Some Tips on Recruiters and Networking

I am curious what experiences people have had working with recruiters? I was laid off on February 5th, 2009 and have been networking every since. I made a goal of trying to identify a few Recruiters and Executive Search Firms each day to add to my personal database. In today's market and economy you have to get creative and pro-active in your networking! Rather than wait for someone to call me, I forward my resume and contact information to new recruiters every day. Whether or not you hear back from them doesn't matter, they WILL add you to their database of potential matches.

They get paid anywhere from 20 - 30% of the candidates first year salary as their fee. They want to have a large pool to pull from!

Networking has never been so important as it is now. I worked as an Outplacement Consultant with a global firm for many years. When I taught our 3-day career transition workshops we would spend a LOT of time discussing why networking was so important. More importantly though, we talked about how to network. This is where most people fail. Most assume networking is just sending resume's out in mass quantities, asking friends if their company has an opening, scouring job boards etc. You quickly learn that what you doing twenty thousand other people are also doing.

Networking Tip: Make a list of ten people that are successful in life, business, outgoing, leaders you look up to and admire their feedback. Contact them and ask if they wouldn't mind critiquing your resume. Your initial approach should be something like, "Mr/Mrs successful business person, I know you are a leader in your industry and have many years of experience. I am thinking about a career path in a similar direction. I was wondering if you could do me a favor? I really respect your opinion and would like you to critique my resume for me. What would you change about it? How could I present something slightly different? Finally, if you had to do it all over again, what would you do differently and/or what advice would you offer?

Human nature is to want to help others. Especially when someone approaches you and makes it known they respect where we are and what we do. Most people in that position would be happy to give you some feedback. Now...that being said, what just happened here? You are establishing a relationship to add to your personal network! You never want to just come out and ask, "can I send you my resume, and are you hiring?" Do you think that by taking the approach I just explained earlier this person isn't thinking about any opportunities they might know of? They sure are! They are more likely to offer that information up to you if you take the approach we discussed.

Try this out and let us know what responses you get! Happy Networking!

Getting Past The Shock

I decided to create this blog in an attempt to gather together a network of people globally to share ideas, thoughts on the challenges associated with finding new work, offer support etc. I am also interested to hear your story. Was the layoff something you knew was coming or did it blindside you? What about a severance? How are you surviving now? I want to hear survivor stories on creative things you are doing to keep above water financially and seeking out opportunities to go back to work.



With the challenges facing our economy we can all pull together and create a powerful resource for each other. Times are lean and I know, I for one, started looking for ways to cut costs, possible barter or trade, network a bit more than I might have in the past.

So, please join this community, spread the word, link to us, but most importantly contribute to the blog through your comments. Thank you for looking and I hope to see you online with United Pink Slip!