Working with Recruiters: Five Tips for Early Career Professional

You’re searching for a job. Recruiters are searching for people to fill jobs. Seems like a great match—and it certainly can be. Still, if you’re new to the job market or in the early stage of your career, reputable recruiters might seem out of your league. To help level those odds, the following are five tips that can help you identify, connect with, and build a mutually beneficial relationship with a good recruiter.

Tip 1: Find the Right Recruiter

Although social boards are full of gripes on the downside of the recruitment industry, working with a reputable recruiter can be a huge asset when you’re looking for a job now and in the future. Good recruiters have relationships with top companies, access to unposted jobs, and are often interested in establishing long-term relationships with promising tech professionals. To increase your odds of finding a good recruiter, consider the following:

• Stick with specialized recruiters. In the tech world, look at those with highly rated firms—such as The Oho Group, Robert Half Tech, and Randstad—as well as for local tech recruiting firms that make “Best of” lists in your city.
• Many large tech companies–including MAANG, Facebook, and Salesforce–not only work with external recruiters, but also have their own internal recruiting teams.
• Ask for recommendations from peers and study recruiter profiles on job boards and social media sites.
• Even if a recruiter typically focuses on higher-level positions than you’re ready for, establishing a connection and following up can keep you top of mind when lower-level opportunities arise.

Tip 2: Be the Right Candidate

A recruiter can only help you if your experience and goals are clear. To communicate this, a stellar resume is essential, as is a strong, up-to-date profile on LinkedIn and other social media sites. Your industry presence and profile can help to set you apart, so ensure that you’re actively engaged in the tech community in one or more of the following ways:

• Attend conferences, workshops, and meet ups, and participate in open source projects. These are all great opportunities to learn, as well as to meet peers and mentors.
• Post ideas, experiences, and support for your peers in online groups and social media platforms.
• Share your tech skills by volunteering in your community. Getting involved in organizations such as your local chapter of IEEE Computer Society is a great way to give back and make connections with people.

In addition to networking, all of these experiences can lead to project experience and skills acquisition that can help your resume—and your presence—stand out to recruiters.

Tip 3: Connect and Follow up

To help facilitate a successful connection with a good recruiter, consider the following:

• Introduce yourself to recruiters at conferences, then research them online and follow up by sending your resume to the recruiters that impress you the most.
• Study recruiters on sites such as LinkedIn and reach out directly to ones who fill positions you’re interested in. Be sure to highlight your skills, the type of job you want, and include your resume.
• Ask your peer group and mentors about their experiences with recruiters. This can surface some great suggestions on other ways to connect. It might also get you a referral to recruiters they know, which can be a huge help.
• Even if you don’t start a working relationship with a recruiter right away, if you like them, stay in touch. If you read articles that might interest them, send them. If you hear about recent successes they’ve had, congratulate them. The goal is to be on their radar and show both professionalism and persistence.

Tip 4: Be Clear About What You Want

Once you start working with a recruiter, you can’t always control the type and number of positions that they’ll send your way. The best thing you can do? Be crystal clear about what you want:

• Let the recruiter know if you’re open to a variety of opportunities.
• If you know exactly what type of position you want, be clear about it, including the location, salary, and tech stack. You might still get jobs outside your ideal, but being straightforward about your goals means that you’re also more likely to get jobs that meet them.
• If you’re open to temporary and contract positions, say so. Also, when you’re up for the latter, make sure you’re clear on whether it’s a straight contract or a contract-to-hire position before you apply.
• It’s also crucial to have clarity on your longer-term goals and how to evaluate positions to see if they set you up for or sideline your plans.

Say your long-term goal is to be a game developer. In this case, a job that uses JavaScript might not seem ideal at first glance. However, if it also requires intense creativity and daily problem-solving, it might be a better option than a job where you’d be using C++ but get less stretch in other key skill areas.

Tip 5: Think Long Term

Good recruiters are busy. Having a formal or informal mentor who can recommend you can elevate your outreach, as well as offer a sounding board for your job search process. For recruiters, working with early career professionals—especially ones who are ambitious, good communicators, and persistent in their goals—can be a huge asset, particularly when they work for or with larger companies that often hire for lower-level positions. Although connecting with a good recruiter requires thought and effort, making the right connection can add an invaluable person to your network. It can also create a long-term, win-win relationship for you both.