I have a quick video for you. I just wanted to slip in one last quick bit of useful information for you on this New Year’s Eve. The New Year is literally upon us. So, since a new year often means new career aspirations for many, I am continuing my series of sharing some valuable job search advice to help you have a successful career search in 2020.
I recently had a job seeker to ask me about interacting with recruiters. He actually had a two-part question, ‘Do recruiters reach out to persons individually or do they send bulk messages via LinkedIn? Am I required to respond to them?’
For those of you who might be wondering how/if you should respond to recruiters who reach out to you, let me help.
My experience has been that they reach do both. I have had recruiters to reach out to me individually when they see that I possess experience that is directly related to a position that they need to fill. For example, I get several calls each year from recruiters who are trying to fill compensation and/or employee relations related jobs. Because these are high-demand HR skill sets, they want to make direct contact with people who possess them. If they are paid via commission, they also want to be the first one to identify the best candidate because they get paid when the placement is made. So the competition can be fierce.
I have also seen what I thought might be bulk emails…not via LinkedIn, but via other sites. Those are sometimes not even remotely related to my knowledge skills and experience. I typically do not respond to those. Feel free to adopt my plan of action, outlined below, in response to recruiter contact with me as a job seeker.
First, please know that responding to them is not required. It is more of a matter of courtesy. I actually had a recruiter to contact me twice, over a short period of time, about two different positions.
Second, I typically respond only to the ones that are directed to me specifically. If I am currently not in an active job search, I will usually thank them for contacting me about the opportunity and let them know that I am not looking for a new opportunity at this time.
Third, if the position that they are recruiting for is not a good fit for you (i.e., contract, low pay, horrible commute, etc.), there’s no harm in sending them a quick response to let them know that you are requesting to be removed from further consideration for that particular position and why. This will keep your name and qualifications fresh in their minds and hopefully, they will think about you when something that fits your career opportunity wish list lands on their desks.
Fourth, I also caution you that I have heard quite a bit on the news lately about scam artists posing as recruiters. One gentleman thankfully got suspicious when he was asked to send money to the recruiter during the pre-employment process for what appeared to be a legitimate job opportunity in his field of expertise. Later, when I tried to access their website after asking some probing questions, the site was down. Shortly thereafter, he learned that the website had only been in existence for a few months. So please never purchase gift cards, deposit checks into your bank account without verification, give your credit card #, SS#, bank account info, or any other personally-identifying information that a scam artist could use to steal your identity and harm you financially.
Don’t forget! Today is December 31, 2019, so that means that my December 2019 contest ends at 12 midnight. That right, I’ll announce on New Year’s morning, who my lucky winner of a complete Career Search Rx consultation is after we have our drawing. I’m going to put all of my new members’ email addresses in a basket and let my 12-year-old son, draw the winner. I’m excited. So, if you’re not already a subscribed member of the HR by Nnamtique community, you can join here!
Here’s to your 2020 Career Search Success!
