Internal recruiters only care about positions at their company. External recruiters really only care about an applicant if there’s a position that needs filled that they’ve been contracted out to fill (mainly because they get a cut, don’t fault them for that).
What I’m curious is if there is someone who is willing to work on your behalf and leverage connections they have in an industry to find a person a job regardless of where it is.
Im either using the wrong search terms or it doesn’t exist (for reference I’m looking for Director+ IT).
My experiences with these kinds of headhunters has been “mixed”, trending toward “poor”. Most were useless. They would show up with “opportunities” then I’d never hear from them again. These people/companies typically, as I understand it, work “in bulk”. They’re just harvesting as many resumes as they can, throwing buckets of them at employers and hoping something sticks. They aren’t really going to put any meaningful effort into helping you.
That said, a rare few have really stepped up. The last one I worked with back around 2012, really went out of his way to get me in with a company and secure me a good offer. So they do exist. But, in my experience at least, they are rare.
You’re in a tricky position. You’re looking for a relatively senior position. You’ll be up against a fair amount of competition for somewhat rare roles with very specific requirements. There’s just not going to be a ton of those director+ level roles out there at any given time. But don’t give up and don’t give up hope. Those recruiters do exist, as do those jobs. Good luck!
Yes, that’s how I got my current job. They polished my cv and contacted dozens of companies every week. I couldn’t have done that nearly as efficiently.
There are more specific staffing agencies where I live, for finance, medical, IT. I actually had really good experience using those, my brother did too. Yes they try to fit the person to the job and vice versa, but that helped.
How to find them though?
External recruiters often get paid more after you have been with a company for a year. Furthermore, both you and the employer have to accept the other (do remember, particularly after entry level, interviews go both ways).
They are fairly motivated to get you where you need to be.
Yes, but.
They can do certain things for you, like giving advice, or help you to brush up your resume.
But most of them don’t go all the way for you, because that’s not their business model: they make most of their money from “the other side”.
Another but:
You’ve got to be a pretty good candidate for them to want to work with you. A friend of mine was placed by one, but she had a decade of project management experience with all the right buzzwords
Never had a good experience with headhunters, mainly the few I worked with used a bait and switch strategy. Get me hyped up for a vacancy then switch it to a different company which is shit. Maybe I was just working with the wrong people. I’ve had better success staying loyal to the company and working with internal recruiters.
Like an agent? Actors and sports players have them. People who get paid in the millions. So they can hire people to act on their behalf to get them work while they sip martinis by the pool.
