How To Effectively Partner With Your Recruiter

Ed note: This is latest installment in a series of posts from Lateral Link’s team of expert contributors. Paul Dorfeld is a Director based in the Chicago office where he recruits and places high-level attorneys with leading Am Law firms, boutiques, and Fortune 500 companies. Paul received three Bachelor’s degrees with honors from The Pennsylvania State University’s Schreyer Honors College and received his J.D. with honors from The Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law. Prior to recruiting, Paul was a litigation associate at Winston & Strawn LLP in Chicago and also worked on corporate bankruptcies and large class actions at the Garden City Group. In his free time, Paul enjoys running along the lake with his energetic puppy Amber.

The attorney-recruiter partnership is, in many ways, what you make of it. Honest, thorough, and timely communication goes a long way toward putting your recruiter in the best position to help you achieve your career goals. Here are a few guidelines to make the partnership as effective (and painless!) as possible.

Have Realistic Expectations

Any recruiter who tells you that you’re going to have a dozen offers right off the bat is selling you snake oil. Even candidates from top firms who attended top schools sometimes don’t gain traction right away. Sometimes the market for your skill set just isn’t as hot at the time you’re looking to make the jump. Sometimes the firms don’t move as fast as you may like. For example, August tends to be a difficult month because firms’ summer programs are wrapping up, on-campus interviewing is getting underway, and partners are often on family vacations.

In terms of targeting firms, a good recruiter will not only know the market but will also know the types of candidates a firm is seeking for a particular position. While it’s certainly okay to “stretch” a little in the firms you want your recruiter to target, the best recruiters know that when they consistently present the types of candidates that a firm wants to see, their candidates will get the closest look because the firm trusts that recruiter’s judgment.

Be Available

While my hours aren’t quite as long and unpredictable as they were when I practiced in Biglaw, between meetings with clients, scouting new talent, preparing current candidates for interviews, scheduling interviews and travel, keeping up with trends in the market and researching new positions, my day can disappear pretty quickly. Still, I find it is important to get back to my candidates and clients promptly — within a few hours if possible and always in the same day.

Likewise, in my initial conversation with interested candidates I like to set expectations. When a firm requests something from me — a candidate’s résumé or her availability for an interview — I ask my candidates to do their best to get back to me in a few hours or at least the same day. The reason for this is simple: while firms recognize that candidates are busy producing at their current firms, they also know that with a recruiter doing most of the time-consuming work on the candidate’s search, if a candidate is truly interested in their firm, she will not drag her feet during the process.

Be Specific About Why You Want to Lateral

The more specific your answers are to the two most important questions in your search will help your recruiter find the best opportunities for you. Those questions are (1) what do you like about your current job and (2) what do you not like that you want to change by taking on a new role. The more specific you are, the more your recruiter can help you compare apples to apples. Is it salary? The likelihood of making partner? More trial experience? Client contact in an industry where you may want to go in-house one day?

Sometimes when I ask this question I get unexpected answers such as, “The health insurance is very good and I have a child with special needs.” This would be an awkward question to raise initially with an employer if you were applying on your own, but an experienced recruiter will know the right time to raise these trickier questions. We will make sure the prospective employer knows that you’re most interested in the opportunity and not the benefits, vacation time, or other perks, and will raise your concern at the appropriate time.

Work as a Team to Track Submissions and Inquiries

As an initial matter, if you have submitted yourself or have been submitted to any firms, let your recruiter know when you were submitted, for what position, and what the outcome of the submission was. Do this even if the submission was to another office of the same firm. I have seen firms turn down an excellent candidate because he had submitted himself to another office of the same firm but did not inform his recruiter. That unfortunately gave the firm the impression that he was desperate for any position anywhere. Conversely, had his recruiter been able to submit him to two cities at once with an explanation of why he had roots in both places — the firm would have been more receptive. A good recruiter will also keep close track of where and when you were submitted to opportunities.

Always Make Time to Interview Prep and Debrief

One of the great things about working with a recruiter is that we help candidates prepare for interviews all the time. Sure, your friend could role-play with you, but will she know the questions the firm is likely to ask? Will she be honest with you if you give a poor answer or have a nervous tick?

I like to prep my candidates a day or two beforehand to give them time to revise their questions and practice their responses without feeling exhausted or rushed the day of the interview. If the candidate is traveling for the interview, I’ll prepare them on FaceTime or Skype.

Debriefing shortly after the interview is likewise very important. Why immediately after? Aside from your ability to remember specific questions and responses, it gives you an opportunity to download all your impressions before you start to second-guess yourself. An effective debrief will lay out not only the questions and responses asked in the interview but also what you felt you could improve. It will also help tease out what additional information you need to know to determine if the role is a good fit for you. If your recruiter has had a candidate interview for the same group at that firm in the past, this process will have allowed your recruiter to clue you in to some of the questions you probably received — giving you a leg up on the competition.

Be Open-Minded

Sometimes my candidates surprise themselves and end up liking and accepting offers at firms that they originally didn’t consider. I encourage my candidates to let me cast a wide net at the beginning of their search and to treat initial submissions as they would a first date: a small commitment that could — or could not — turn into a lasting partnership.

Trust Your Recruiter When All Options Have Been Explored

For some candidates, the hardest part of a job search is accepting when all avenues have been exhausted. No matter how stellar a candidate’s credentials are, sometimes due to market factors, demand, or any other number of reasons, they do not receive as many offers as they had hoped for.

At this stage, some recruiters may try to push the candidate into accepting any offer in order to earn his commission. But a good recruiter will value his candidate’s happiness as well as the recruiter’s long-term reputation. If the best option is to wait, a good recruiter will tell you that. Conversely, if your recruiter has explored all available options and you’re motivated to make a move, he should be upfront with you and help you with your choice. Some personality types have difficulty accepting that there may not be a “perfect” offer. If you trust your recruiter to be frank about your options and your chances, that will make you more comfortable when it comes time to make a choice.

Relax

Job hunting can be very time consuming and stressful. Working with a quality recruiter can make the process much more painless. Relax. Trust. Communicate. If you can do that for your recruiter, it will help us do what we love to do: advance your career by assisting your transition to a place that best fits your goals.

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Lateral Link is one of the top-rated international legal recruiting firms. With over 14 offices world-wide, Lateral Link specializes in placing attorneys at the most prestigious law firms and companies in the world. Managed by former practicing attorneys from top law schools, Lateral Link has a tradition of hiring lawyers to execute the lateral leaps of practicing attorneys. Click ::here:: to find out more about us.