Why Aren’t the Recruiters Calling Me?

Executive Recruiters, headhunters, and placement agencies work on the other side of the fence from career management specialists like The Barrett Group. The difference lies in how they are paid for their services. This difference dictates loyalty. It also changes where the effort lies when servicing the needs of the client.

Recruiters are paid by their corporate client companies. This may be by either retainer or contingency. The service they provide is filling open job orders. Accordingly, a great deal of their effort is expended on obtaining these job orders. Recruiters must also continuously win favor with the HR department and hiring executives. They want the stream of job orders to continue. Recruiters do not get paid to get people jobs. Indeed, a private individual can’t “hire” a recruiter. Recruiters work for companies. They do not work for job seekers.

Executive recruiting is a highly sophisticated profession. It is typically populated by professionals who have a depth of experience in a certain industry or discipline. They are usually based in a given local geography.

Executive recruiters know very specifically what and who their client company is looking for. They also know how to find them. Executive recruiters maintain ongoing relationships with many executives they place. Executive recruiters often maintain this relationship so they can place them again and again throughout their career. They rarely have to look outside their circle for a candidate to present.

Career management is also a highly sophisticated profession, but requiring a completely different set of skills. Here at The Barrett Group, our clients are individual. Our clients are focused on bettering their career situation over a period of time. And we accept private retainers to help them accomplish their goals.

Career Managers live in the job search process. We work personally and closely, utilizing the wisdom and techniques amassed from the experiences of our consultants. We have performed many types of searches and employment/career challenges. Because we are only beholden to our individual private clients, we are not limited by sector, profession or geography. The combined skills of the consulting team adapt our techniques for each individual client.

Some of our clients enjoy a great flurry of activity from the recruiting community. This may be because they are seen as highly placeable within that industry sector. This is when our job becomes one of brinksmanship. We help our client to interpret and steer the recruiters’ actions to be advantageous for our client. This direct assistance often makes a huge difference in our clients’ final offers of employment.

If you aren’t receiving regular calls and emails from the recruiting community, there can only be two reasons why. (1) They aren’t aware of you. This could signal a basic failure in your professional networking, reputation building and strategic participation in social networking. Or (2) they don’t see you as someone they can place with their client companies.

In either case, hiring a professional career management team, like those available at The Barrett Group, is your best bet to correcting the problem and advancing your career.