By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
A great question from someone who is trying to find out what recruiters are trying to learn when they ask me what I’m looking for. As always, I give a direct answer, but also provide my unique twist from when I did recruiting.
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Someone asked the question today that translates into what are recruiters trying to find out when they ask what I’m looking for?
Now, it depends and I’ll tell you how I used to interpret the answers when I spoke to someone. So, normally there’s two things that you’re trying to find out and it doesn’t really matter whether you’re an active job hunter or whether they are recruiting you but, the twist is how you answer the two things.
Number one is what compensation are you looking for? What are you looking for? Now, that’s one interpretation as to what they’re trying to find out. I know it was one of the things I tried to find out. The other thing is what kind of role are you looking for? Are you reasonable with your financial expectations given what your current salary is and what your experience is and also whether you’re reasonable about the positional expectations.
“Hi. I am a programmer. I want to be CIO of another organization.” Buzzer goes off. No. No, this is ridiculous. No one’s promoting a programmer into a CIO. Just doesn’t work that way. You don’t have the knowledge and experience to do that. So, what you’re trying to do is find out is whether someone’s expectation of what they are and whether they are reasonable or not.
Now, I used to play another game and the game was in what order did they give it to me. Now, usually when someone was telling me about the salary first, and then the position, money was going to be the most important thing and then, vice versa, if they talked to me about the position and then salary was second, then that was going to be the more important thing.
Now, sometimes there are other little things that show up. For example, I want to work within X number of miles from where I live. I want to relocate to another area. You see, recruiters are trying to find the variables that are going to come into play in your decisioning to see whether it’s going to match what their client is looking for and what their client can deliver because it’s not just about you. You’re not paying anything. It’s about the client and what they’re able to do because recruiters don’t place people in jobs. They fill jobs that someone’s willing to pay them to work on filling.
So, I want you to understand a recruiter is there to evaluate and assess you for your fit for a role or roles that they can present you to. After that, you’re inventory… Inventory that they can come back to it at a later date. Once they have how the information that you shared matches up with another position.
So, again, it’s all about money. It’s all about the role and how you fit into the position that you applied for or that they were attempting to recruit you for.
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ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a coach who worked as a recruiter for what seems like one hundred years. He is hired to provide No BS Career Advice globally. That can involve job search, hiring staff, management, leadership, career transition and advice about resolving workplace issues.
You will find great info and job search coaching to help with your job search at JobSearch.Community
Schedule a discovery call at my website, www.TheBigGameHunter.us. He is the producer and former host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with over 3000 episodes.
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