Should You Work with a Recruiter? Whether or not you should work with a recruiter depends upon your personal comfort in working with other people.
- Resume guidance
- Interview preparation
- Company information
- Access to hiring companies
- Industry knowledge
- Income information and guidance
When working with a recruiter, you should set up an understanding about how the recruiter manages your information. Depending on your need for getting a job relative to your need to keep your information confidential, you and the recruiter can set up guidelines on whether you need to approve of each place the recruiter sends your resume.
I recommend that you be selective in the number of recruiters you use. If you place your resume with several recruiters who are competitors, you will not be expanding your opportunities, but will discourage recruiters from wanting to help you. Never send an email with a “Send to” list that displays the name of more than one recruiter. You will appear thoughtless, desperate, and will probably discourage the recruiters on the list from trying to help you at all.
The type of firm you need to contact depends on a two factors: the type of position you are seeking and the firm’s client base relative to your experience.
Most recruiting firms have websites. You should be able to determine from the information on the website whether the firm is right for you. In addition, you may know people who have worked with recruiters and who can recommend recruiters and firms you might want to use.