Reaching Out To Recruiters 101
A recruiter's duty is toÂ
- find personnel with suitable expertise for a job they've probably never done before, and
- sell you on the position so you'll accept an offer if you're the best final candidate.
To both applicants and hiring managers, recruiters serve as a salesperson, a cheerleader, a coach, a therapist, and a strategist.
Points to keep in mind while contacting a recruiter:
- Never approach recruiters asking them to help you. Their job isn’t to help you; your job is to help them do their job and fill roles.
- Approach a recruiter only after you’ve done your research, your LinkedIn profile and resume are updated, you’re ready to interview,
- Understand whether the recruiter is internal, external or executive, and what types of roles they recruit for.Â
a) Internal recruiters are assigned to a specific area of their company — for example, engineering, marketing, finance, etc. So, if you reach out to a finance recruiter for a marketing job, you’ll most likely be ignored.
b) External recruiters don’t work for the company with the job opening and specialise in specific business areas. For example, some external recruiters only recruit lawyers, while some specialise in industries like entertainment.
c) Executive recruiters can be internal or external and mostly hire VP-level and higher roles.Â
Situation 1: You know exactly what position(s) the recruiter is looking to fill
When you find a recruiter who is looking for applicants for a few specific positions and you are confident that you’ll be a good fit, you can approach them with a simple mail that includes the job opening you’re interested in, the link to the online posting, your applicable skills and capabilities, and what value you can bring to the role and company using keywords from the job description.Â
For example:
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Situation 2: You’ve identified a recruiter who recruits for a specific industry and function
In this instance, you might not know if the recruiter is recruiting for any specific role, but you do know the types of roles and industries they specialize in. If the recruiter has a role you could fill now, then you may receive a response. Otherwise, they may enter your information into their database for when there’s an applicable opening. So, make it easy for them to figure out which roles may be applicable:
Always remember, recruiters are the gateway, not the roadblock to you securing your next role. By providing them with relevant information about yourself, you’re not just making their job easy, but you’re also taking a step forward to land your dream role.