Recruitment Agency Etiquette/Building Rapport (and more questions)

[fuzzy_avocado]

Ahoy,

I am another one of the hundreds of thousands of fresh graduates and got laid off nearly 3 months ago due to my boss not needing me anymore because they were quitting their industry (I was an exec assist for the CEO).

I've been searching and applying and calling around like crazy, and just recently I posted a resume on Monster last week. 1 recruitment agency called me in for an interview, the other acted rather desperate in getting me to forward their resume to them (but then I'm thinking, why do they need me to do this if they should have access to the resume I already posted?). Anyway, the latter seems like a one man recruiting agency and rather desperate, so I'm suspicious and cautious.

I would really love the job I had presented to me at the recruitment agency interview. The person that interviewed me seemed cool, but I want to come off as being more memorable. How do I develop a rapport with a recruitment agency without looking desperate? I think it may be worth the time to probably be more in touch with them, but at the same time I hate the idea of this "networking" thing, which basically to me sounds like just using people. I don't want to use people, I want to build genuine connections while at the same time have career opportunities presented. I HATE being fake, and the thought of networking to me comes off as being fake, sterile, pathetic, just so not me. I am cool, genuine, loyal...unemployed. :P

This is my first time working with recruitment agencies. And as a side question, are recruitment agencies/placement agencies/headhunters all the same thing? Total noob here. I did some forum searching on this topic already but it's mostly consisted of who the 'good' and 'bad' agencies are. In my books, if they can find me a job it's a good agency!

I felt so excited meeting up with the recruiter this past week and just thinking "oh if they contacted me it must mean I already have one foot in the door!" Flash forward to all the forum posts I checked out and see that this is quite typical. Whoops, oh well, I think I had a great attitude and presented myself properly, plus that maybe gave me a boost of (false) confidence.

I've applied to tons of jobs, called lots of places, and so far the biggest move happened when I posted my resume on Monster. I'm a hopeless optimist though and keep thinking that maybe applying to lots of jobs might be a dangerous thing as I might get tons of callbacks in the next couple of weeks all at the same time. I mean, I keep imagining I might accept the first mediocre job offer I get, only to get an even better offer the next week and then look like a cop out. And I really don't want to brush anyone's feathers too harshly given the way the economy is.

I'm doing something wrong, I just know I am. It boils down to two things for me: either no jobs are coming my way as it's a way the universe is telling me I should be self-employed, or I am doing something wrong in the process. I'm anticipating replies about how I'm not networking, but as I've already explained, I really don't want to come off as a slimy car salesman to people. You know? You just know when someone is being fake with you, and I would rather be genuine with people.

I'm also going through an employment program right now and I should have interviews sometime next month, none of them are career-related but I'm sucking it up. By today's standards if you have a job you're doing a whole lot better than most people.

Anyway, I appreciate any and all advice!!

[renoldman]

Not sure about how much a new grad you are .... How long were you employed?

If you are really a new grad with little to no experience (less than 1 year) .... I would say that mass applying is a waste of your time AND a majority of those agencies/recruiters/headhunters are a waste of time as well.

Why?

Your lack of experience.

Recruiters/agencies in the current economic situation are not helpful. WHY? Because they don't want to take any risks. If you don't have experience in X, you are worth nothing to them. They might help you get a job, but it won't be that good and there is very little chance that it would help you get the job you want in the field you want.

As to your opinion on networking .... Networking is vital in landing your first real job. It might be all for show, but when you can't get a job, you will realize that you need to play the game.

Now, if you had 3 to 5 years worth of experience those job agencies can help you. But you would be making less than if you landed the job yourself.

As you may notice: Job Agencies would really help new graduates, but would be a waste should you actually have experience. How they operate: New Grads are worthless and those with skills are those who they like to help.

As to becoming self-employed. A lot of people decide to go this route because they can't find work in their field. I don't recommend this.

So what should you do? Keep applying (and customizing your resume) for jobs you see. Try and find contact numbers for those doing the hiring. Talk to these people and tell them why you want to work for their company. Be honest, tell them you have very little direct skills, but that you are willing to learn (why? because you want to help the company to do what they do). Tell them that you have very little skills, and as such you are willing to work for free (!!! not forever) because you want to join their team. Some people may say this is a complete waste of time, but what alternatives do you have if your friends and family can't help you in landing your first real job? What do you have to lose?

Perhaps the people you talk to will not give you the time of day, but if you show true passion someone will eventually give you that opportunity. But with no direct experience, talking with job agencies is (IMO) a complete waste of time. Unless you want/need to find a job that just kills time.

Good luck with the job search.

[fuzzy_avocado]

Not sure about how much a new grad you are .... How long were you employed?

If you are really a new grad with little to no experience (less than 1 year) .... I would say that mass applying is a waste of your time AND a majority of those agencies/recruiters/headhunters are a waste of time as well.

Why?

Your lack of experience.

Recruiters/agencies in the current economic situation are not helpful. WHY? Because they don't want to take any risks. If you don't have experience in X, you are worth nothing to them. They might help you get a job, but it won't be that good and there is very little chance that it would help you get the job you want in the field you want.

As to your opinion on networking .... Networking is vital in landing your first real job. It might be all for show, but when you can't get a job, you will realize that you need to play the game.

Now, if you had 3 to 5 years worth of experience those job agencies can help you. But you would be making less than if you landed the job yourself.

As you may notice: Job Agencies would really help new graduates, but would be a waste should you actually have experience. How they operate: New Grads are worthless and those with skills are those who they like to help.

As to becoming self-employed. A lot of people decide to go this route because they can't find work in their field. I don't recommend this.

So what should you do? Keep applying (and customizing your resume) for jobs you see. Try and find contact numbers for those doing the hiring. Talk to these people and tell them why you want to work for their company. Be honest, tell them you have very little direct skills, but that you are willing to learn (why? because you want to help the company to do what they do). Tell them that you have very little skills, and as such you are willing to work for free (!!! not forever) because you want to join their team. Some people may say this is a complete waste of time, but what alternatives do you have if your friends and family can't help you in landing your first real job? What do you have to lose?

Perhaps the people you talk to will not give you the time of day, but if you show true passion someone will eventually give you that opportunity. But with no direct experience, talking with job agencies is (IMO) a complete waste of time. Unless you want/need to find a job that just kills time.

Good luck with the job search.

I've got 4 years of being an executive assistant, I see a lot of executive assistant postings on recruitment agencies so I'm applying to all those. I'm a fresh grad, but that means nothing to them, and to myself either because of the outstanding company I worked for and great job I did.

I'm clueless as to how to score a similar position, because the one that I had was sort of amazing luck. Do I just contact HR departments of companies I want to work for? I've done that before but one place (the hospital) said "you have to apply online through our website" as she handed me the business card.

Networking...how do you make that genuine? I refuse to believe you have to be a fake slimy person just to land a job. What happened to being cool and just being yourself? I've seen when people try to network with me, and I immediately put up a wall because it's so easy to detect and so awful!!

[fuzzy_avocado]

Anyone else care to shed some light on this?