Ask the Experts: How to Work With College Career Service Offices, Human Resources, Hiring Managers and Recruiters When You’re Looking for a New Job
ningcontentQuestion:
My college career service office is telling me that I should work through them or the human resource departments of companies for which I want to work, my parents are telling me that I should directly contact the hiring managers at those companies, and friends are telling me that I should only work with recruiters. Who should I listen to?
First Answer:
My best advice is to use ALL the resources available to you in your job search. Each of the areas mentioned can offer you valuable services and
each will have a different perspective that you can take advantage of. By
all means, take advantages of all the resources your school’s career center
offers. But..don’t limit yourself to only the companies that have
developed a working relationship with the career center. Market yourself
to all the companies you are interested in working for. Conduct
informational interviews. Inform everyone that you know about the type of
position you are looking for.
One note about recruiters. Many staffing companies do not charge a fee to the user but do charge the companies. Check these out. I would advise
against going to a recruiting firm that charges big dollars until you have
exhausted the other methods mentions.
— Linda Wyatt, Career Center Director, Kansas City Kansas Community College
Second Answer:
In general, think AND rather than OR in your job search. Always contact as many people as you can. Always communicate through all channels available to you. However, when you do work with a recruiter, respect their wishes with regard to communications with their client.
— Tracy Laswell Williams, certified job and career transition coach, accredited resume writer and founder of CAREER-Magic.com
Third Answer:
There’s no reason to limit your job search to just one of these approaches. You can use all three and many others. While you may have greater success approaching hiring managers for cold-calling, you’ll probably find that when responding to ads and job postings, many employers prefer that you go through the HR department. Some recruiters aren’t interested in new graduates, but I’ve known several new grads who were very successful in working with recruiters. It may depend somewhat on what field you’re in. But by all means, don’t limit yourself to contacting only one kind of person during your job search. Leave no stone unturned.
— Katharine Hansen, former speechwriter and college instructor who provides content for the Web site, Quintessential Careers, edits QuintZine, an electronic newsletter for jobseekers, and prepares job-search correspondence as chief writer for Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters
Fourth Answer:
Friends, relatives, experts. They all have advice. Some of it overlaps. Some of it is as different as black and white. So you go through a balancing act trying to figure out on which of these trusted resources to rely. What you want to do is cast your net and build your network as broadly and judiciously as possible. In that regard, all of your resources are leading you on a good path.
Using the exclusive services of a recruiter means you limit yourself to those contacts and orders the recruiter has on their desk at that time. That means your opportunities are extremely limited, although the contacts will more than likely be very targeted.
It would make more sense to, while using the services of a recruiter, do some footwork of your own to develop your own network of contacts. Just make certain that you’re not overlapping what your recruiter is doing. Let them know you’ll be continuing your own independent efforts. In order to avoid a conflict of interest, ask who their clients are.
Your career services office (CSO) has a relationship with certain companies that recruit on your campus. They’ll be a great source of information about the company, what the company seeks in the most desirable candidates, contacts, and other insider information that may be difficult to glean on your own. Working with the CSO and the in-house HR pros also allows you to learn about other opportunities that may be coming up or for which you may be more suited. Go ahead and talk with them. Go ahead and work with them.
In addition to all of that, do your own independent research on companies in which you have an that may not be recruiting on your campus. That means searching their websites and using other research tools to learn more about the people you need to know and contact about the opportunity you would like to attain. Find them. At least do an informational interview with them. If they’re impressed, they just may ask you to talk with their HR pro about a situation that may fit your profile or else remember something that’s coming up for which you may have some good qualifications.
Don’t save that research only for your independent job search. Do it before you go on any of your interviews so that you have some sense of who the person with whom you’ll be presenting yourself — at every interview. That research may turn up some esoteric information that will help you create a better chemistry than your competitors and provide you with that extra edge. No matter what, it will make you better prepared for your presentation and have a better sense of what you want to know about many aspects of the opportunity.
May all of your Entrances be through the doors of success!
— Yvonne LaRose, career and professional development coach, Career and Executive Recruiting Advice
Fifth Answer:
Your most effective route is to initiate direct contact with hiring managers. However, to put some fire behind your campaign, use all available methods to attract attention and generate face-to-face opportunities with employers. You want to play ball and not violate corporate policy so if they want an online application, give it BUT then do your own research to identify who the job reports to and seek that individual out. This clearly demonstrates your keen interest as well as your persistance and ability to find solutions. Recruiters are working on behalf of employers so that’s where their loyalty rests. Get loaded into their databases so if an appropriate search comes up, you are one of the matches found. Finally, get out and speak with people connected with the companies where you want to work. The fastest job search is one that uses a matrix of methods and doesn’t let the ball drop — remember to follow up — don’t expect to hear back from employers, you have to find the ways to uncover your status. Not only does this show persistence, it gets you in touch with more inside connections who may have unadvertised job leads.
