Oh, recruiters. Those gate-keepers of the job you want. Those enemies to be defeated to get to the manager.
They flood your LinkedIn with job offers that are irrelevant for you. You’ve only met incompetent ones. And it’s always them giving you the bad news that you’re not going to get the job. They interview you for a job they know less about than you, and then judge your ability to do the job? How dare they?
You don’t like recruiters.
You might be right in your feelings, but you’re wrong. If this is the perspective you have of recruiters, you’re missing out on the most valuable asset you have to get where you want in a job interview. If you’re open to understand what their job is about, you will find a land of missed opportunity that not many people are using to their advantage.
Note: This post is for those situations in which you’re applying to jobs that you’re qualified for . In case you’re applying to jobs of which you are far away from having the right skill set, please proceed as usual.
Recruiters are not your enemy, and that’s for one simple reason: they are rewarded if you get the job. Their task is to find the right people in little time, and without wasting much time of management.
This holds for both type of recruiters:
Internal recruiters: they already work at the company, and are tasked by the managers to find suitable candidates for certain open positions. If they are the ones presenting the candidate that the manager ends up hiring, the manager is happy with them. In other words: if you get hired, they have done their job well.
External recruiters: they don’t work for the company, but are also tasked by managers to find suitable candidates for certain open positions. In their case, you getting the job is the only basis on which they will get paid, so it is even more in their interest that you get hired. 1
A distinction worth noting: In some cases, there are people responsible for screening a candidate before going to the recruiter phase. The questions they ask are usually just to make sure you’re not completely nonfunctional and have the basic, really basic, requirement to get put through the process. The might also check things like salary expectations, and other conditions so that these don’t become an issue later. But these are very normals conversations in which there will be little to none judgement about your personality, and really nothing to be nervous about. Generally, they will be happy to put you through the next step, as them doing a good job is measured by the amount of options they can give the recruiters. Not embarrassing yourself and having the objective requirements for the job should be enough.
Back to the main point: recruiters are measured on the managers hiring you. Which means, they want you to get the job.
Internalizing this should be the basis for your relationship with them. The moment you realize that you’re on the same boat, recruitment becomes a cooperation game instead of a confrontation.
And then it’s about two questions, that you need to answer together:
– Which of the qualities/skills that I (the candidate) have, do you (the recruiter) need to see from me in order to put me through?
– How can we prepare together for the next steps with the manager?
If the recruiter sees that you’re genuinely interested in preparing well for the upcoming interview with the manager, they will be happy to provide you with the necessary information for it to be successful. You might get out of them what questions you should be expecting, and even how you should be giving the answers. This does not mean you should lie about your experience or capabilities, but that you need to be able to identify what areas you need to focus on. Also, it will give you time to think your answer through so they are structured and well-organized.
See it as a pragmatic conversation:
– Mr./Mrs. Recruiter, what does a candidate need to get this job?
– A, B, C, D.
– Perfect, I have all of that. How can I show this to you and your company so that you hire me?
– A, B, C, D.
– Perfect.
If you’re able to listen to the recruiter, and comfort them that you have the skills they are looking for, you’re probably through. If you then talk with the recruiter like an equal in a friendly tone, you’re ahead.
One last thing: Often, recruiters get critiqued for not bein experts of the topics they are interviewing candidates for. This is true. But it’s not an issue, nor should it be their job to be experts in every position they recruit for – interviews with managers or tests should be responsible to test that. You might not agree, but there lies an immense opportunity for the candidate: whatever they ask about is what is most crucial in the eyes of management. It is a clue into what is important, and also what isn’t. If the recruiter asks you more about apples and not about oranges, then you shouldn’t be speaking much about orange, even if you have more knowledge. The only thing the recruiter wants is reassurance that you know about whatever they ask you about. Or whatever the manager told them to ask about.
There will be scenarios in which you will still not get the job because, frankly, you will not be a good fit for every position. Or because they are interviewing better fits. But you always want to maximize your options to get the job, and being aware what function the recruiter has is a great chance for that.
Interview-processes are systems, and having a recruiter on your side that helps you navigate it is a huge benefit. Leverage it, don’t be afraid of it.
- In some instances, external recruiters get paid by the amount of candidates they sent to the company – but in these cases, there’s usually another step in which the candidate will have to speak with an internal recruiter anyway. ↩︎
leo burghaus 
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