Go For the Top Headhunters

Before we move onto looking at the specific preparatory steps you need to take to prepare for that first job interview, a word or two on recruiters (or headhunters) are necessary. Notice the headline? “Top Headhunters“. It’s chosen on purpose. You may experience that you short-list several recruiters, you contact them, you pass your resume, and you register online with their typical “e-xxxx” service. And you hear nothing! Your contact them again, remind them (please don’t complain or scold) and still, you hear NOTHING! It can be frustrating, mind boggling, unfair etc., but do remember: THEY WORK FOR THEIR CLIENTS, not us. We are repeating ourselves A very common misconception is that the headhunters – and perhaps especially the top head hunter are there to service us – the job seekers. They are not! Simple question: who secures their pay-check? Well we don’t (except when they find us and their clients employ us). First and foremost, the client of the recruiter is the hiring company, your prospective employer. They work for them. They establish the job posting and zip though possibly thousands of database records (note, the really big top headhunters or recruiters in the world have millions of possible candidates on file; some even refuse to receive further resumes). So when you contact them, do you really expect them to respond to you and every other Tom, Dick and Sally that write in? They may do so if you are really unique, if you fit a current vacancy profile perfectly or if you just somehow managed to catch their attention.

Go For the Top Headhunter

It is said, that when the headhunters scan for candidates for a first interview (they may sip though thousands to shortlist e.g. 50 to talk to in a first round, with the intention to shortlist 5-8 for the client to interview, (sometimes even less), you get exactly 7 seconds of their time in that “sipping process”. If they don’t like your cover letter, or the front page of your resume (e.g. the summary section), you get tossed back in the database again, and they move on to the next resume in the pile.
In some countries it is possible to meet up with recruiters and even also the top headhunters for what some refer to as “coffee meetings”. The intension is an informal meeting where you have a chance to share your background, thoughts and objectives in more detail and the recruiter will have a chance to make a general evaluation of you and establish if you are “worthwhile working on at all” relative to what they currently have in their projects funnel. It’s not easy to get these coffee sessions and not all recruiters are open towards it. But some are and if you do manage to catch their attention, even for “just” such a cup of coffee, do take it – by all means.
So how do you get noticed? You need to be UNIQUE. You must stand out from the crowd. Think out of the box to captivate them, capture their attention – like what this gentleman did:
It pays to be unique when you want attention from top head hunter
So when the headhunters finally call (and they will, eventually – have faith), do appreciate them. You managed to catch their attention somehow and you should (even however difficult it may be) feel honored that you stand out from the crowd. Listen to them, respect them and show that you are genuinely pleased to have been shortlisted for a first interview. Also, even if in the meantime you changed your mind and do not want the job, take the interview. The more interviews you attend, the more experience you build, the more you learn to be top notch ready when THE JOB is on the board!