So you want to land a job…
And you’ve come here to get some insight.
Recruiters are a selfish bunch. There, I’ve said it. We recruiters are always performing a tight-wire balancing act whereby we balance the needs of our clients (who pay us) with the needs of our candidates (who don’t). In that environment, we by necessity must cater to the whims of our clients because going where the money is keeps the doors open.
You understand that, right?
So when we post jobs that we are interested in filling, it is usually at the request of our clients and they have specific needs. After all, if the jobs were easy to fill, why would they pay recruiters their fees? If they could post an ad and have the perfect candidate arrive the next day, neatly dressed and ready for work, there would be no market for recruiters.
We get the hard jobs.
Ninety-five percent of hires take place without the intervention of recruiters. This means, basically, that if you want to get a job, the best way to go about it is to use the network you already have in place. Talk to your friends, see where they are working. Ask if their companies are hiring. Call up old bosses and see if they might have a position to take you back or, if that doesn’t work, the HR staff at previous jobs. Dig your well, the old adage goes, before you are thirsty. Once you are working, keep the network alive and humming. Talk to your friends. Make new ones. Keep your options open.
Be honest with yourself. Why did you leave your last job? The time before that? How about the job prior to that? Is there a pattern? Do you find that you talk yourself into an exciting new job only to become unsatisfied and unfulfilled, updating your resume and looking within nine months?
Most of us spend our lives trying to find a situation we can live with, whether in a marriage or in a job or even finding that delicate balance within our own families. We struggle against conformity, strain against the boundaries that are imposed upon us by outside forces. Job seeking is a lot like that. We need to be honest with ourselves as to what motivates us to take a job. Most importantly, what motivates us to stay at a job. It starts within ourselves.
Review your previous employment situations and draw up a comparative list. See what caused you to be initially excited about the work and what caused you to leave.
We work through this process with all of our candidates. We want to know what motivates you so that we can figure if the open position we are trying to fill will capture your interest. If not, we will move on to another candidate.
Nothing against you, you see. We are just trying to make sure that we don’t create yet another opportunity for you to leave an unsatisfying job. Because this time we would have stamped you with our name. And we so much don’t want to create a situation for you…or for us…where we didn’t do a good job for you or our client.
So, back to the initial question: You want to land a job.
We can help. Upload your resume, watch our job board, subscribe to the RSS feed if you so desire. Let us know when something appears that you are interested in pursuing. Call us up and talk to us about it. Be prepared for us to deviate from typical recruiter talk and delve into your personal satisfaction requirements.
If you are happy and working in an IT environment and you look around and find that you’re pretty happy and not looking? Let me know! I am always searching for clients that engender loyalty and have a very low turnover rate. These are the best clients I’ve found and I want just a few more in 2011. If we could find three new clients who maintain a high level of employee satisfaction, I want to be the recruiter that your hiring managers turn to.
When it comes to landing the right job, never dismiss the internal motivations of personal satisfaction. It makes all the difference between a long-term employee and a short-timer. We pursue our dreams relentlessly. It helps to know what they are.
