I am a Third Party Technical Recruiter who likes to feel that I am a friend of any job seeker who asks for my help to find them a new position, or responds to my postings at various job posting sites on the Internet.  However, in this rather difficult economy so many of us are going through, I believe a large percentage of job seekers see me and my compatriots as foes.  The main reason for much of the present friction between third party recruiters (headhunters) and job seekers is that every job opportunity is very important to the job seeker, and this creates a lot of anxiety and a desire to lash out at anyone who stands in the way of them getting the job.  The other major reason for the friction between job seekers and third party recruiters is that the job seeker does not really understand the role of the Headhunter in the hiring process, and that is what I want to address in this blog.

1. Headhunters do not create jobs, we merely fill them.  This sounds very basic but many job seekers feel that after they submit their resume to a recruiter, the recruiter should contact them within a week or two with positions that might be of interest to them.  The truth is, sadly, that even in a good economic times a typical recruiter only places about 5% of the job seekers they receive resumes from.  There are a lot of reasons for that low percentage, which is not a reflection of job seeker quality or headhunter skill, it just is.  I will deal with this topic in a future blog.
2. Third Party Recruiters (Contingency or Retained) work for the company that contracts with them or hires them to fill an open position.  This means that the hiring company is the boss and the recruiter must supply only candidates that fit the company’s criteria.  To do otherwise will result in the headhunter losing the client company’s confidence in them at the least, and possibly losing the company as a client.
3. Headhunters are given criteria by their client company that job seekers must meet, and if the job seeker’s resume does not demonstrate the required experience and training, the company will reject the resume.  Gone are the days when a recruiter could pitch a candidate to the client company just because he or she is an exceptional individual with exceptional education.
4. The third party recruiter does not work for the job seeker.  If I could guarantee a position for every job seeker that contacts me, I would be charging the candidates and not billing companies.  Headhunters do, occasionally, market exceptional candidates into companies, but this is very time consuming, and in an era where most companies are not hiring, and job seekers post their resumes to several job boards before even contacting a recruiter, marketing job seekers into companies can be very frustrating.
5. If a job seeker responds to one of my postings, I like to let them know that they are, or are not, being considered for the position.   Sometimes this elicts a rather negative response from the job seeker who is not being considered for the position.   The negative response is often due to their perception that they should be considered for the position because they are an exceptional individual, even though they do not meet the company’s experience and/or educational requirements.  Again, the headhunter works for the company and does not have the option of presenting individuals who do not meet their client company’s job requirements.
6. Many job seekers believe that the only job the headhunter has is to send all the resumes they receive directly to their client companies.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Most Human Resources Managers and Department Managers are short staffed and over worked these days.  One of the main reasons companies hire third party recruits is to reduce their manager’s work load.   Out of the 200 or so resumes I receive in reponse to postings on the Internet, in magazines, or my web site (www.discoverypersonnel.com), only about a half dozen of the resumes are sent to the client company, and then only after I, or someone in my office, talks to the job seeker at great length about the position, their skills, job requirements, etc.
7. Sometimes job seekers have some or all of the criterial the hiring company wants but they make no, or a cursory, effort to present this experience in their resumes.   I know this to be the case because, sometimes when I send an e-mail to a job seeker saying they lack the experience the client company wants, I get a response back saying they have the requisite experience or degree but they did not have room on the resume to include that rather significant piece of information.  I could almost understand not updating resumes to reflect job related experience if candidates were still using typewriters, with no memory, to prepare resumes but, with word processing available to almost everyone, why would a serious job seeker not revise their resumes to show their job related experience?
8. Recruiters (both headhunter and company) are not mind readers.  If the key words that are provided in the job description are not included somewhere in the resume, or on a cover letter (on the resume is preferable), the recruiter will reject the resume.  Time is money to a recruiter, at the end of the day selling their time and experience is all they have to offer.  Trying to contact everyone who submits a resume for a position is not practical and will lead to the recruiter going out of business very quickly.
9. Many recruiters (both third party and company) do not respond to job seekers who submit resumes, and I talk to a lot of job seekers who are very upset by this.  I do try to respond to everyone who sends me a resume but it is very time consuming, and the time spent responding to someone who sent a resume for a Custom Plastics National Sales Manager position, but whose only experience is selling lawn services, might be put to better use.  If you are responding to a job posting but you do not have at least some of the requisite job skills, please, do not waste your’s and the headhunter’s time by submitting your resume for a job in Florida and you just because you want to move to Florida.

There is much more I would like to write on this topic but I am a recruiter and both time and money are very tight at this point in time, so I must return to running my business.  I hope I have been able to clear up some misconceptions about headhunters and that this blog will proactively reduce some headhunter/job seeker frustration.

