College Graduates: The Complete Handbook for Recruiters
So, you are about to graduate and are in the process of submitting your resume to various jobs. Well, it just so happens that one of the ads that she applied for is through a recruiter. In addition to being an online media consultant, he runs a recruiting firm that caters to executive-level job seekers. That means our company only places jobs with a base salary of $100,000 or more. For various reasons, including ethics, we do not place recent college graduates.
Coming out of college, I strongly suggest that you don’t use a recruiter for your first job. There are exceptions, like Heidrich and Struggles, as well as ManPower, though there aren’t many. Actually, I wish most colleges would stop allowing recruiters to post third-party job openings. If it’s directly for that hiring company and the position offers compensation, then that’s an exception. We’ll look at what it’s like to work for a staffing firm later in this article.
Personally, before I graduated from college, I had no idea what a recruiter was. That is, until I landed a person in a job that I would be leaving in 4 months to ironically start my own recruiting company.
How Recruiters Get Paid:
Recruiters get paid in two different ways:
1. Contingency Contracts – A contingency contract is when a company pays a recruiter (usually 15% – 25% of base salary) to find you an employee. With a contingency contract, the recruiter only gets paid if they place someone for that particular position.
So, if your base salary is $35,000, then the recruiter will get $7,000 in commission once you are officially employed with the organization. In reality, the $7,000 would go to the recruiting company, and depending on the company’s commission policies, the recruiter would get a certain percentage of that money.
2. Retained Contracts – Recruiters are less likely to get these contracts these days, however, it is when a company pays a recruiting firm up front or in stages regardless of whether they do the placement. It is unlikely that a company will be hired to obtain recent college graduates.
3. Guarantees: Recruiters almost always give their clients guarantees. These guarantees are more or less a form of risk management so that the employer doesn’t have a work permit and is left with a hefty bill. The industry standard warranty is 90 days prorated on a 30/60/90 day basis. Prorated Warranty Explained:
Let’s assume, to make it easy mathematically, that the recruiter is getting paid 20% of base salary and is working with a prorated guarantee of 30/60/90. So if your base salary is $30,000, then the total fee the recruiter would receive is $6,000. With the aforementioned guarantee, the payment schedule would be as follows: $2,000 after being with the company for 30 days, the second $2,000 after being with the company for 60 days, and the final $2,000 after being with the company for 90 days. .
Common sayings recruiters use to handle recent college grads:
1. “Do me this favor” – this is how recruiters, in an indirect way, will tell you that if you go to a job interview, they will continue to work with you. In return, ask them for a favor. Politely request that they listen to the dial tone for a while. If you say it dryly, there’s a chance they’ll do it for a few seconds. It’s not a bad trick.
2. “This company is the best” – if the company was really the best, they wouldn’t be turning to a recruiter for their recent college graduates. Companies like Google, Apple, Goldman Sachs never have to use recruiters for recent college grads. Dig deeper with this statement, quickly go to hoovers.com and ask the recruiter what the company’s revenue was last year.
3. “We have an exclusive on this work” – this means they have a “retained contract”. This may or may not be true, however, there is no reason to announce this to everyone. Most likely I am skeptical. First, ask them if they have a “retained contract.” Then, to see if this is true, do some research. Look at all the career boards like Monster or Hotjobs and see how many posts there are. Again, please refer to the “What Not to Do to a Recruiter” section, as in all cases (no exceptions), it is unethical to bypass a recruiter.
red lights:
1. Never use a recruiter who is going to charge you money. There is not a single exception to this rule. A recruiting company should also not sell you resume services. You must find your own resume writing service. If a recruiter asks you to pay any type of fee, immediately notify that organization or your university.
2. The recruiter will not tell you the name of the company. If a recruiter hides the company name from you, how much more does he hide? Would you buy a car without knowing the brand? Remember, this is your race, you need to be in the driver’s seat.
3. The recruiter wants to put things on your resume that you are not comfortable with. If the recruiter is helping you with some formatting, then you may have a good recruiter, however, if you want to include certain knowledge claims on your resume that you are not comfortable with, let your college know right away.
4. The recruiter doesn’t give you a full interview. This means that the recruiter is “throwing resumes” at his client. “Launching résumés” is a term I coined because some recruiters will continue to send out résumés regardless of your background or interest in filling a position. If this happens, please inform your university immediately.
5. The position they occupy does not pay base salary. If you are ever approached by a recruiting company to interview for a position that doesn’t pay a base salary, let your college know because no reputable recruiting company works only on commission positions.
I sent my resume to a recruitment company, but no one responded:
This is normal and does not reflect positively or negatively on the recruiting company or your qualifications. Reputable recruiters are paid by their clients to find someone very specific. So unless you’re in the right place at the right time, you probably won’t get a call. Take heart, and again, these are waters you probably shouldn’t be treading.
For example, if my company is working on a biotech software sales job, we’re not going to call everyone who submits their website because we have an obligation to find someone specific.
How do I get noticed by a recruiter?
Again, I don’t recommend recent college grads use recruiters, but here’s how to increase your odds:
Email subject should be: Auburn University ’10 – Major: Physics New York, NY
As you can see, your university comes first, then your graduation date, and then your current location. The reason this works is because recruiters get so many resumes per day that say “resume” that they don’t have time to look at them. I can’t speak for all recruiters, although this is my personal recommendation.
Important: Don’t send your resume to a recruiting company more than once a month. Also, don’t send a mass email to a group of recruiters at once.
Do I need a cover letter:
No. This is one of the biggest myths about resume submission. It’s actually quite annoying to receive a cover letter because you have to scroll down to see the applicant’s resume. When you send a resume directly to a company, they will expect it, so make sure you do. However, most employers will not read every cover letter you send. To increase your chances of being read, write your cover letter in bullet points.
Ways to assess whether it’s worth talking to a recruiter:
How smart and knowledgeable do they sound?
How many vacancies does the company have? how good are those postings? Most of the recruitment companies have their vacant positions posted on their website. If you see that a company accepts all available jobs, you may not want to work with them.
Questions to ask a recruiter:
Remember, be courteous, but get their answers. If the recruiter doesn’t want to answer your questions or is rude, report it to the university.
1. How long has this job been open?
2. How many times has the recruiter worked with this company?
3. Do you know how many people are interviewing for this job?
4. Do you have any tips for the interview?
5. Why would you be a good fit for the job?
Remember, be polite.
what you should not do to a recruiter:
Recruiters are in the staffing business. No way, you should talk to a recruiter, bypass him and go directly to the company. Although I don’t like recruiters who work with recent college graduates, this does not entitle you to go directly to the company. Business ethics is not emphasized enough in some classes, but if you want to be successful, learn quickly.
Working in a recruitment company:
Just like any other industry, working at a recruitment company can be rewarding or calm and uneventful.
The typical day at a recruiting firm involves researching clients, gathering relevant resumes, and interviewing candidates. If you decide to work for a recruitment company, make sure you’re not working in an industry that doesn’t interest you. Also, if a recruiting company wants you to cold call potential clients, decline the position. Nobody in a human resources division has time for this. Make sure the hiring company has a good business plan.
Recruiter Jargon:
resume – resume – this is a fancy word for resume.
Placement – this is when a recruiter successfully hires an employee at their client’s company and receives the subsequent commission.
head hunter – another term for a recruiter, however lately recruitment companies have not used this term
C-level recruiters – the term “C-level” refers to company titles that start with a “C” – 95% of the time, these are company executives. So CEO, CFO, COO, CTO are high level titles in a company.
CEO – CEO
Financial Director – Financial Director
Director of Operations – Director of Operations
TIME – human resources department of an organization
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