A Recruiting Calculus

The Recruiting Calculus is a tricky picture. People fundamentally do not understand what they are getting when they pick up the phone to call a recruiter, and do not know how to make use of a recruiter in a "smart" fashion. I want to thank people like Lou Adler for some great words of wisdom. From Lou Adler- "For job-hunters, here's the first thing you must know about recruiters: recruiters find people for jobs, not jobs for people."

What does this mean?
1.) There are probably hoops to jump through. (A personal interview with a recruiter/References/etc)
2.) You are at the mercy of the recruiter for feedback.
3.) Recruiters for the most part don't create jobs.

Again from Lou Adler, "First find the job, then find the connection. This is what LinkedIn is all about. If you have a big enough network they show you how to get connected to the person who posted the job."

What does this mean?
1.) Social networking is great, but is only valuable when you have a sizeable network. 2.) You need to ask yourself if you are contributing, or withdrawing from your network. 3.) If you have a big enough network, you gain visibility into some HUGE network contacts.

My own personal tips for recruiting-
You work with quite a few connections, try to network to find a recruiter. Find a recruiter with tenure if you can, they typically have a better overall focus as opposed to a tunnel focus.
Most recruiters work on one job, then move on. Let the recruiter breathe before you call them four times in a week unless they submit you to a job.
If you get a feeling that they arent being honest with you, find someone else. Its SO easy to find recruiters who lie to people to get rid of them. If you aren't getting enough answers or feedback, find another recruiter.

MOST IMPORTANTLY
Stick with a recruiter who does a good job for you, look for contact with them over time, and build up that relationship. If they successfully found you a job, that's a great sign that that person is a career friend that you should keep around!