I love my job here at BountyJobs. I talk to between 40-50 employers and headhunters every day: about their candidates, their jobs, the technology, and mostly, about each other.
Employers love to talk about headhunters, and headhunters love to talk about employers. Why is that?
Mostly, it’s positive. Both halves of the recruiting industry need each other. You all depend on each other. When the relationship gels, you like each other. But when it doesn’t gel? It can get awkward. So I thought I’d send along some tips to avoid the awkwardness.
“Throw a resume to the wall and hope it sticks”
“Throwing a resume to the wall and hoping it sticks” is a saying known all-too-well within the recruiting industry. It’s a technique many recruiters use and infers that a candidate is chosen at random and submitted to a favorable position, in hopes that the submission may be received on the employer end.
Among unspoken submission rules, this one’s at the top. Submitting a candidate, any candidate who does not have the proper credentials for a role can have many negative ripple effects. Plainly, it also makes a headhunter look inexperienced and lazy.
Presenting your agency instead of your candidate
Upon submitting a viable candidate to a role, many agencies modify a candidate’s resume. This action is feasible when needing to highlight experience or attributes, however including very pronounced agency information (i.e. agency name, contact information, headhunter details) on the candidate’s resume is a common gaffe made.
If a hiring manager can’t distinguish between the recruiter and the candidate while reviewing a resume, then who’s being presented exactly?
Another note on resumes: Length
While the standard maximum length for a forwarded resume should be 1 page, it isn’t uncommon to see at a maximum, a two-page document. Considering the competitive nature of the role and a candidate’s experience, it may be necessary to extend to 2 pages.
On the contrary, including a virtual shorthand “manual” or a “condensed life story” is unnecessary. Simply this: too much content = too much begging and too much bragging for consideration.
Don’t wait for the cherry on top!
Often times recruiters will anxiously await learning all the nooks and crannies of a role before submitting, and sometimein, for instance, if relocation costs are included for a role, is not necessarily a non-negotiable factor or reason for not submitting.
Submit once and for all and lighten favorable expectation.
If there’s a role that aligns perfectly with a particular candidate, submit the resume, pending a candidate’s approval of course (!), to the role. Regardless of a candidate’s qualifications, do not inflate expectations. Nothing is guaranteed in the field of recruiting, so let the chips fall where they may. After all, a candidate’s resume will speak for itself, and even after it does, a placement is always left to the discretion of the employer and their subjective view of “the right fit.”
Avoiding some of these “no-no’s” will help avoid the awkwardness!
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