One principle of getting the better job you want is simply to maximize the number of exposures you make to prospective employers. How do you go about it? Obviously, by answering every ad for which you are reasonably well qualified, and by writing cold-turkey letters to companies you'd like to work for. But you may be hitting only the tip of the iceberg with such techniques. Many positions are never advertised because companies prefer, instead, to hire professional recruiting firms to look for candidates discreetly. Many other positions are advertised so subtly-with a one-line listing of the job title by a professional recruiting firm, along with a telephone number-that unless you make an effort to scrutinize such ads, you could easily overlook them. It all boils down to this: unless you make it your business to make your campaign known to professional recruiting firms, you may be missing an important source of possible positions that you might want to secure. And not doing so could be one of the biggest mistakes of your job search.
After all, professional recruiting outfits are in business to bridge the gap between a prospective employer's needs and your talents. They make their living by unearthing positions that need filling and convincing employers that they can fill these openings more effectively than if the employer advertises on his own. So no job-seeker should fail to make use of these professional recruiters. They are an additional channel to prospective opportunities; they are available and willing. Without them, you can't maximize your exposure to the market for your talents. Who are these professional recruiting firms? How can you reach them? Unfortunately, they range from highly professional prestigious firms to one-man backroom operations that exist only by the grace of Alexander Graham Bell. So it's really not possible to secure one comprehensive list of people in the business of professional recruiting and to send your resume to them. You have to deal with each type of recruiter in a way that will yield you the best results. Here is a rundown on the kinds of professional (and not so professional) recruiters you are likely to come up against during your job search.
Executive recruiters
The most prestigious of the professional recruiters, these organizations are employed by those companies seeking executives to fill vacant executive positions, typically at $50,000 and up, although many limit their searches to executives making $80,000 and up. Executive recruiters are generally on retainer but earn additional incentives (up to 30 percent of your first year's salary) when they place you. Professional executive recruiters rely heavily on repeat business from the companies they represent and are very thorough in checking on the backgrounds of the job-seekers they discover. Their thoroughness can be a nuisance to job-seekers when they request a detailed written letter to accompany a resume, or the names of fifteen or so references from the past. This is particularly bothersome when an executive recruiter requests this information without having a particular client vacancy to fill. But you'd better live with the inconvenience since executive recruiters can be key people in your life. Typically, executive recruiters themselves have risen in the ranks of business and are personable and highly articulate. Frequently senior company officials retire to the prestige-paneled offices of executive recruiting firms and use their former business contacts to secure the right to represent companies in finding executives to fill key positions.
Because they represent companies, executive recruiters do not promote job candidates. They will put you in contact with a company they represent only if a genuine job opportunity exists. Thus, sending a resume to an executive recruiter won't often get you in the door of a potential employer. Executive recruiters do maintain active files, however, and it can't hurt to have your resume in them. Executive recruiters' active files are definitely not circular. I know of a dozen cases in which executive recruiters have located candidates two years or more after they first received the resume. In most instances it's too late: the candidate is at peace with the world. But not always. An executive recruiter may catch up with you just as you are ready to move again.
Which executive recruiters should you write to? All of them. Why? Because executive recruiters typically are on an exclusive retainer to fill all jobs for the particular company they represent. Thus, when you send your resume to all executive recruiters, you run very little risk of having your resume sent to a company from several different sources. At the same time, you broaden the base of companies that might possibly be looking for a person like you.
Management consultants
These firms are primarily in business to solve systems and organizational problems for their client companies. As part of their assistance program, many management consultants do provide assistance in locating executives. Initially this service was limited to finding executives for positions that developed as a result of restructuring the organization according to the consultants' recommendations. Today, however, a number of management consultants maintain full-time recruiting departments as a separate profit center and do recruiting for clients regardless of whether they are doing other manpower consulting. Management consultants, like executive recruiters, work for the company, not the candidate, and are interested in people only when they have specific job openings to fill. As with executive recruiters, management consultants rarely if ever overlap each other in representing a client company, and you need not fear duplicate distribution of your resume if you send it out to a number of management consultants. You should recognize in approaching management consultants that for many of them executive recruiting is a secondary service. As such, they are not aggressively seeking people like you. So don't rely heavily on them for results. At the same time it can't hurt to contact any major consulting firms in your area to make sure they know of you in the event that something comes along while you're still looking.
Certified public accountants and major banks
In one sense CPA firms and banks are consultants in their own disciplines. As such, client companies have turned to them for help in locating qualified executives in their own fields. Recognizing that recruiting is a lucrative business; many such firms have also established search departments as separate profit centers. The "big-eight" accounting firms like Arthur Andersen, Touche Ross, and Price Waterhouse, for example, offer executive recruiting assistance to their clients-and seek out individuals in all disciplines. Similarly major banks such as Citibank and Bankers Trust in New York are set up to handle recruiting assignments for their clients. It would pay you to contact the Executive Recruiting Departments of the major CPA firms in your area as well as the Executive Recruiting Officer in major banks in your locale.
