the agency.  So when you're hired through an agency, the recruiter you've been working with gets a piece of the 20% of your starting annual salary that the client pays to the agency.

I know it sounds like a lot of money - if your starting salary is, say, $60k, then the client pays $12,000 for the privilege of hiring you - but keep in mind that a typical agency recruiter will interview 25+ candidates per week, but only a handful of them will ultimately be hired.

So how do I connect with a recruiter?

Well, this is a big topic and one we'll revisit in future posts, but the first step is to do some research to find out which recruiting agencies specialize in your profession/field/industry.  Though some larger recruiting agencies recruit for all positions, you'll do better if you hook up with a recruiting agency - or even a recruiter - which specializes in one or two fields/roles, such as IT positions, supply chain positions or clerical positions.

However, just Googling may not be enough here.  For example, if you look at the website of Canadian recruiting company Mandrake Management Consultants, you wouldn't know that they've long had a specialty in recruiting for advertising/marketing jobs - but they do.  So your best bet is to ask around:  Ask friends and colleagues which recruiting agencies they've worked with recently, and which ones specialized in your field.

While you're at it, ask your friends/colleagues for the names (and contact info!) of the recruiter(s) they've worked with.  There's nothing more pointless - and more guaranteed to generate rejection - than randomly calling recruitment agencies and asking to speak to 'anyone'.  Recruiting agencies get hundreds, if not thousands, of unsolicited calls and emails every day - they're very good at screening.  Getting the direct email/phone number of a specific person, and being able to reference someone they've successfully placed, will put you miles ahead.

BONUS TIP:  When you're asking your friends and colleagues for referrals to recruiters, don't specify that you want the names of recruiters they liked; ask for the names of the recruiters who seemed to have jobs.  Because you don't have to like the recruiter, as long as they can actually connect you to great opportunities.

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Saturday November 14th, 2009
"Dear Sarah: Recruiters are driving me nuts. What should I do?"

Think this blog post is 100% wrong?
Tell me why on the "I totally disagree with Sarah" page.

Because I've worked in the recruiting industry for a while now, but am not actually a recruiter myself, scarcely a week goes by that I don't get an email from someone - a friend-of-a-friend, a spouse-of-a-friend, a child-of-a-friend - telling me that they're having unsatisfactory interactions with recruiters, and asking what they should do about it.

The fundamental problem, of course - outside of the current economy, which is making job hunting tougher for everyone - is simply that most job-seekers don't really understand the recruiting process.

(I know I'm not alone here:  If you've worked in recruiting or HR for more than 5 minutes, you get emails like this, too.)

It doesn't mean the people sending the emails are dumb, either.  (Ask 10 of your smartest friends - even ones who've been in the workforce for 10+ years - and I guarantee that at least 7 of them will have only the haziest notion of how 'headhunters' and contingency fees work.)  They just need a little education on how to work with recruiters.

But there are only so many hours in a day - who has time to conduct personalized Working With Recruiters 101 courses tutorials every time your father's best-friend-from-highschool's kid's cousin sends you a desperate email?

(Actually, I shouldn't be so glib, because it's sometimes heartbreaking.  In contrast to the infamous Egregiously Bad Candidates, I know many of these email writers are good people, and hard workers who bring valuable skills and experience to the table.  And even the best of us start to get a little desperate round about Week 8 of a job search.)

Welcome to the 'Dear Sarah' series!

...in which we offer advice, tips and general how-to-ish-ness to job-seekers who want to have more satisfactory interactions with recruiters.

So the next time you get a desperate email from a friend-of-a-friend, just send them here!

(All the questions here are from actual emails I've received in the past 6 months.)

FIRST QUESTION:
"Dear Sarah: 

I have been dealing with a couple of recruiters recently and I wanted your opinion.

In one case, the interview went really well and I was told that I would hear back within 1 to 3 days. It was 4 weeks before I heard anything back and the recruiter said that they planned to make an offer, but were working out details. The last contact I had with him was in August and I interviewed in July. I've been calling once a month since then, but he's not taking my calls so I leave voicemails asking him to give me a call. Is it worth keeping up with that?   Or is he not calling me back for a reason?"

When interviews go well (and it must have, if the recruiter started to talk about offers) but then you don't hear anything, one of two things has happened:

1. The employer changed their mind/plan/requirements and didn't hire anyone in the end
2. The job was filled by a candidate from another recruiting agency, and the recruiter doesn't want to tell you that

This one sounds like a classic case of #1.  In this economy, employers are wary of making new hires so they take ages to make decisions - and sometimes that decision is that they don't need to fill a role after all.

It's entirely possible that the employer has kept the recruiter dangling since July, too.

Yes, the recruiter should have followed up with you, even to tell you he hadn't heard anything.  (But you can take some comfort in the fact that in another couple of years, when the talent crisis really heats up, recruiters who don't build long-term relationships with candidates are going to find they don't have any candidates!)

In the meantime, don't waste any more time calling this recruiter.  You can bet he'll find you pretty darn quick if/when the employer is ready to make an offer - and you can spend your time seeking out other opportunities.

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Friday November 6th, 2009
Head2Head Partners With Talent Oyster!

As the talent crisis heats up again, tapping into diverse talent pools is crucial to winning the war for top talent. This is particularly true for Canada, which has one of the most diverse populations in the world.

Thanks to "Talent Oyster", tapping into these candidates just got a lot easier.

Talent Oyster is the first job board + online community to be launched simultaneously in 10 languages (including Arabic, Punjabi, Mandarin and Tagalog). It helps diverse Canadians connect with potential employers and resources in their communities, and connects employers with the skills, knowledge and experience this group represents.

