Recruitment agencies can positively augment your job search strategy. Not only will they have a wealth of knowledge on the industry and your target companies, but they will also have insight into the hidden job market. In addition, the main motivation for recruitment agencies is to place candidates with their clients. The client then pays the agency a finder’s fee when a candidate is placed. As a result, using recruitment agencies should not cost you any money.
Recruitment Agency Questions
To ensure that a recruitment agency can place you, there are 3 key questions that they will want to answer:
- Can you do the job? You will likely be asked technical questions about your experience. Even if you do not work in a technical field, such as engineering, the recruitment agency will want to ensure that you have the aptitude and skill to perform your job duties. As such, the “tell me about a time when” type of question will be less prevalent during the recruitment agency interview.
- Do you want to do the job? The recruitment agency will want to dig deep to understand your motivations. They will want to understand your motivation to changing employers or in targeting specific companies. They will also want to understand your passion points to ensure that they align with their clients’.
- Will you represent the recruitment agency well with the client company? Recruitment agency recruiters will want to meet with you in person or via Skype to see how well you present yourself. In addition, they will want to ensure that there are no conflicts with your job applications. In other words, they will want to make sure that if they were to present you to their client that you have not yet interviewed with this organization.
During the Recruitment Agency Interview
It is important that you take the recruitment agency interview seriously. Be sure to follow the key interview do’s and don’ts when meeting with the recruitment agency. For example, be sure to maintain eye contact and to dress for success.
Further, it is important that you bring your list of target companies and companies that you have applied to and interviewed with to the recruitment agency. In doing so, you will be better able to partner with the recruitment agency. In addition, you will enable them to avoid any conflicts when they represent you to a client. Keep in mind, by applying with an organization directly and by having a recruitment agency represent you to the same organization, it may backfire. The organization in question may reject your application on the basis that you have been presented twice.
Final Thoughts
You can be more open and transparent with the recruitment agency than you would with a potential employer. Think of the recruitment agency as your job search partner. For example, if you are looking to change jobs because of a conflict with your current supervisor, you can disclose this to the recruitment agency. You may need to position this differently with a potential employer, however. Given that recruitment agencies work with a variety of organizations and have insight into the market, they may already be aware of reputational issues with this employer. In addition, this would be useful information to the recruitment agency as they council some of their other candidates. It is important that you balance transparency with diplomacy, however.
I hope you found this post helpful. If you have any additional insights, or would like to share your experience, please feel free to leave a comment below.
Until next time, happy hunting!
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