Etiquette when using a recruiter/agency?

[Mont Blanc]

Once I have placed my CV with a recruiter and officially asked them to find me a new role, is it generally considered an unspoken rule to give them some time to find some potential roles, or is it fair game to also give my CV to other recruiters?

[GiantEnemyCrab]

Get it around a select few (not tens). eg there will likely be Premier League and Conference level recruiters for your industry.

/ insert obligatory even Premier League recruiters are total snakes / tossers / insert as required.

[Freakuk]

Mont Blanc said:

Once I have placed my CV with a recruiter and officially asked them to find me a new role, is it generally considered an unspoken rule to give them some time to find some potential roles, or is it fair game to also give my CV to other recruiters?

Give your CV to as many as possible IMO, why limit yourself to a single agency?

You have to remember mid-large-enterprise companies will have 2-3 preferred suppliers (agencies) and regardless of how good you are if you're not registered with one of those the door is closed, multiply that by the number of companies and the number of agencies you soon realise leaving it to a single person is like winning the lottery.

I would also discuss with each agency what you are ideally looking for, and ask them to review your CV and make any changes they suggest, that could mean multiple CV's for different agencies.

However, I would say why wait for them to find you a job, you should pro-actively be marketing yourself by uploading your CV to the countless job sites, job search engines, I assume you have a LinkedIn profile, connect with as many recruiters as possible, people in similar roles, companies you would like to work for, HR staff within those companies. Make sure your linked in profile is absolutely stand out and ensure you have set your profile to actively looking for work.

Call recruiters, build up a relationship, keep in touch.... Recruiters hate advertising jobs because they will get swamped in CV's and nowadays they literally put them into an application which searches on key words in the CV relevant to the job, the ones with the highest hits get the calls, then once they have been vetted by the recruited submitted to the company for consideration.

[Macneil]

What type of job? Is your recruiter a specialist in a field where there are potential high rewards for you, or are we talking Drivers Wanted?

[Mont Blanc]

I’m Director / Exec Director level in local government and Housing. £100k+ or thereabouts. I’m not in the stratosphere by any means, but at this level I have noticed that using a proper CV coach and a decent recruiter does help.

I have not used this particular recruiter before, but chosen him as he has been really good with the business I am currently with, and has found us several good people. He’s been in the game 25 years, specialises in this sector and seems to genuinely care. I have had a face to face meeting with him, he has tweaked my CV a little, and has been good to talk to.

I already had my CV rewritten by a specialist a year or so ago. I have a good, and up to date, LinkedIn profile.

I thought it would be improper to also give my CV to others once I had engaged with one recruiter, but thanks to this thread I can see that it’s all fair game.

Thanks again to PH

[softtop]

Mont Blanc said:

I’m Director / Exec Director level in local government and Housing. £100k+ or thereabouts. I’m not in the stratosphere by any means, but at this level I have noticed that using a proper CV coach and a decent recruiter does help.

I have not used this particular recruiter before, but chosen him as he has been really good with the business I am currently with, and has found us several good people. He’s been in the game 25 years, specialises in this sector and seems to genuinely care. I have had a face to face meeting with him, he has tweaked my CV a little, and has been good to talk to.

I already had my CV rewritten by a specialist a year or so ago. I have a good, and up to date, LinkedIn profile.

I thought it would be improper to also give my CV to others once I had engaged with one recruiter, but thanks to this thread I can see that it’s all fair game.

Thanks again to PH

I guess that depending on location, you may have to move? How does the networking with your industry play out for you?

[Flumpo]

Mont Blanc said:

I’m Director / Exec Director level in local government and Housing. £100k+ or thereabouts. I’m not in the stratosphere by any means, but at this level I have noticed that using a proper CV coach and a decent recruiter does help.

I have not used this particular recruiter before, but chosen him as he has been really good with the business I am currently with, and has found us several good people. He’s been in the game 25 years, specialises in this sector and seems to genuinely care. I have had a face to face meeting with him, he has tweaked my CV a little, and has been good to talk to.

I already had my CV rewritten by a specialist a year or so ago. I have a good, and up to date, LinkedIn profile.

I thought it would be improper to also give my CV to others once I had engaged with one recruiter, but thanks to this thread I can see that it’s all fair game.