As a Third Party Recruiter, recruiting for the plastics industry, one of the least pleasant things I have to ask a job seeker is “why did you leave your last employer?”.   This question must be asked because, it is one of the first questions the company’s hiring manager or human resources representative asks us, and if the candidate has had several recent job changes, they want to know the reason for all of the recent job changes. 

I am writing this blog to suggest to unemployed job seekers, as many unemployed job seekers are now doing, to place a brief reason for each recent job change on their resume.   Reasons for being unemployed include; downsized along with 1/3 of the plant production employees, plant is closing, operations are being relocated to Asia, company has ceased doing R&D, etc.   Stating the reason for being unemployed on the resume can be a big help for the job seeker because some potential employers feel that anyone who is out of work is because of poor job performance.  The hiring manager may pass on a candidate simply because they are not currently employed, if the reason for unemployment is not included on their resume.

Obviously, some companies have used the economy as an excuse to shed poor performers but  the majority of  unemployed job seekers are unemployed because companies have to make deep cuts (sometimes deeper than they probably should have).   If you were terminated from a company for performance reasons, you might not want to include that on you resume, but if you were merely downsized, I see no reason not to include an explanation on the resume. 

There has been a great deal of upheaval in the plastics industry over the past couple of years and being unemployed in the plastics industry should no longer have the stigma attached it once did.

How is the job market?, or some form of that question is the most common question I am asked when talking to people looking for work in the plastics industry.  The following information form the Federal Government might provide an answer to that question:

On April 2, 2009, the Labor Department reported that initial claims for unemployment insurance rose to a seasonally adjusted 669,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 657,000. That total was (as it always is) above analysts’ expectations and the highest in more than 26 years.

Laid-off workers claiming benefits for more than a week rose 161,000 to 5.73 million, setting a record for the 10th straight week. This indicates that unemployed workers are having difficulty finding new jobs.

In my role as a Third Party Technicial Recruiter for the Plastics Industry, I can attest to unemployed workers having difficulty finding new jobs, and if the government manages to let GM, Ford, and Chrysler disappear, it is only going to get worse.   But suprisingly, I am seeing more offer turn downs by unemployed job seekers than I have seen in many years.  Some of the reasons for the rejection of employment offers are:

• I don’t think I can sell my house without taking a loss on it (a common comment from people living in Michigan).
• The job does not pay as much as my old job, so I cannot take the new position even though I am out of work (they usually express optimism that something better will come along).
• I can almost make as much on unemployment as the company is willing to pay (in spite of the fact that the company has expressed a willingness to in increase the pay once the individual proves him or herself).
• My children are happy at their school or my daughter/son is a Junior in High School.
• My parents are old, so I cannot leave them and relocate.
• I can sell out of a home office so why should I relocate?
• God told me not to take the position (a suprising frequent response to a job offer but no one has ever told me that the Devil told them not to take the job).
• I found a job locally (usually two hours after receiving the offer, so the job market must not be as tight as the Labor Department is indicating).
• My wife, husband, or significant other said he, she or it are not relocating.

I am sure that these reasons for not accepting a job offer a very valid (I am not about to argue with God) but some of the  reasons behind turning down a valid job offer elude me. 

1. Not taking a job because it does not pay much more that unemployment seems rather short sighted.   I think the unemployed are getting use to having the unemployment payments extended but eventually the extensions will have to stop (when no one has a job and companies no are no longer paying unemployment insurance payments or the Republicans take back Congress).  It seems that Congress is helping to foster unemployment and add to the “entitlement” programs.
2. Not relocating because money will be lost on the home seems equally short sighted.  What good does it do to hold on to a house when you cannot afford to make the mortgage payments.  I know many people hope that  a job opening will turn up in Detroit,  MI but as President Obama has already stated, “These automotive jobs are going  boys and they ain’t coming back,” or maybe that was Bruce Springfield, I get the two confused.
3. Why does the job seeker wait until the job offer is in hand before the spouse or significant other decides they will not relocate?  Shouldn’t the relocation possibility been addressed before pursuing the job, wasting every one’s time and money?
4. Not taking a job because the new job does not pay as much as the old job really confuses me.  I hate to be the harbinger of bad news but most of us will be making less money than we use to because we are now competitingin a World market that is lowering worker wages while conversely lowering product costs.   Part of the reason wages a dropping in the United States is because the US Automotive Industry kept wages at an artificially high level while losing billions of dollars.  With artificially high automotive wages ending, wages will decrease in the companies supplying GM, Ford and Chrysler, and then the companies supplying the suppliers, etc.   Just because you made $160,000 per year at your last job or $35.00 per hour at last job does not mean you are going to find another job in the near and probably distant future that pays that well.  And don’t even get me started about matching 401k’s and medical benefits.

These are just a few things to consider before you start your job search and believe me there are many, many more.  Stay tuned.