September 25, 2002

How to Open Doors With Top Recruiters

Smooch S. Reynolds is president and chief executive officer of Repovich-Reynolds Group Inc. in Pasadena, Calif.

What are the leading misconceptions candidates have about search firms?

Their biggest mistake is thinking a search firm is going to get them the job. They don't understand that most recruiters are paid by their corporate clients. Candidates believe that we're like talent agents representing them. They don't realize that our primary responsibility is to the client. If you think that a recruiter is going to be representing you -- the individual -- you'll start to believe you don't have to put forth the energy to navigate your career. And you must.

You have said there are four types of recruiters. What are they?

Retained and contingency search firms are two types. (Editor's note: Retained search firms are paid retainer fees to look for candidates, regardless of whether someone they recommend is hired. Contingency firms are paid after a candidate they recommend is hired.) The Internet, which is a recruiting vehicle, and in-house corporate recruiters are the third and fourth types.

The Internet is posting jobs at all levels, whereas retained search firms fill upper- or senior-level jobs. Candidates can navigate the Internet themselves, and it puts everyone on a level playing field. Before that, there were select groups of people who had access to knowledge about various subjects.

In-house recruiters are a subset of human resources. HR departments are drowning in resumes, as are search firms, but this is still a viable path for people to find jobs.

Is there a good way or right time to initiate contact with a recruiter?

I wouldn't wait until you're out of a job to contact a recruiter. You should start this process when you reach mid-level management. That could be the 10- to 15-year mark in your career, depending on who you are.

To make contact with a recruiter, you need to turn to a network of professionals you know well and ask them to identify recruiters they've been in contact with in the past, or whom they're loyal to, or who have the same values as they do and ask for referrals. Sometimes you have to write a cold letter, but [it's best] to go your mentors, peers and colleagues or members of a professional association to gain introductions.

One of the biggest factors thwarting a professional's ability to open the door to a recruiting firm is his or her own self-awareness. You can't send a resume for every job a search firm has. It isn't possible for you to be qualified for everything. In other words, to market yourself effectively, candidates need to know who they are and what they're all about.

Which type of recruiting firm is best for candidates to contact?

It depends on the level of experience you have. I don't believe companies should have to pay search firms to fill jobs below the mid-manager level. If you're at that point in your career, you can leverage the Internet or work with contingency firms. That's the best approach if you're earning less than $80,000 to $85,000.

To apply directly to employers, identify the 10 to 20 companies you would like to work for and conduct a letter-writing campaign. The responses you get will depend on how you go about it. People should put thought into their searches. Don't just get names of 500 firms and send them your materials. A really sharp person will write an extremely thoughtful letter to a company after doing market research on the Internet, talking to people about that company and finding where specifically he or she can add value.

I want to see in a cover letter what that person thinks he or she can do for my clients. A lot of letters go in the trash bin, but part of the responsibility for whether you're noticed rests with you. Job seekers need to be smart about how they approach a company or recruiter. If I played back to people the letters they write to me, they would see how inappropriate they are.

What should I say the first time a recruiter calls me on the phone?

You need to be articulate, answer questions directly and smartly and express a certain level of passion about your career and what you do. It's almost as though you're doing a live media interview and you only have one chance, so you need to do it right. You should be well prepared. If the phone call is about a specific job, it's fair game for you to have list of questions about the company and the department the position is in. If it's just a general "let's-get-acquainted" phone call, you should be ready to articulate thoroughly your career path from college to the present, including why you made the transitions you did. Many candidates forget to say why they changed positions.

Does unemployment make me less attractive to you as a candidate?

Absolutely not. The concept of being employable rests with the individual and who they are as whole people, not just with their employment status. There's hardly an individual who hasn't been fired from a job or unemployed at some point. Every one of us has had a mulligan where we've taken a new job and the guy who hired us got fired the next day or the job changed after we got there. You can't fault people for that.

I want to know your bench strength and if you can add value to an organization. Being unemployed isn't critical. There are three million unemployed executives right now. I call this a modern-day depression. To appease Wall Street, companies are indiscriminately downsizing their employees. They run through their mediocre players, and then they dip into their top performers as well.

How should I deal with gaps on my resume?

Be completely honest. Put the cards face up on the table and deal with it. One's career is what it is. You can't change the facts because then you lose credibility. The right hiring manager is going to understand that.

Is there a period of unemployment that's unacceptable for a candidate?

There might be, but we need to give people the benefit of the doubt and hear their stories. As recruiters, we're paid to have an intuitive sixth sense about people and whether their stories are straight and to put them in context. The recruiter should look at marketplace economic factors and what was going on in the person's industry that prompted the job loss. This will provide some reasons why a person who has good credentials is unemployed.

You can't generalize about the length of unemployment. We're in an era where all of us are dealing with aging-parent issues, and many people are stepping off their career tracks to deal with them. If employers won't accommodate that, employees will stage a palace revolt.

In general, are candidates too casual or too personal with recruiters?

Yes, they don't present as strong a personal brand to a recruiter as they could. There's a lot of competition for jobs. Candidates should err on the more formal side versus the more casual side, because during your interaction, a recruiter will judge how you will behave with clients.
I wouldn't say candidates are too personal. Informal is more the right word. They forget their table manners or they dress too casually, for instance, wearing open shirts instead of suits and ties. Put on a suit. You don't have to look prudish, but you should look professional. Do this even at technology or Internet companies, because you haven't earned the privilege of dressing like their employees yet.

What is the leading resume mistake?

Thinking that you have to cram 35 years of experience into two pages. People think their resume should be only two pages long, but it can be three or four pages. I want to see all your experience, from college to the present. Another mistake is assuming that recruiters and hiring executives know the nature of every corporation's business. Give us a sense of the company, for instance, if it's the No. 1 [customer-relationship management] software company with sales of $7 billion.

What are the primary intangible qualities you're looking for in candidates?

One is risk tolerance. People in middle to senior management are being asked to make judgment calls, and most of these involve some degree of risk -- whether it's talking to a senior manager about a poor decision or something else. It means you're willing to share with bosses what they need to hear vs. what they want to hear.

Another is passion, because the days of the clock-punching mentality are over. We want people who are passionate about their chosen professions, whether it's human resources, investor relations or senior management. We want to know that they chose their field because they're passionate about it.
A positive attitude also is important. It's whether you see the glass as half full or half empty.

By Perri Capell -- Ms. Capell is a senior correspondent for CareerJournal.com. She can be reached at frances.capell@dowjones.com.