— Debra Feldman, founder of JobWhiz, creator of the JOBWHIZQUIZ, and specialist in cyber savvy strategic job search consultations
Sixth Answer:
When seeking employment with large companies, the applicant should apply though the HR Department. That is, after
all, their job — to screen applicants before they are sent to
interview with the hiring managers. To bypass the HR Department could
create resentment. Not a good way to get off on the right foot.
Smaller companies may not have a formal HR Department, in which case you could contact the hiring manager directly.
Bottom line, when contacting prospective employees, always be courteous by following protocol as much as possible and never step on any one’s
toes on the path to finding employment.
Professional recruiters can be very helpful in finding companies that are hiring and should always be considered as a part of
your job finding tool kit.
— Carole Martin, The Interview Coach
Seventh Answer:
There’s really no need to turn this into an “either/or” type of question, because in reality you could use ALL of these strategies if you wanted to.
But here’s how I’d proceed if I were in your shoes:
- Definitely work with your career center’s counselors and, if applicable, its on-campus interviewing program. The services are almost certainly free to you, and the career center folks have built relationships with many employers — one of whom may someday hire you. So you really can’t go wrong working with the career center as PART of your overall strategy. They’ll help you get in touch with the right people at companies — either HR professionals or other professionals who are involved in hiring new college grads.
- Your parents’ suggestion that you contact hiring managers directly is ALSO sound. So go ahead and implement this strategy, too. Again, though, there’s no need for you to CHOOSE between this strategy and the career center/HR professional strategy. Simply use both.
- Your friends’ suggestion that you work “only” with recruiters is a bit misguided, for several reasons:
- Recruiters often won’t work with people seeking entry-level positions (because it just doesn’t pay for them to do so from a financial standpoint).
- Many recruiters tend to work with candidates who are highly experienced and specialized. And so again, if you’re NOT highly experienced and/or specialized, they probably won’t want to work with you.
- It’s easy for college students and recent grads to think that they can simply hand their job search over to a recruiter and he/she will do all the work. Not true at all! If you happen to find a recruiter who specializes in working with recent college graduates (they ARE out there, especially in larger cities) — and IF that recruiter is paid by the companies he/she is filling jobs for, and not YOU, the candidate (such services should be FREE to you) — then it certainly can’t hurt to give it a try. Just keep your expectations realistic — and use the other strategies as well.
The trick is not relying on one or two strategies alone, but building a broad approach to your search that includes MANY strategies.
— Peter Vogt, college career counselor, President of Career Planning Resources, and a Personal Career Coach with College to Career
Eighth Answer:
Defining which marketing strategies work most effectively for your job search is a good idea. Arbitrarily choosing those strategies is
not. In short, both parties are correct. Human resource managers and
recruiters are both effective mechanisms for locating career
opportunities. However, it all depends on your end goal.
Since placement is the main function of most college and university career services offices, they will always encourage you to use their
services–it’s their job. As a student, new graduate or alumni,
investigating and potentially using the services of a career services
office is advantageous in many ways. First, these offices often have
alliances with organizations and companies who have previously
recruited (and found success) on that campus. Thus, they can often
provide stronger and more successful connections than an individual can
on his/her own to the human resource staff and hiring managers. Many
also have very helpful e-recruiting or web-based job search systems to
manage the on-campus process or provide access to research tools such as
“Career Search.”
A common misconception in job searching is that human resources staff are just an extra cog in the wheel when in actuality, human resources
staff are highly powerful gatekeepers. While the role of human
resources and internal recruiters varies from organization to
organization, reaching out directly to human resources is a great way to
learn more about an organization or its openings. That said, in
addition to connecting with human resources, it is also important to
locate other contacts in an organization. Use your network to share
your career interests and ask for contacts at your target organizations.
Recruiters have a similar goal to career services offices–looking to place candidates in positions. Most recruiters either work on
contingency (where they get a percentage of the employee’s salary when
they find a candidate who is hired into a position; used more often at
lower levels) or retainer (the recruiter is hired as the sole source to
find candidates for a particular role; used more often at the executive
level.)
Recruiters can be very helpful, like career services offices, in connecting you to opportunities you may not locate otherwise. However,
it is important to note that since recruiters receive their revenue from
the organizations hiring, their allegiance is likely to be to the
organization first. They do help the candidates through the process and
act as your ally, but be sure the opportunity they are suggesting is one
you want. Think of recruiters as a supplement to your search. They can
be very helpful, but you don’t want to rely solely on them. (You should
also NEVER have to pay a recruiter to help you).
The bottom line is that in order to determine the strategies that work best for your search, you need to first sit back and define your goals.
Once you do that, you can determine what combination of some of the
following strategies will best help you reach your goals. Are you
focusing on specific organizations? Use your university’s e-recruiting
system or on-campus interview process, or, reach out to your network to
search for people that work there. Looking for a specific type of job?
Search for recruiters who recruit solely in that specialty. You’re the
product–what type of marketing will best reach your audience?
— Susan Strayer, Assistant Director, Career Services, School of Professional Studies in Business and Education at the Johns Hopkins University and founder and President of University and Career Decisions
