Recruiter’s Advice: 5 Things Employers Look for in Entry-Level Job Candidates

Dunya Carter

A fresh graduate is always intimidated when going in for his or her first real job interview, and many feel that no matter what they apply for they are woefully unprepared and unqualified – especially in this economy, when even jobs advertised as entry level are apparently seeking years of experience. But regardless of how many flourishes are requested in the help wanted ad, many employers are really looking for a few basic things for entry level positions, and all of them are more than attainable for the new worker. Continue Reading

Your Transition Timeline

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Your Transition Timeline

The Benefits of Using a Recruiter

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The Benefits of Using a Recruiter

Selling Your Script to A Recruiter

As a job seeker, probably the most important thing standing between you and an interview is your resume.  It should represent you, yet display your qualifications for the position you’re applying for.  The following post offers suggestions on what to do and what not to do to create the resume that will reward you with an interview.

Selling Your Script to A Recruiter

Recruiter for Recruiting Firms

Considered working in Human Resources or Recruiting? This interview will take you through the ups and downs you can expect in the position, what it takes to land the job, what you can expect to earn and more. Continue Reading

Avoid Age Discrimination in Your Job Hunt

So, you’re not a 20-something, right out of college? Not a spring chicken when it comes to the working world? Are you worried about age discrimination in your job hunt?
Recently, I contributed my 2 cents to a discussion on Linkedin about the pros and cons of listing a date specifying when you received your degree on your resume. (Thus, presumably revealing your age.) The questioner had been told that he should remove degree dates for any degrees ten years or older.
Coincidentally, last week, I worked with two clients in their 30′s, both of whom asked about removing graduation dates. Maybe they are all getting advice from the same source!

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Entry Level Job Placement From a Recruiter’s Point of View

Two recruiters from Todays Office Professionals, Sean Rice, district manager in Dallas, TX; and Kenneth Davis, account manager in Alpharetta, GA gave insight to all the things recruiters have to consider when working with entry level job seekers.
1. What is the recruiter’s responsibility to the candidate?
Sean Rice: A recruiter is responsible for assisting candidates in making successful, well-suited job placements. In order to successfully place a candidate on a job order, a recruiter must know how to listen and they need to ask the right questions of their candidates. I believe that recruiters need to establish a trusting relationship with their candidate in order to receive honest information in return. The candidate needs to feel confident in their recruiter, as they are relying on that individual to assist them is finding a job.
Kenneth Davis: I feel that the recruiter’s responsibility to the candidate is to always be honest. I always put myself in the candidate’s shoes and think of the information that I would like to know if meeting with a staffing company, especially if this is the candidate’s first time signing up with a staffing company. It is important to always deliver 100% customer/quality service.

• Always be up front about the positions that are available (whether they are temporary, temp to hire or direct hire)
• Discuss the hiring process in detail
• I explain the benefits of working for a staffing company such as Todays Office Professionals (what makes us stand out from other companies)
• I really feel that it is important to make sure that the candidate not only has a pleasant experience when coming in for their appointment, but that they leave with all the necessary information they need. By doing this will make the candidate not venture off to another staffing company

