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Most people don’t realize that a recruiter is not actually working on behalf of them, they are working for their client. Recruiters are sales people and they achieve their targets by placing people in to jobs. Placing people means placing anyone, not you in particular – the commission check will look exactly the same no matter who gets placed.
Do they have mood swings?
One day your best friend, the next day they won’t speak to you. The recruiter can certainly seem like a great friend as long as you are what they are looking for and you are interested in changing jobs. If you are not right or you are not ready to move, you will experience not getting call backs and no email replies. Their interest in you dwindles very rapidly and your ‘friendship’ is out the window before you can spell the word fairweathered.
You gets what you pays for
You don’t pay for the service of being recruited and therefore you cannot expect the recruiter to be loyal to you. If you wanted an agent working on your behalf, the money would have to come out of your pocket – just like celebrities do it. You don’t pay a penny to get recruited, you are simply the product that gets delivered. The employer foots the entire bill so if anywhere, this is where the recruiter is friendly – to their client.
So they must be an evil bunch then?
Recruiters aren’t bad people (apart from the 
Sales people in other industries are just the same, a car dealer has no time for a person that isn’t serious about buying a car. You will get a few brochures and they will swiftly move across the sales floor to hone in whoever is going to buy. The same thing goes for real estate agents, who you first have to convince you are serious about buying before they show you any houses. A lot of professions fall into this bracket, mainly because the commission structure really incentivizes closing a sale and not nurturing interest and new prospects.
So they aren’t loyal friends, what should I do?
Play the game just like they do. They aren’t loyal friends so you don’t have to either. Work with a number of recruiters, no one recruiter was ever going to have all good jobs to offer you. They will have each have signed agreements with a small number of clients that they work with. So by casting your net wider, you are helping yourself and your career. Don’t worry about letting anybody down, your career comes first.
But I have a great relationship with a recruiter
If you do have a good relationship with a recruiter, can you say why it’s good? I would venture to say that it is because you both bring something in to it. This can be the recruiter giving you heads up on new roles, and you giving the recruiter referrals, industry gossip and insider company information. You can have a fruitful relationship with a recruiter but only as long as you both have something to offer.
What do you think, do you have recruiter friends? Share your experiences in the comments.
Image by Lab2112
