David Perry’s 10 Tips for Dealing with Recruiters
Are you a job seeker looking for how to deal with recruiters? David Perry is Managing Partner of Perry-Martel International, Inc. an international Executive Search & Recruiting firm specializing in high technology. The Perry-Martel International, Inc. website offers articles for candidates, including “10 Tips for Dealing with Recruiters.” Perry’s ten tips are the following:
- Find a recruiter BEFORE you absolutely have to have a new job
- Find a recruiter that specializes in your talents
- Find a recruiter that you like to work with and that you trust
- Don’t be too quick to send your resume to an unknown but “smooth talking”
recruiter… especially if you’re still employed - Provide the recruiter with current salary information and expectations
- Don’t put important facts in the cover letter you send to a recruiter
- Make it easy for a recruiter to get and read your resume
- Recruiters are usually NOT good vehicles to help you change careers
- Executive recruiters recruit; career counselors counsel
- Executive recruiters recruit; bus drivers drive busses
Recruiters are interesting. I was once pitched the perfect VP of Marketing job for a C-level position in my industry. I remember the scope of the job being impressive. It was a new position that reported into the President; it was responsible for all marketing related functions like strategic and tactical planning, market segmentation, product marketing, product management and development, recruitment and management of the marketing team, marketing communications, lead generation, creation and support of joint-marketing partnerships, educating potential clients, and optimizing resources to assist the sales team.
While I was tempted because of the product management responsibilities, I was already in my dream job with a boss I loved reporting into and working with, a management team that I had fun working with, and team that I adored. Needless to say, I didn’t pursue the opportunity with the recruiter. However, what I did learn was the once you’re at the C-level, recruiters search for industry-specific company websites for potential recruits, and then poach executives listed on site. It was an interesting exercise to receive phone calls from recruiters quietly calling into our company switch board to talk with me. Perry’s ten tips should help you if you understand recruiters.
As for David Perry, he’s responsible for hiring 700+ Presidents, senior executives and key technical people in his position. Another reason why Perry’s name may sound familiar is because he’s the coauthor of Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters: 400 Unconventional Tips, Tricks, and Tactics for Landing Your Dream Job.