2. What should a candidate do if a recruiter isn’t serving his/her best interests?
SR: A candidate should communicate effectively with his or her recruiter if they feel that they are not being assisted properly or that their best interest is not being served. It is essential that the candidate be completely honest with the recruiter as to what their expectations of the recruiter are and make certain that all lines of communication are always open. In order for a successful placement to be made, both a candidate and the recruiter need to be on the same page.
KD: I think that the candidate should bring this issue to the recruiter’s attention in a professional manner because the recruiter may not even be aware that the candidate is not happy with the service.
3. What is the recruiter’s responsibility to employers?
SR: It is the recruiter’s responsibility to do their best to find the appropriate candidates to fill their clients’ orders. Recruiters are responsible for listening to and observing all of the important details of their clients’ needs in order to ensure that they can make a successful match between client and candidate. A recruiter should always make certain that they have a clear understanding of a job description before they present a candidate. They need to be sure to apply thorough follow up and quality assurance checks to the employer.
KD: Outside of delivering 100% customer/quality service, I think that as recruiters we need to go above and beyond the call of duty to make sure that the client is serviced (“The Todays Way”, which entails weekly quality checks, customer visits etc.)
Always make sure when filling a new order that the client is always aware of the pricing, company policies, benefits (vacation pay, holiday pay etc..). If I am working with a new client, I always set up an appointment to view the facility. This helps me to place the most qualified candidate in the client company’s culture and allows me to better describe the work environment to potential candidates.
4. To the recruiting agency?
SR: A recruiter needs to make certain that the employees they hire are individuals that will represent both the agency and their clients. They need to make certain that they are hiring quality candidates that have the skill sets they can place and sell to customers. The recruiter needs to make certain that they are checking all proper employee identification and that reference checks are being completed to agency standards.
KD: The responsibility a recruiter has to the staffing company they are working for is commitment. It is important for the recruiter to be totally committed to their company’s mission and follow the policies and procedures 100%, while giving both the candidate and client the absolute best quality/customer service.
Entry level job seekers have a lot to think about when deciding to enlist the aid of recruiters in their job searches. But it’s clear that recruiters, too, have a lot to consider before taking on new candidates or clients.

What is a Recruiter’s Responsibility to an Entry Level Job Seeker?

Sometimes entry level job seekers make the mistake of believing that they are their recruiters’ clients, but this is not the case. The employers, who pay some pretty healthy fees, are the clients. The job seekers are candidates, which is not to say that they aren’t important. On the contrary, the better recruiters are at providing employers with the best candidates, and vice versa, the greater their chances of attracting more employers and more high quality candidates.
Unfortunately, candidates and employers who seem like a good fit during the interview process end up not working out later on. When this happens, don’t blame the recruiter, says Tom Ruff, founder of the Tom Ruff Company, a company specializing in pharmaceutical sales recruiting. A recruiter only suggests what companies he thinks would be a good fit, it’s the candidate who makes the final choice. And if a candidate suspects that a recruiter isn’t serving his best interests, “find another recruiter,” Ruff says.
“Your job is the right job for you. These goals may not be aligned, so if a recruiter is trying to force you into the wrong job for you, find a new recruiter,” advises Dr. Rachelle J. Canter, president of RJC Associates. “And more important, don’t depend on recruiters as your primary job search strategy.”
“The recruiter’s loyalty is to the employer,” he explained. “The employer is the one paying the recruiter’s fee and if the recruiter doesn’t find candidates that match the client’s criteria, the recruiter doesn’t get paid. Period. It is in the recruiter’s best interest, however, to build strong relationships with the top candidates in their respective field. When the recruiter is contacted with a new job opening, a good recruiter will already have a pool of well qualified candidates that they can contact for the position.”
Canter agrees. “A recruiter’s responsibility to the client (the company with a vacancy) is to find the best candidate for the opening, or at least an appropriate candidate for the opening.” Their responsibility to their firm is to maximize placements so they generate money for the firm — and hopefully do so in an honest and professional fashion. And the recruiter’s responsibility to you, the job-seeker,,” she concluded, “is to present appropriate opportunities. But it is easy to think the recruiter is working for you and that his/her job is to find the best job for you. WRONG! You are the only one with the responsibility and the mission to find the best job for you, so do not delegate this responsibility to anyone else or you are apt to find yourself in the wrong job.”
Ruff concluded with some guidelines for working with recruiters that bear repeating:

• “Be careful and selective about choosing recruiters to whom you will send your resume.
• Meet face-to-face.
• Ask the recruiter to secure permission from you before presenting your resume to any company.
• Ask for advice about each person you are interviewing with.
• Follow the recruiter’s advice about preparing for an interview. Do what he or she says to do.
• Let the recruiter see your brag book and suggest ways to improve it.
• Follow up with the recruiter after each interview.
• Do what you say you are going to do.”

“Follow these guidelines,” Ruff said, “[and] you will greatly increase your chances of working successfully with a recruiter.”