1. He won’t return my calls

Behaviour
You’ve called several times, tried his mobile and direct line and left several voicemails but there has been no word of response from your recruitment agent.

What’s going on?
Probably not much. In this case, the most obvious answer is likely to be the real one – he has simply nothing to tell you. The first call a recruiter makes is designed to achieve one objective – to secure your endorsement on his representation of you. It may have felt like the start of a beautiful relationship, but that’s the sugar coat all recruiters are trained to put onto any candidate sourcing call. Be clear on the real purpose of that call – it was basically to get you to say, ‘Yes, please send my CV to your client, Mr Agent’. Once you’ve conceded this, there is no reason for him to contact you again until there is progress of some sort in whatever scheme he’s got you up for.

What should you do now?
Don’t panic and leave it alone. Chasing recruiters rarely works and it might end up to be counter productive. You have no leverage and cannot do much other than get increasingly frustrated if he won’t talk. Send him an email registering your continued interest, check it down to as another lead you actioned on your job search and move onto the next thing you’ve got to do.

2. She won’t see me

Behaviour
Your recruitment consultant does not seem to be enthusiastic about meeting you; you’ve heard its all about relationships, but every suggestion to meet has been met with apathy or an excuse why it can’t be done.

What’s going on?
There are two reasons why a recruiter won’t meet you; she may be prevented from doing so by company policy or she thinks that its not currently a good return to her investment in time. The first reason might sound implausible, but I can assure you that its common practice by many recruitment companies to prevent their consultants from doing anything that takes them away from the phone. The second reason will be based on how confident the recruiter feels that the hiring manager (her client, lest we don’t forget) will see her candidates. If she feels the chances are low, she will throw out the candidate interview from the process, hence no meeting with you.

What should I do now?
Follow the agents direction. There is no reason to be unhappy if the agent won’t meet; it simply tells you something about the agent & the company she works for (likely to be a high volume, ‘low touch’ recruiter) and on the type of recruitment process you’ve got yourself involved in (contingent, probably multiple agency). Arrange your hopes accordingly.

3. He wants me to call immediately after the interview

Behaviour
Your recruitment consultant is insistent on having you call him immediately after your interview with the employer organisation. In fact, his insistence is a more than a little annoying and its crossed your mind that it’s bordering on the pathological.

What’s going on?
Recruiters are information brokers and they become deeply uncomfortable when they find themselves in a position when that is no longer the case. Unless they are present at your employer interview (highly unlikely), this is precisely what happens when you meet with their client, your potential employer, at the interview stage – the broker has lost control over information which is crucial to his business. Hence, all recruiters are trained to close this information gap as soon as they can – typically by impressing on the job seeker of the urgent need to keep them updated on every development, as close to real time as possible.

What do I do now?
Do as he says. This is one the moments of the recruitment process where job seeker and agency interests are actually closely aligned. Certainly, there may be some satisfaction to be had by keeping an annoying agent waiting, but its really not in anyone’s interests to play games at this stage. Call him up and update him in full. The sooner you do this, the sooner you will get him working for you in securing you client feedback and moving the process along. As a further bonus, you’ll also be building on your reputation amongst agents as a reliable candidate – great for any future options that agent may have.

4. He’s taking an interest in all other opportunities I’m pursuing

Behaviour
Your recruitment agent has a high degree of interest in the other opportunities you’ve got in the pipeline, particularly ones not managed by him or his agency.

What’s going on?
Probably two things – ‘Candidate Risk Assessment’ and ‘Pulling New Business Leads’. A recruiter only makes money if his guy gets the job, with his client. It’s no good if you get a job with another employer who isn’t his client. In fact, that’s very bad as far as the recruiter is concerned, as he’s just wasted time, effort and opportunity cost in representing you, only to see you pull out of the process due to a competing offer he’s not managing. Recruiters are trained to assess of the risk that every candidate represents, hence the relentless interest on what other opportunities you have ongoing, and on what progress you are making on each of them. If he takes a more detailed interest – such as asking you who those other opportunities are with, and who indeed, the hiring managers are, he’s doubling up by also taking the opportunity of securing market intelligence for new business prospecting. He will almost certainly call these companies, offer his indispensable services, and more likely than not, submit other candidates in competition with you.

