5 Not-So-Secret Things That Recruiters Wish Job Seekers Knew

By Tess Curle Taylor, PHR, CPC

A vast majority of candidates want to know what is happening behind closed doors during the hiring process, However, unless they wind-up as hiring managers themselves, they might never know what actually occurs during this critical time.

On the other hand, recruiters want job seekers to know more information about the job search and hiring process to make it easier on everyone involved.

Five Must-Know Facts from the Recruiting Community 

Wouldn't it be nice, if recruiters could finally shed a little more light on the mysteries of the recruitment process so that more candidates could succeed?

The time is now! In this article, I’ve have compiled a list of the top five things recruiters wish job seekers knew during their search.

#1 Help the Recruiter to Help the Job Seeker

As a job seeker, it’s in your ability to help the recruiter help you. Recruiters do not have a lot of free time on their hands these days because of a highly competitive job market. Job seekers who have contact with a company previously should drop a phone number at the end of an email message or in their signature of an email. Even though this information is readily available in a resume, it saves the recruiter time since they do not have to open the file.

#2 Watch How You Position Yourself

All job seekers should be careful with how they position themselves. Do not tell the recruiter that you are a difficult person to work with; this will put you in a bad position right off the bat. Even if a job seeker is a hard-worker, this could be taken the wrong way. Candidates should never admit to being difficult to work with on the job. Instead, accentuate the positives and how easy you are to work with.

#3 Learn How to Correspond Correctly

Job seekers should submit emails from accounts that are their own, not their spouse’s. This will cause confusion among the recruiters when receiving an email signed 'John', but the address is from 'Jane'. Include your full contact information as your signature in your email if you want someone to get back in touch with you. 

Also, make sure that your email address is a variation of your name and from a known email provider. Do not send recruiters emails from unprofessional accounts like [email protected] (by the way, this is not a real email address).

#4 Due Diligence in a Job Search - Perform Some Research

There are thousands of job seekers out there who simply do not take their search seriously. This includes not performing enough research about the company before they send in an application. With the Internet, you can find anything you want know about a company in a matter of minutes, even seconds in some cases. Be sure to do your research and learn about the company, its values, its history and what it offers to clients. You should also research the person with whom you are meeting for the interview. This can make the conversation easier and more in-depth.

#5 Social Media Should be Important to You

Job seekers must realize how important social media is to their search. Use professional pictures on all of your social media accounts. Clean up your social media accounts and make sure that they are clean and free of any inappropriate content. Weed out followers who do not represent you as a professional in your field. Even consider editing some of your posts for spelling and grammar. These little steps taken now will help hiring companies see the real you online, and make it more probable that you will get the call for an interview soon.

Now that you know the secrets to success in a job search, put them to good use to land your dream job. 

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