Headhunters / Recruiters, Job Searches, Small Law Firms, Solo Practitioners

Recruiters Exist To Help Employers, Not Job Seekers

If a recruiter blows you off or gives you the cold shoulder, don't take it personally; it's just business.

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At some point in our careers, we will encounter a recruiter. When we do, it will be in one of two scenarios. The first is when you are contacted by multiple recruiters to see if you would be interested in leaving your current job to work for their client. The second is when you are the one contacting recruiters inquiring about job opportunities.

If you are in the first scenario, congratulations. It feels nice to be wanted. Especially by multiple people at the same time. Take advantage of it by negotiating a higher salary and other benefits. But most importantly, enjoy it while it lasts.

But if you are in the second scenario, you are not going to get very far with recruiters. Even if you are able to get a brief conversation with them, in most cases you won’t get much further than that. If they are nice, they will politely tell you that they cannot find a position for you. If they are less than nice, they will ignore you altogether.

After months, even years of being treated like an untouchable, you probably vowed never to work with recruiters again. And that would be a prudent strategy. You might also have a negative view of the people in the recruiting profession in the same way the public views used car salesmen and… lawyers.

Over the years, I’ve had my fair share of encounters with recruiters with little success. Most are good people, but it is the bad few that I vividly remember. I am now at peace with and respect what they do.

There is something that job seekers should understand about recruiters which will help them manage their expectations.

Recruiters do not work for job seekers. They work for employers — employers who pay the recruiters commissions for successful hires.

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Employers pay headhunters to find employees for them. One would think finding employees would be easy enough to do by themselves. But in this prestige-obsessed profession, employers want only a certain type of person based on stereotypes professional best practices: top credentials and already employed. But these people are rare, and those who are already employed are generally happy where they are. So it will take a lot of effort to find these people and convince them to leave their comfortable lives. And for that, recruiters get paid a lot. Successful legal recruiters easily make mid-six-figure salaries.

Recruiters would love to give a job to everyone who reached out to them. But in their world, there are only a few jobs available, with exacting requirements. So they have to spend the majority of their time looking for these purple squirrels so they can get paid. As a result, they don’t have time to entertain every email or phone call from someone looking for their big break, especially if there is nothing they can do for them.

I get that the above sounds obvious. But you have to understand that frantic and depressed law students who didn’t get a summer associate position at OCI or the Law Offices of Dad and Uncle were told to reach out to everyone under the sun. They were in no position to do any kind of “targeted” job searches. If they come off as overly aggressive, it is because they were told to be driven and hungry because that’s one of the soft skills law firms are looking for. They were also told by countless career guides to keep looking because every unsuccessful day means one more day in the unemployment gap which will make them look even worse.

So if a recruiter blows you off or gives you the cold shoulder, don’t take it personally. It’s just business. Until someone creates a smartphone app that incentivizes recruiters to work for job seekers instead of employers, the majority of job seekers have to find a way to get recruiters to notice them and seek them out. Until then, we have to deal with an inefficient system where people are contacted at the least convenient time.

Earlier:

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Shannon Achimalbe was a former solo practitioner for five years before deciding to sell out and get back on the corporate ladder. Shannon can be reached by email at sachimalbe@excite.com and via Twitter: @ShanonAchimalbe.

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