How job seekers can best use recruitment agencies
In these challenging economic times finding another job is significantly more difficult than it was only 12 months ago.
A large number of people will be active in the job market for the first time in many years and are undoubtedly finding that things have changed somewhat since last century. The recruitment sector in Australia is worth generates approximately $24 billion per annum, according to the recruitment industry’s representative body, the RCSA. Whether you are looking for a permanent job, a temporary job, a full time job, part–time job, in an urban or rural area, white collar or blue collar job, it’s a fair chance that you will be dealing with a recruitment agency at some stage during your job search.
Here’s a few tips to assist you deal with a recruitment agency in the most effective way possible
Your resume
- Almost all agencies use computerised databases so it is best to forward your resume in WORD format (don’t pdf it) leaving out photos, fancy graphics or embedded applications. This makes the storing and searching of your resume on a recruiter’s database a simple process.
- List your jobs history in reverse chronological order (ie most recent job first), reducing the amount of information on each job as you go further back in your employment history. I recommend a resume of no more than four pages
- Critical information to include is employer name, specific dates of your employment (ie month & year), your job title, your job tasks and your achievements in each job
- Use bullet points, rather than a narrative, for ease of reading
General applications
- Most agencies welcome job seekers forwarding their resumes for general applications as well as for specific jobs. Most recruiters will hold your resume on file until a suitable comes up so don’t expect an immediate interview just because you have sent in your resume.
Specific applications
- It assists your application significantly if you can draw the recruiter’s attention to your skills that specifically match the criteria being requested in the job advertisement. Don’t expect a recruiter to be able to immediately ‘connect the dots’ in your resume – be explicit, not subtle.
Phoning a recruiter
- As a recruiter receives tens or hundreds of applications every day it can assist you greatly to stand out by speaking to the recruiter directly.
- Be prepared. Know what points you wish to make or questions you want answers to.
- Be polite.
- Send a follow up email to reinforce any relevant points about your suitability for a job. Recruiters recognise and appreciate persistence but will be less impressed if you are unprepared, impolite or simply don’t listen.
The recruiters’ Code of Professional Conduct
- Recruiters who are members of the Recruitment & Consulting Services Association (RCSA) are bound by a Code of Professional Conduct. You can read the code here http://www.rcsa.com.au/documents/cfpc/CFPC.pdf This code will give you an excellent understanding of how a professional recruiter should deal with you and your personal information. If you have concerns you can contact the RCSA head office on 03 9663 0555
- Recruitment agencies make their money by charging employers a fee for a permanent hire or an hourly or daily margin on a temporary placement. It is illegal to charge job seekers a fee for finding them work.
(Updated by mspecht)
Ross, you said “The recruitment sector in Australia is worth approximately $24 billion per annum”
It’s not really “worth” $24bn - that’s the total turnover. But a huge proportion of that turnover (say 80-90%) is total contractor billings, which includes the contractors wages including (often including PAYG tax), Workcover, Payroll Tax and in the case of PAYG contractors, 9% Super. Therefore only a small percentage of the total contractor billings is revenue for the recruitment agency.
Notwithstanding the above, it is still a significant industry.
You are 100% correct, Kevin. My use of ‘worth’ was careless. I should have said ‘the recruitment sector generates $24 billion worth of sales’. Thanks for picking it up.
Ross I have taken the liberty to update your post, you should be able to also log in and update your posts as well.
Great to see a site like this. A quick note to the owners, when I joined as a member, I couldn’t select QLD as a state I’m from (surely we’re shaking the sleepy town rep up here!)
Ross, I enjoy your ongoing contribution and articles towards the recruitment industry and thought as an IT professional and Recruitment Consultant of the past 4 years I’d share my views.
Great tips about the formatting and keeping the resume in Microsoft Word format. Recruitment consultants need to re-format CV’s to their agency template, and the easier it is to do this the better. Not using boarders, fancy graphics, even tables is preferable and it will avoid your CV being presented with poor formatting.
I’d also add that writing a summary or profile about your experience at the start of your resume is valuable. This summary should be targeted to the job you’re applying for, and with general applications should provide an overview of your capability, skills and experience. Most importantly in both instances, it should demonstrate measurable achievements. There are two reasons why I’d recommend writing a good summary:
1. It will add value to your application
2. You can’t always rely on the recruitment consultant writing the best summary for you (after they’ve interviewed you) when presenting your application to their client. Recruitment consultants can be time poor and working in a “high-volume” transactional environment, and taking the time to write a candidate summary is not standard procedure or will be omitted in order to achieve their KPI sales targets.
How do you choose the right recruitment consultant and agency to work with?
Sometimes you may not get a choice which agency or consultant to work with if they’re the only ones advertising a job. However if you do have a choice, then my advice is that you should be interviewing the consultant as much as they interview you. You should choose to work with a consultant who knows the most about the job and their client, as this should give you confidence that they have an effective relationship with their client which will help your application chances.
Also, put yourself in the shoes of the consultant. Recruitment is a hard job and for agency recruiters it’s a sales job, so any help you can give to make the sale will ultimately help everyone win. So be engaging, do your research and ask the consultant for advice as to how you can present the best possible application to their client.
Finally, if you find a good consultant or agency, then show them some loyalty as they’ll show it back to you. When you can, work with them exclusively and look at maintaining a long term relationship.
Daniel, yeah we thought QLD had been sold but I guess the sale did not go through ;-). Anyways this has been fixed.
Good points, Daniel. Thanks for your thoughts. A summary that lists specific accomplishments relevant to the job being applied for is far superior to a list of generic competencies (eg communications skills, team work, initiative etc.
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