Thanks again to PH

What sort of jobs are you actually looking for?

Are you looking for local authority contracting jobs? If so use one agencies who specialises in that. As all they do is ring round all of the local authorities asking if they need a contractor and carpet bomb your cv to them. If you do this through multiple agencies you will cause problems as they will receive ‘you’ through multiple agencies. This can lead to arguments over who you are with and who got your cv to them first. I’ve had agencies threaten to sue before because they sent a persons cv first not the other agency. Now if I get two people obviously through 2 agencies they just don’t make the shortlist to avoid the issue. They are plenty of people about, it’s not worth the hassle.

On the other hand, if you don’t think you’re getting anywhere try someone else after a month. They may be putting other candidates forward ahead of you. That does happen through agencies. If they have a contractor who never causes problems and always gets roles, they are being put forward first.

You will also find agencies are all over you to get you on their books. You may never hear from them again if they seem you not what they are looking for, regardless of how excellent they said you were when they got you signed up.

[Countdown]

I can recommend Gatenby Sanderson - I found a couple of roles through them.

[Boleros]

Absolutely fair game to use as many recruiters as you like/need. Not all are on the same page for sure. The higher end of headhunters/recruiters tend to be more professional about their business, others are just idiots.

One thing I will say, and it’s a bit cynical, you are not their client and they owe you nothing. You are a product and they make their money from the client, not you. Not unless you’re paying them of course. The better ones will build a relationship with you to make sure you’re not a liability to each other. The others, client/product.

[craigjm]

Countdown said:

I can recommend Gatenby Sanderson - I found a couple of roles through them.

They can be good for senior local authority roles as are Penna exec search.

OP you can contact them all to look for roles but if they find a role you should contract with just the one to deal with that role moving forward. My advice when being pointed towards a role is to check if it is on the organizations own website and if it is apply that way rather than through any agency. Recruitment section of The MJ is also worth looking at in your career path.

[Mont Blanc]

Flumpo said:

What sort of jobs are you actually looking for?

Are you looking for local authority contracting jobs? If so use one agencies who specialises in that. As all they do is ring round all of the local authorities asking if they need a contractor and carpet bomb your cv to them. If you do this through multiple agencies you will cause problems as they will receive ‘you’ through multiple agencies. This can lead to arguments over who you are with and who got your cv to them first. I’ve had agencies threaten to sue before because they sent a persons cv first not the other agency. Now if I get two people obviously through 2 agencies they just don’t make the shortlist to avoid the issue. They are plenty of people about, it’s not worth the hassle.

On the other hand, if you don’t think you’re getting anywhere try someone else after a month. They may be putting other candidates forward ahead of you. That does happen through agencies. If they have a contractor who never causes problems and always gets roles, they are being put forward first.

You will also find agencies are all over you to get you on their books. You may never hear from them again if they seem you not what they are looking for, regardless of how excellent they said you were when they got you signed up.

Good point, I should have been clearer about what I am looking for:

I am not looking for contracting jobs, IR35, or interim etc, I am looking to change from one permanent role to a new permanent role. My reasons are that I just fancy a change, I feel I have done all I can to improve things in my department, and I don't like the look of the way things are going in the place I currently work. I have worked at my current place for 4 years and have been promoted during that time.

With regards to your point about potential employers getting multiple copies of my CV and it causing an issue, this is what I was concerned about, and is why I started the thread.

The sector is quite a small world (relatively speaking) and I genuinely was concerned that if I went to other recruiters as well, then any job that matched my requirements would receive my CV as a candidate several times.

[Mont Blanc]

softtop said:

I guess that depending on location, you may have to move? How does the networking with your industry play out for you?

I have worked in various locations in the country so this will hopefully not be an issue. Fortunately the sector is one of the most flexible and generous around WFH/Hybrid. Some places are now even moving to 100% WFH and so on.

Networking is usually pretty good. The whole sector is hot on LinkedIn and meeting up at conferences etc. As I mentioned above, it's one of those small world type sectors where everyone knows someone in a different business, or has worked with them previously, and people have moved around over the years quite a bit.

I am now also trying the approach of messaging people in other businesses who I know personally, to ask them to keep an eye out for something that may be suitable. I've done it for others and in this line of work it seems to be normal for everyone to help someone find a new role.

