Progress your career and thinking of doing this alone? Don’t – talk to a modern recruiter instead.

In the age of social media and always-on mobile brilliance, the temptation for those in employment to seek out a new job or employment challenge by themselves is often too tantalising to ignore. After all, most professionals have a fully updated profile on LinkedIn, an active FB page and no-doubt a suitable presence on a relevant specialist network. And of course, everyone is aware that over 84 per cent of companies are using social networks to recruit passive job-seekers. The new dream position you are looking for could be no further away than a simple message direct to an employer – an employer that seems to have embraced the social world for no other purpose than to tempt you into their organisation.

Reinforcing this desire to go at it alone could be your innate scepticism of traditional recruiters – the type that bombarded you with inappropriate job ads when you registered on their site. Or the ones that made you spend hours writing-up a new online CV for their ‘recruitment database’ (which resulted in no queries!). Maybe your negative view is due to the many recruiters that never responded to your job applications, or who offered you curt, disinterested responses when you called them on the phone. For me, the recruiters that I “disliked” most were the ones that only talked to me at the interview stage. They said nothing to me before it, and when I wasn’t selected, not a lot afterwards.

Old school recruiters have failed a lot of people in their desperate lurch from one job-placement contract to the next. If you didn’t fulfil the criteria for the job they were looking to fill RIGHT THIS MINUTE, they weren’t interested. And they still won’t be.

Thankfully there exists a new breed. They view recruitment as a constant campaign of communication. They are out there marketing, networking, writing, and blogging with a passion. Their goal is to build-up a network of professionals who are actively or passively looking for career progression because they know that the best hire for their client is often a passive job seeker. They acknowledge that candidates now have a choice and are able to research recruiters, companies and jobs in-depth before they make a leap. They know time and choice is on your side. All of this is the reason new recruiters are putting candidate’s values and needs at the heart of their recruitment organisation. Only by understanding, engaging and signing-up the best candidates can they satisfy their client’s needs to hire the best people. Moreover, unlike traditional recruiters, they understand that if they don’t have a position for you today, they may well have one for you next week, or next month. They need you in their network and they offer a wealth of benefits in return for you joining their network.

1. Instant connection with a headhunter and a wealth of job opportunities
2. A specialist recruiter will be able to open up a wealth of job opportunities. Whether it’s professional development, career progression or salary improvements, they can do more for you than you can do alone. Fact. And the best services will put you in contact with a specialist recruitment professional or headhunter immediately!
3. Seamless communications
4. The new recruitment companies are building brands with values you can easily discern and identify with. They are mobile first, they are social and they are inviting direct communication. The goal of all of this activity is to enable you to get to know them and for them to fully understand you – from everything you have achieved thus far to everything you want to do.
5. Your recruitment consultant will be specialist
6. New generation recruiters make sure that the consultant you talk to is a specialist in your area. And they will make sure you get through to this expert swiftly. Anything else is a waste of your time.
7. Specialist sector knowledge means one thing – great job opportunities for you
8. Contacting a specialist recruiter will always be more valuable than contacting a single employer direct or a generalist recruiter. A recruiter with deep experience and contacts in a specialist area will have valuable knowledge of sector trends, industry changes, new developments and the current needs of key industry players. All of this adds to more and better job opportunities for the most important person in the recruitment game – you, the candidate.
9. They won’t waste your time with online jobs boards, CVs, database and letters
10. The best recruiters are 100 per cent mobile, 100 per cent social and always user friendly. They are using technology platforms that enables passive and active job-seekers to sign-up and create a detailed professional profile in 60 seconds. They want to talk to you. They want you to know them and their clients. No more jobs-boards, no more adverts lists, no more databases to fill, no more letters to write. Just instant communication and contact.
11. Culture and values that are right for you
12. The dominance of the social online world and the ease with which good recruiters are able to get to know the candidates in their network has given them an ability to tailor opportunities to you from companies whose brand values and culture you will endorse.
13. Great insider advice for the interview
14. Good recruiters will know their client inside out. They know what the client is looking for, the skill-sets that are important, the personality traits they value, the important values of the company culture. All of this knowledge is relayed to the candidates in their network. They want you to impress their client – when you win, they win.
15. Professional profile guidance and interview advice
16. How you present yourself, both online and in reality, is a key aspect of recruitment. Giving expert advice what specialist recruiters do.

Happy 2017!