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WORKING WITH RECRUITMENT CONSULTANCIES

How to select a Recruitment Consultant 

There are thousands of Recruitment Consultancies in the UK & Ireland.   Selecting the right company to help you in your search for a new job is a minefield but here are a few tips to assist with your search.  

Searching for a Recruitment Consultant 

• The internet.   Use search engines to source specific job titles that you are looking for and review the results.   This method will often direct you to a variety of Job Boards, which will in turn direct you towards Recruitment Consultancies.

• Use Job Boards to search specific vacancies relevant to you and find out which Recruitment Consultancies are advertising the jobs you are interested in.

• Industry related or trade magazines and websites are often an excellent way to source a Recruitment Consultant.

• Ask friends or colleagues who they used when finding a job.

• In a niche or specialist market you could ask Employers which Recruitment Consultancies they use to source staff. 

Selecting a Recruitment Consultancy 

Like most businesses the quality of service differs dramatically from consultancy to consultancy.   What differentiates a good consultancy from a bad one is normally subjective, but more often than not it is down to two things; 

1) The ability of the Consultant you are dealing with and your relationship; and

2) The client base and reputation of that consultancy in the area you are looking for work.  

Top Tip
Work with a Recruitment Consultancy - not against them!   Remember a Recruitment Consultant could be your opening to a dream job.   Recruitment Consultants are no different to other people - they will often do their best for people they have the best relationships with – get to know them and work with them!  

Who will do the best job for me? 

Once you have sourced and selected a number of Recruitment Consultancies you need to contact them.   At this stage it is very important to Stand Out from the Crowd .   Refer to our Factsheet on Selling Yourself for extra advice and information. 

How do Recruitment Consultancies work?

Recruitment Consultancies mostly work by a method known as 'Contingency Recruitment'.   In other words they advertise vacancies as a direct response to a Clients request for a particular vacancy to be filled.

Once a request has been received from a Client the Recruitment Consultancy will source for Candidates using a number of methods. 

Method 1

- Advertise vacancy using a variety of paper based and online advertising mediums.

- Screen response from advertising.

- Arrange screening interviews for successful applicants.

- Create shortlist of suitable Candidates for submission to Client.  

Method 2

- Source Database of pre-registered Candidates.

- Create shortlist of suitable Candidates for submission to Client.

Method 3

- Source through any externally Job Board CV Databases.

- Contact suitable Candidates.

- Arrange screening interviews for successful Candidates.

- Create shortlist of suitable Candidates for submission to Client.  

If you have registered with a Recruitment Consultancy via Method 1 and been unsuccessful you will usually be sourced for suitability to future vacancies under Method 2.  

It is worth noting that a large number of individuals find their jobs as a result of being contacted through CV Databases.   When you select a suitable Recruitment Consultancy it is also worth considering registering your details with relevant Job Boards.  

Communicating with a Recruitment Consultant  

Because of the extremely busy nature of a Recruitment Consultants role, maintaining regular contact with your Consultant is really important.   The emphasis to maintain communication should rest with you - too many people expect the Consultant to do all the work when finding a new job!  

From a Recruitment Consultant perspective, it is more encouraging to receive regular (i.e. weekly or fortnightly) communications from Candidate than to receive either non at all which demonstrates a degree of apathy about finding a job or conversely an over excessive amount which is difficult to manage!  

As a rule, a Recruitment Consultant will normally call you when they have a suitable vacancy.   They are unlikely to call you to say that they have not found anything suitable yet for you!   There are, of course, exceptions to every rule!

Below you will find a convenient Applying for Jobs Factsheet (includes Working with Recruitment Consultancies) to enable you to read the full document and print it out as required. 

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