I'm trying to be a bit careful though, as I obviously don't want my current employer finding out that I am looking. The HR team recently noticed that one of my colleagues had the 'Open to work' icon switched on across his LinkedIn profile and he was asked to explain to his manager why this was, and how it was a bad look for the company!

Boleros said:

Absolutely fair game to use as many recruiters as you like/need. Not all are on the same page for sure. The higher end of headhunters/recruiters tend to be more professional about their business, others are just idiots.

One thing I will say, and it’s a bit cynical, you are not their client and they owe you nothing. You are a product and they make their money from the client, not you. Not unless you’re paying them of course. The better ones will build a relationship with you to make sure you’re not a liability to each other. The others, client/product.

Oh don't worry, I absolutely acknowledge that recruiting is all about the money and I am merely something they can sell to make some cash! Some of them really won't care who they sell me to as long as they get paid.

This is why I have tried to choose carefully and go with a recruiter who I know personally from using him as a hirer. All signs are that he wants repeat business either from me in the future or from the business who he 'sells' me to, and he has tried to really get to the bottom of what I want from my next role, which seems reassuring. I could be wrong though!...

Edited by Mont Blanc on Friday 2nd August 08:58

[Freakuk]

Mont Blanc said:

With regards to your point about potential employers getting multiple copies of my CV and it causing an issue, this is what I was concerned about, and is why I started the thread.

A recruiter won't submit your CV for a role without consulting with you beforehand. If recruiter A approaches you, discusses a role and he then submits your CV etc, then you get a call from recruiter B, it will soon become apparent it's the same role/company you simply say I have already been submitted.

[craigjm]

Freakuk said:

Mont Blanc said:

With regards to your point about potential employers getting multiple copies of my CV and it causing an issue, this is what I was concerned about, and is why I started the thread.

A recruiter won't submit your CV for a role without consulting with you beforehand. If recruiter A approaches you, discusses a role and he then submits your CV etc, then you get a call from recruiter B, it will soon become apparent it's the same role/company you simply say I have already been submitted.

I was just going to say this which is why I referenced in my post that if they do offer to send a CV over you do that with one company (check the advertising company directly first though)

[craigjm]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

This is why you need to be choosy who you partner with. Companies like Gatenby and Penna mentioned above would not do this.

[Countdown]

craigjm said:

This is why you need to be choosy who you partner with. Companies like Gatenby and Penna mentioned above would not do this.

That's what I was thinking. IME the Agency always tells me if they're sending my CV to somebody but I wasn't sure if that was the case for all Recruiters.

Also, whenever I get sent random CVs for candidates they're always anonymised.

In a situation where we get the same person's CV from two Agencies we ask the Candidate who they want to be represented by.

[Boleros]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I know it does happen but the higher end people won't do that (or shouldn't) without asking first. When they've found a role that fits they'll discuss it with the candidate first and ask permission to send their CV. I've been in the realms of NDAs previously which does give some reassurance that things are being taken seriously but I've equally been on the receiving end of organisations who are just desperate to get an arse on a seat.

I have a love/hate relationship with agencies and recruiters. They really do drive me nuts sometimes.

[Griffgrog]

I don't know about your particular industry, but we have an internal recruitment team and they have a BIG incentive to recruit directly and avoid agency costs. Given that you have such a defined target market for your next employer, you could bypass the agencies and use LinkedIn to find the recruitment team in the organisations that you fancy working for.

[Countdown]

At the £100k+ end of the market the limited number of vacancies combined with the limited number of actively looking candidates means it’s (IME) more efficient to use Exec Search agencies.

The chances of an in-house HR team seeing the OPs LinkedIn post whilst also needing a CEO/Director are small, I think

[craigjm]

Griffgrog said:

I don't know about your particular industry, but we have an internal recruitment team and they have a BIG incentive to recruit directly and avoid agency costs. Given that you have such a defined target market for your next employer, you could bypass the agencies and use LinkedIn to find the recruitment team in the organisations that you fancy working for.

This is why I always suggest people check the internal recruitment from a company before agreeing to an agency to send their CVs as there is always an incentive to use direct applicants first in my experience