1. You can take advantage of all the people I know.
I’m happy to share whatever information I have! Sometimes, that –in and of itself- can be helpful to you. I’ve placed several hundred people over the years – some are CIOs now – and we’re still in touch. I’ve got a pretty good handle on what’s happening on a daily basis with many companies. I’ve usually got the street scoop on any particular company, from candidates of mine, and others, who have interviewed there.
2. We usually have more jobs than you see out on the boards.
What’s interesting is that sometimes we’re also working on the jobs you see out there. If that’s a surprise to you, it was to me too in the beginning. But often companies are understaffed in their recruiting departments, and need the extra help. And they want to take advantage of the people we know too – one of them might be you!
3. Resume review!
I’ve said this before – you don’t write resumes for a living but I read them for a living and I know what my clients want to see. And I write and rewrite them too. I will throw a disclaimer in here now – all recruiters want a resume to look the way their clients want to see it. That means you might have more than a couple of versions. For example, I don’t like objectives, I find them too limiting. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a time and place for them, and there are times when an objective is very useful – and I’ll share that with you.
Back to resumes – sometimes I’ve been able to turn a resume around with just a couple of additions and flips of the content. It just happened recently. The gentleman I was working with had a really difficult resume –too long, too small a typeface, content chunks that were too big, and the tech matrix at the bottom/back end. I asked him if he was getting many hits and he said no. He was very discouraged. But in half an hour of conversation and a couple of days of hard work on his end, based on my recommendations, he turned it around and started getting several calls. He got a contract job two weeks later – it wasn’t with me, but that’s ok, I was SO happy for him – he hadn’t worked in over a year. I’ll catch him on the next round when he comes off his current engagement
4. Insight!
In a tough economy, you’re going to need all the help you can get to compete. I might even tell you to stay where you are, depending on the situation. In a booming economy – a candidate’s market – you might get too many offers. That seems like a great problem to have, but it can be overwhelming. I might be able to help.
