A Recruitment Consultant's perspective

wimblewomble_2

SueC wrote: »

But how can you sell a product you know nothing about?

Aha! I wondered when that question was going to be asked.
And this is the pivotal element of good recruiting.

How can I sell a product I know nothing about? Your question betrays your own ignorance.

Prior to recruiting, IT was my career. I only recruit those skills that I am good at, having 15 years of developer, consultant and project management experience to draw upon.

I wonder if all those recruiters with whom people have poor experiences are fresh-faced graduates with no business experience. These are the ones who cannot read a CV properly, and wouldnt be able to draw out the meanings without the help of a CV parser.
These are the ones who would probably not be able to pre-approve a candidate because they dont have the experience to draw out the value of a candidate through talking to them.
(I remember all those years ago, recruiters calling me up for contracts, and just by asking a few simple questions, it was painfully apparent they had no idea what a Cisco router was, nor tell their SQL from their .NET.)

SueC_2

wimblewomble wrote: »

Aha! I wondered when that question was going to be asked.
And this is the pivotal element of good recruiting.

How can I sell a product I know nothing about? Your question betrays your own ignorance.

Prior to recruiting, IT was my career. I only recruit those skills that I am good at, having 15 years of developer, consultant and project management experience to draw upon.

I wonder if all those recruiters with whom people have poor experiences are fresh-faced graduates with no business experience. These are the ones who cannot read a CV properly, and wouldnt be able to draw out the meanings without the help of a CV parser.
These are the ones who would probably not be able to pre-approve a candidate because they dont have the experience to draw out the value of a candidate through talking to them.
(I remember all those years ago, recruiters calling me up for contracts, and just by asking a few simple questions, it was painfully apparent they had no idea what a Cisco router was, nor tell their SQL from their .NET.)

Er, I'm objecting just a tiny bit to being called ignorant. Clearly you know your subject, and clearly that helps you recognise the right candidate for a job. I'm not doubting that.

The 'sales'people I was doubting were those that don't speak to the candidate, or even read their CV, relying instead on their computer to select the right person for the job.

I stand by that view, and I don't think that makes me ignorant.

MissSarah1972

SueC wrote: »

Er, I'm objecting just a tiny bit to being called ignorant. Clearly you know your subject, and clearly that helps you recognise the right candidate for a job. I'm not doubting that.

The 'sales'people I was doubting were those that don't speak to the candidate, or even read their CV, relying instead on their computer to select the right person for the job.

I stand by that view, and I don't think that makes me ignorant.

I am with you there - not a lot of agencies READ the cv's.
Mine says I am not working and so does my cover letter yet a lot seem surprised when they talk to me. I even asked one on the phone if she had a copy of my CV :rotfl:

CCFC_80

At the end of the day the recruitment consultant is a sales person and not a careers adviser. They use a computer says no system to recruit for their clients. From my experience of using agencies, most of them wouldn't recognise a good candidate if they came up from behind them and bit them on the back of the bum.

I know for a fact that if the same job vacancy happened to be advertised by an agency & direct with the employer, I would always get more chance of an interview applying direct to the employer.

wimblewomble_2

SueC wrote: »

Er, I'm objecting just a tiny bit to being called ignorant. Clearly you know your subject, and clearly that helps you recognise the right candidate for a job. I'm not doubting that.

The 'sales'people I was doubting were those that don't speak to the candidate, or even read their CV, relying instead on their computer to select the right person for the job.

I stand by that view, and I don't think that makes me ignorant.

Ok, perhaps ignorant was the wrong phrasing.
But your statement implying that a product was being sold "when you know nothing about it" was badly phrased by you, and presumptuous that nothing was known about the product.
You could have phrased it better.

My point stands that the poor experiences of recruiters by job-hunters may have more with lack of business knowledge than anything else.
Not reading a CV is a function of not knowing what to look for, or at least failing to use technology to create an initial filter, and then using proper knowledge to filter further through reading a CV.

This works equally for the client.
A client who has confidence that the recruiter has business experience and understands the strategic concerns may build a better relationship than those who are just phone-monkeys, making 100 calls a day.

ktothema

I know some very successful "specialist" recruitment consultants and some not so successful ones. The successful ones are only successful because they're fantastic salesmen, not because they have any idea what these specialist roles involved. The less successful actually cared about the clients and matching roles well.

This was really proved to me when my ex was recruiting for a role that required SQL programming and he found my cv on monster using some data trawl. Knowing I was looking for a job, he tried to get me to go for it. He never quite got that, whilst I'm very proficient in using SQL based databases, this is far far different from being able to program it.

mysk_girl

My favourite was the recruitment consultant who took my CV written in the 1st person, and rewrote it in the 3rd person. Not so bothered by that, but she managed to change my gender while doing so, leading to a very humorous start to the interview! And she should have known I was female as she found my husband a job not 6 weeks prior to this and his recommendation was why I went to her... And she was totally unapologetic, saying "these things happen". Maybe they do, but an apology would have been nice :-) I got the job, and am still in it 7 years later, so not all bad!

SueC_2

wimblewomble wrote: »

Ok, perhaps ignorant was the wrong phrasing.
But your statement implying that a product was being sold "when you know nothing about it" was badly phrased by you, and presumptuous that nothing was known about the product.
You could have phrased it better.

If you read back through my previous posts I think it's pretty clear that I was referring specifically to the agents who don't read CVs and depend solely on their computer software to select the right candidate for a role.

Bearing that in mind, your posts seem to be taking exactly the same point of view. To be a good recruitment agent you need to know your business - and your business is the 'product' you are selling and the market you are selling into.

wimblewomble_2

SueC wrote: »

If you read back through my previous posts I think it's pretty clear that I was referring specifically to the agents who don't read CVs and depend solely on their computer software to select the right candidate for a role.

Bearing that in mind, your posts seem to be taking exactly the same point of view. To be a good recruitment agent you need to know your business - and your business is the 'product' you are selling and the market you are selling into.

fair enough. :wave:

ARM10

DVardysShadow wrote: »

Of course, as a potential employee, you are not the customer of the Agent.

The Agent is mining a free resource. As a potential employee you are resource. If an employer hires you, you are gold. If you are not hired, you are just another lump of dirt.

Years ago I asked a recruitment agency if I could retain them to source a suitable role for me. I wanted to pay someone to cut the hassle of job seeking.

They said no, without even looking at my CV.