As most people will find out at some point during their career, looking for a new job can be an extremely stressful and time-consuming process.
With overwhelming pressures, it is easy to overlook the benefits that a recruitment agency can provide in your job search.
Not only does a recruiter help you throughout the job-hunting process – they also provide coaching and mentoring opportunities. They will discuss your career to date, focus on your long-term development, and highlight new opportunities for you to explore.
Find out more about the benefits of using a recruitment agency, and the exact qualities you should look for in a recruiter below:
What Are the Key Benefits A Recruitment Agency Can Provide Me With?
They Do the Job Search for You!
Instead of spending hours scrolling through job boards, social media, and attending networking events – an employment agency can take all those pressures off you.
If you engage with a skilled recruiter, then they will likely be very well-networked within your specialism and will have a vast database of current job vacancies.
Recruitment agencies often recruit exclusively for some of the best roles in the industry, which you otherwise wouldn’t be able to come across.
They will know their clients and the roles they have available extremely well. From this, they’ll be able to provide you with a more tailored job search and will only put you forward for the opportunities that are most relevant to you.
Provide You with Industry Insight
A good recruiter will be an expert in your industry. This allows them to understand the right types of roles and career path for you – they can provide new perspectives on your career goals that you may not have even considered previously.
Most recruitment agencies will have built their business on the skills and experiences of their recruiters within your specialism. So the feedback and guidance of a skilled recruiter could be instrumental in your next career move.
Help You Develop Your CV
Developing and updating a CV can be one of the toughest challenges that many job-seekers face. If you simply seek advice from online CV templates, you run the risk of not standing out from your competition.
An experienced recruiter understands exactly what an employer is looking for. They can help craft a tailored CV that resonates with prospective employers and helps you stand out from your competitors.
Interview Preparation
When it comes to successful interviews, preparation is key!
A recruiter will go through the job description with you and discuss competencies and experience. They can even provide mock interviews and practice questions if you’re feeling particularly nervous.
This will help you feel calm and prepared for any questions you may face. And will also help you to consider questions you can ask the interviewer.
If you are successful in your interviews, a recruitment agency can also provide a SWOT analysis of multiple job offers to make sure you decide on the best opportunity for you.
Recruiters can provide salary benchmarking advice with realistic expectations for your new salary. And even after you have received a job offer – they can help you negotiate the salary and wider package.
Help You Have Better Conversations at Work
You don’t even have to be actively looking for a job to benefit from speaking with a recruitment agency!
Having better conversations with management at your current workplace can help you improve your work-life balance, negotiate a higher salary, or even seek changes in how you are managed.
An experienced recruitment consultant can professionally mentor you and help build a roadmap for your career. This can help you to stay in control and give you the confidence to have those difficult yet important conversations at work.
Build You A Career Contingency Plan
If you’ve recently gone through a personal transition in your life – such as returning to work after a break, making a career change or navigating a redundancy – then a recruitment agency is there to help you.
They can provide you with a contingency plan to help guide you through a difficult time. This will give you that extra bit of reassurance, motivation and energy when you need it the most. A contingency plan can also provide you with a sense of security in your next steps.
Long-Term Relationships
Another great thing about engaging with a recruitment agency is that you can develop a long-term relationship with them.
It might be that you want some advice and mentoring further down the line. In which case, a good recruiter should keep in touch with you so that this is possible.
It’s often the case with good recruitment agencies that the candidates they place will eventually become clients, too.
Here at Inclusive Consulting, for example, we have placed many candidates throughout the years who have then got back in touch with us when they are looking to hire. Having a long-term relationship with your recruiter can make this transition from candidate to client seamless and will ultimately benefit you in your own hiring activities.
What Are the Key Things I Should Look for In A Recruiter?
A Personal Approach
Let’s face it, recruiters don’t always have a great reputation. Many are guilty of generalising the recruitment process for quick, small wins. This ultimately leads to high levels of employee turnover if candidates haven’t been placed in the best role for them.
You should look for a recruiter that encourages you to discuss your motivators, your goals outside of work, reasons for looking for a new job, and more. Personality assessments should also be offered to help you and your potential employer understand how you function within a team, within different work environments, and more.
At Inclusive Consulting, we work closely with each candidate that seeks our help and advice. We stay in touch with you throughout your career – often through multiple promotions or changes in roles.
Open & Honest Conversations
More than just trying to find your next role, a recruitment agency should look to engage in open and honest conversations with you to genuinely invest in your career.
A good recruiter will be open with you about salary expectations, areas for development in skills or experience, company cultures, and much more.
Your recruiter should trust you enough and have built a positive enough relationship to have these trickier conversations with you, not only about your career but to answer any questions you may have about potential employers.
Experience
You should look for a recruitment agency that have experience placing other candidates in your specialist area and in similar roles. The most experienced recruiters will have access to both permanent and temporary roles – depending on what you’re looking for. Then find out exactly how that step-by-step process worked.
Our team at Inclusive Consulting have over 40 years combined experience in recruiting. We have placed numerous candidates in everything from entry-level to C-suite roles – in a wide variety of industries.
We’re still in touch with professionals we’ve helped over a decade ago, which tells you how we like to operate.
Want to find out more about why you should use a recruitment agency? Inclusive Consulting is a team of leading recruiters and consultants based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire.
We operate throughout the local areas of Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and The Midlands as well as nationwide. And we pride ourselves on helping candidates find roles that enable them to thrive.
We specialise in Finance and Accountancy, Manufacturing, Procurement, HR, Sales and Marketing, and EA and Secretarial roles. And recruit for various permanent and temporary roles.
To find out more about the way we work or to learn more about why you should engage with a recruitment agency, please call us on (0114) 2469849 or you can send us a message here.
