One of the most common of the questions that are directed at me when I speak to university students or friends is “How do I know whether the recruiter I'm talking to is a good recruiter?” Unfortunately there isn't a magic bullet that will always tell the good from the bad and the ugly but there are a couple of ways you can make it more likely you are dealing with a good recruiter. Firstly you don't want a jack of all trades: as the saying goes they are a master of none, and the best recruiter is the recruiter that specialises in your type of work. The best way to determine this is from a recruiter's advertising and how well they can hold a technical conversation with you. Good specialist recruiters will consistently advertise for roles that are similar in nature. At Skye we focus on Construction, Mining, Oil & Gas and Civil Consulting, and you can quickly see that there is a theme to the type of roles we advertise for, be they mining engineers or drafters. This shows you, as a job seeker, the type of people that we specialise in. If that matches your industry and background then that is a good place to start.
The next step is to talk to the recruiter. Just like the advertising a good recruiter will be knowledgeable about the type of work that you do. They may not be capable of doing your job but they should be able to talk about it. They should also know the companies that employ people like you and your chances of finding work. Feel free to ask questions and reassure yourself that they do know the right people and understand what it is that you do. For example if you are a mining engineer you want them to know what a dragline is or what drill & blast means!
Another way to tell the good from the bad is a good recruiter will be putting in a lot of work to find you a new role so they will want you to commit to the job changing process. They will have built good relationships with their client companies and they don't want to waste their clients' time. A good recruiter will also give you a timeline. They should be advising you of when they will be coming back to you with feedback and they should stick to it. A good rule of thumb which applies in our sectors is one week between your first chat with one of our recruiters and when they will be coming back to you with feedback. In a week they will have made the vast majority of approaches on your behalf and should have solid feedback from a number of companies. The process itself will take longer than a week but you should be hearing back from us by this time. If you haven't heard from your recruiter in a week, give them a call. If they have no news for you and nothing specific they are talking to you about it's time to start thinking about looking for a new recruiter because a good recruiter will keep you in the loop.
The final point is that a good recruiter will only ask you to do things that benefit you as a potential employee and not to do things that benefit only the recruiter. The most common example of this is when you are dealing with multiple recruiters and one recruiter tells you to tell all the other recruiters to go away. Why would you want to do this? Too many recruiters can make you look desperate but having more than one recruiter means you will be covering more bases. We would ask you to give us a week before speaking to other agents so that the employment waters aren't muddied and there is a single clear voice speaking to potential employers. But we will never, ever tell you to make the other agents go away. You need to be able to trust your recruiter has your interests at heart.
In summary a good recruiter will:
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Be a specialist
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Be able to talk about your industry
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Give you feedback in a timely fashion
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Keep you informed of what is happening
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Be someone you feel you can trust.
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