Professional Recruiters: Job Seeker Friend or Foe?

The pros and cons so you can decide for yourself.

This is a guest post by Frankie Eybsen. If you’d also like to guest post here on JobMob, follow these guest post guidelines.

Professional recruiters make a living finding the perfect match: They help employers find the best employees, and they assist job seekers, when possible, in their job search to find the position that best matches their skills, experience, and salary requirements.

But, in the end, a professional recruiter is hired – and paid – by the client who is seeking employees. That begs the question:

Are professional recruiters your friend or your foe?

Let’s consider the advantages and disadvantages of the professional recruiter, so you can decide for yourself.

3 Upsides of the Professional Recruiter

1) A recruiter has access to more job opportunities

A professional recruiter can make the process of finding a job – or at the very least, of landing interviews – much easier. Recruiters have an extensive network of contacts and they know where the jobs are. Employers may choose not to advertise job openings, opting instead to hire a professional recruiter. That means you may have access to unadvertised jobs, jobs about which the general public is unaware.

2) It’s free

Professional recruiters are paid by their clients – the employers – which means you don’t have to pay anything. If you’re asked to pay, find another professional recruiter. The professional recruiter is the employer’s client, so asking a job seeker to pay would present a conflict of interest.

3) You receive interview preparation assistance

Once a professional recruiter sets you up with an interview, she will likely help you prepare for that interview by going over what to expect, what the company is looking for, and by telling you a little bit about the company. The interview preparation, whether brief or in-depth, can help you at the interview, giving you a better shot of landing the job.

3 Downsides to Working with a Professional Recruiter

1) Call me, please!

Professional recruiters aren’t always easy to get in touch with unless, of course, you have the qualifications for which they are looking at that moment. You may have to do a lot of legwork to find a professional recruiter who is willing to work with you. If you do not fit the criteria for open positions the recruiter currently has, you may not hear from him or her for quite some time, if at all.

2) You aren’t the client

Ultimately, a professional recruiter’s job is to find the best candidate for the employer. Their primary goal is to find the best candidate for their client’s open position. Helping you gain employment, as a result, is always going to be secondary to that.

3) You are only considered for one position at a time

In a typical recruitment firm, a candidate can only work with one recruiter at a time. If you are already in the running for a job and another position comes along, you generally cannot be considered for it. That means you’re better off finding several professional recruiters with whom to work during your job search.

So- professional recruiter: friend or foe?

It all depends on you.

Professional recruiters certainly can provide you with advantages that you won’t have if you search on your own, but you have to remember their primary goal is to assist the employer. Certainly consider using a professional recruiter as one component of your job search, but don’t count on them to find you a job. Make sure you’re also working to find a job on your own.

About the author

Frankie Eybsen is a career blogging and marketing manager at ResumeBucket. His latest project is creating the largest resume samples collection on the internet.

If you liked this article, check out An Open Letter to the Recruiters of the World From Job Seekers Everywhere.

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