Recruiters are hot commodities these days. They are company confidants and allies to job seekers. Sometimes they are in-house, working directly for a company. Other times recruiters represent third party firms. Regardless, these professionals are indispensable to the hiring process.
Job seekers who want to jump-start their careers are often excited to interact with recruiters. To them, these relationship hold limitless possibilities. With professional ambitions driving them forward, eager candidates appear diligent and persistent. Unfortunately, a job seeker can turn off a recruiter and ruin a relationship (not to mention a potential job) if he or she pushes too hard and comes across as unprofessional.
To remain in a recruiter’s good graces, it is important to always act professional, especially when it comes to communicating. To ensure everyone agrees on what professional communication is, know three actions that ought to be avoided when interacting with a recruiter.
1. Email him or her every day
Follow up with a recruiter. This point cannot be stressed enough. Recruiters interact with a lot of people. There is nothing wrong with popping up once in a while to say, “Remember me?” But don’t send an e-mail to a recruiter every day. Nobody likes to get spam, and no recruiter likes receiving the same email repeatedly.
2. Fail to leave contact information on voicemails, emails, or other message systems
As mentioned above, recruiters interact with many people every day. If a recruiter receives a voicemail, email, or text without a first name, last name, telephone number, and email address, he or she may not return the message. To find a person’s contact information would take a lot of digging, which consumes precious time. With all the people recruiters try to keep straight, contact information gets buried quickly.
3. Go behind his or her back to speak directly with a hiring manager
Some eager job seekers think it’s wise to speak directly with the hiring manager. But the opposite is true. This can put a poor taste in the mouth of a potential employer and interrupt progress made with a recruiter. More so, it disrupts the hiring order. The recruiter is hired to establish a bridge between the employer and a job seeker. Until a hiring decision is made, the recruiter needs to be seen as the “go-to” source to communicate with the company. Acting in obedience with this unspoken rule is good form and gives a natural order to the hiring process.
Poor communication can ruin a person’s chances of getting a job he or she is qualified for. Instead, follow up, make contact, and bridge connections appropriately. For instance:
- Send a follow up email one week after hearing from a recruiter. Then again a few days later if there is no response.
- With every message, whether it is a voicemail, email, or text message, include appropriate contact information. This means first name, last name, email address, and phone number – even if the recruiter has this information on file.
- Contact the recruiter with questions that need to be directed to the hiring manager.
Recruiters strive to bridge successful connections. Trust recruiters to do what they get paid to do and treat them with respect. Communicating effectively with a recruiter can be the first step to securing a great job.
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