So we're very excited to announce that Head2Head is partnering with Talent Oyster to deliver recruiting solutions designed to help organizations improve their diversity recruiting programs.

Talent Oyster doesn't officially launch until later this year, but in the meantime check out the "Early Adopters Program"!

(For more information about how Head2Head and Talent Oyster can help your organization improve your diversity recruiting programs, call Kim Benedict, Director Sales and Operations, at 416.440.2057.)

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Wednesday November 4th, 2009
So you want to switch from 'agency' to 'corporate' recruiting? 7 tips to make it easier.

Another fantastic guest blog by Maureen Carroll, Manager of Recruiting at Head2Head!

Since Head2Head places more recruiters, with more organizations, than anyone else in Canada, we're often asked for advice on how to move from agency (i.e. full desk, contingency-fee) recruiting to corporate (i.e. working in-house for a client as an employee or on contract) recruiting.  This week, Maureen - who's been recruiting recruiters for almost 10 years now - offers her insights about how to make the switch.

So you want to be a corporate recruiter...

Anyone who's ever worked in a recruiting agency will tell you that agency recruiting can be exciting, action-packed, lucrative - and a whole lot of fun.  But it's also unpredictable, highly sales-oriented, and transactional.  So we hear from a lot of agency recruiters who are thinking about making a move 'client-side', where they'll get more experience with long-term strategic recruiting programs.

However, recruiters who have spent several years working in an agency environment may find it difficult to make the move to corporate - they may find themselves perceived as fast-talking 'salesmen' who are more focused on putting 'bums in seats' rather than building strategic recruiting solutions.

How can you overcome the stereotypes and demonstrate you'd make a great corporate recruiter?

These 7 tips will go a long way towards impressing a potential employer that you're ready to make the move to corporate recruiting:

1. Think  - and speak! - like a corporate recruiter
   Corporate recruiting has a different lexicon than agency recruiting, and using the right terminology demonstrates that you know the difference.  For example, don't talk about 'fills' or 'fill rates' - those aren't internal terms.  Instead, talk about 'hires'.  This indicates you know that corporate recruiting is less about meeting numbers and more about getting the right people.
2. Be focused
   Most organizations with strong recruiting functions - i.e. the kinds of organizations you'd most like to work as a corporate recruiter - are looking for recruiting specialists in specific areas most relevant to their business.  You'll have better success if you position yourself as an expert in one or two key areas.  (This is where a little research can go a long way:  If you can speak to the organization's most pressing recruitment challenges, you're sending a message that you understand how recruiting can deliver against the organization's business goals.)
   
3. Demonstrate you can work with internal clients
   A big factor in the success of any corporate recruiter is how well they work with 'internal clients'.  In other words, how well they work with managers from other departments when they engage the recruitment department to fill a role.  
   
   As an agency recruiter, it's important to have ready examples of working directly with line managers - especially managers outside of HR.  Evidence that you can successfully build long-term relationships with a variety of stakeholders, even if they know little or nothing about recruiting, is a good way to demonstrate you can make the transition from agency to corporate recruiting.
   
4. Gain experience with full-lifecycle recruiting 
   Most corporate recruiting is full-lifecycle, from identifying and articulating the opportunity, through to sourcing, making the offer, doing the paperwork, and even onboarding.  
   
   While you're working in an agency environment, try to work on a project that will allow you to manage full-lifecycle recruiting - including the administration!
   
5. Build relationships with candidates
   For 99% of organizations, building positive, long-term relationships with candidates is one of their Top 3 priorities.  And let's face it:  One of the reasons agency recruiters get a bad rep is the perception that agency recruiters only call candidates when they need them, don't follow up, and don't respond to applications.
   
   So you need to highlight your commitment to building candidate relationships.  Talk about candidates with whom you've kept in touch over time, before and after you've placed them; speak to the fact that your network thrives on the referrals you get as a result of long-term relationship-building; indicate that you've participated in industry events; point out your participation in relevant LinkedIn groups, etc.
   
   (One good example we heard recently from an agency recruiter in an interview for a corporate recruiting position:  "Since 2007, I have used autoresponder emails for my job postings, to ensure that every candidate who applies receives an immediate acknowledgment.  Every time I send a candidate to an interview, I call them to follow up within 24 hours.  I call or email every active candidate in my network at least once a month, and call or email the inactive ones at least once every 6 months."  
   Then she produced the Excel spreadsheet to prove it!
   
   And yes - she got the job.) 
    
6. Get some training in Behavioural Interviewing
   Being able to accurately, reliably assess candidates is crucial for corporate recruiters, so being able to demonstrate you understand and have experience with behavioural interviewing is one of the most important factors in making the switch from agency.
   
   Having some formal training in BBI is best, but if that's not possible, there are plenty of online resources to consult, and you could start using BBI techniques in your current interviews.  That demonstrates you know how important BBI is in a corporate recruiting setting.
   
7. Don't dwell on your sales skills
   As a full-desk agency recruiter, great sales skills are a big advantage.  In a corporate recruiting setting, they'll only make you look like the fast-talking, annoying Ari Gold type who confirms all their worst fears about agency recruiters.
   
   Go ahead and speak to your ability to deliver results - but focus on the results most relevant to organizations:  Improving quality of hire, reducing time-to-hire, and making recruiting budgets work more efficiently. 

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About the Authors

Paul Dodd
Co-founder and President
Head2Head Canada

Paul has one simple goal: To help companies hire great people - and get the most out of every recruiting dollar they spend. That's why he's recognized as one of the best recruitment-industry thinkers in Canada.

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