What do I do now?
Be polite, give enough information to preserve the relationship, but be clear on information you will not disclose. In this case, there is no harm in revealing that you are on the market and have opportunities, even some detail on where you are at with them. However, revealing the names of the those organisations, much less names of hiring managers, is not recommended.

5. I’ve been rejected but the recruiter won’t tell me why

1. Crossing your arms

This is the classic defensive posture, creating a barrier in front of you to prevent a hypothetical attack to your upper torso. In the interview context, it signals a resistance to ideas and hostility to the opinion of the others. It is extremely difficult to build rapport when holding this posture (try it next time you are with your friend or partner!) and if it is your habit, it must be corrected. Keep your hands in your lap or on the table (if there is one) in front of you, when standing, keep hands at your sides. This lets the other person know that you are defensive and are open to discussing new ideas and opinions.

2. Looking down when speaking

This is the classic deference posture, looking down to signal recognition of hierarchy and avoiding a hypothetical thump from any alpha male. In the interview context, this can be readily interpreted as obsequiousness – not an attractive quality to present to an employer. It is extremely difficult to build respect and an equality-of-relations if you habitually drop your gaze when speaking. Look into the eyes of the listener when you begin your sentence, follow the 3 second rule before glancing away and look again when you have finished speaking. This lets the other person know that you are interested in engagement, whilst giving clear visual cues as to when he or she can interject.

3. Checking your watch

There is NO reason to do this at interview. Checking for the time or any other substitute distraction (flicking a pen, checking your phone, taking a call – I’ve seen them all!) indicates boredom, a lack of interest and a keeness for the interview to be over. If that truly is the case, you will do better by concluding the interview yourself and excusing yourself from the exercise.

4. False smiling

Many primatologists think that the smile was originally a sign of aggression – lips open, teeth bared – a warning to stay away. It has since evolved into a near universal way to communicate sincerity and friendliness, but it can quickly go wrong again if poorly executed or used out of context. A false or forced smile is one of the most hostile facial expressions – signaling deception, hidden motive, attempt at manipulation and a disguised threat. A genuine smile involves the entire face – eyes & mouth, whilst a false smile uses only the mouth. People seem to be very good at seeing the difference, so at interview, smile only when you mean it!

5. Poor posture

Slouching or hunching your shoulders immediately makes you look smaller and signals a lack of self-confidence. Your posture is possibly the first thing that people notice and often sets the tone on how you will be treated – and therefore, how the interview will go. Standing up straight with your shoulders back displays confidence and self-assuredness – this translates directly into respect. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart, head held up and your line of sight parallel to the floor. This will automatically stretch the spine, relaxes the shoulders and communicates your comfort in your surroundings.

1. Be Easily Contactable
That means mobile and email on the top of the first page. Putting this information anywhere else forces the recruiter to hunt for it within the document, and every additional second he spends doing this exercise increases the risk that he will give up and move on to the next CV on his list.

2. Be Conventional
Unless you are in a creative industry, its worth avoiding any kind of unnecessary formatting or design that could be considered gimmicky. That means backgrounds other than white, font colours other than black, any kind of non standard font, unconventional bullet points and so on. There is a difference between making your CV stand out, and making it look wierd. Unconventional formatting does the latter and will almost certainly lead to the delete pile.

3. Be Categorical
Of course, you are a multi talented, multi dimensional professional, but to pass the CV scan you need to be easily categorised into a role a recruiter understands. Strange as it may sound, but you need to pigeon-hole yourself on the CV. If you are a Project Manager, the recruiter needs to understand this in 3 seconds of opening your CV, so make it obvious with your headings, the language you use and skills you list.

4. Be Easy On The Eye
Bullet points were invented for a reason – use them. Writing blocks of text forces the recruiter to actually read – remember that’s not what that’s not what he wants to do. It’s time consuming to pick out those key elements within a block of text more than 5-6 lines long. Make a clear, related points within short paragraphs (try for 3-4 lines) and follow up with subheadings and bullets if you need to expand upon it.

5. Be Brief
A recruiter can tell how long your CV is as soon as the document is open. Keep your CV to two pages if you can, four pages at an absolute maximum. Anything over that and the recruiter will close it down before they even begin to read.

There is a somewhat unpalatable rule of thumb in all of this; don’t make the recruiter work. Your best interests are served if you make as easy as possible for the recruiter to understand your CV and do so in 3 seconds or less.

1. Complete profile
A recruiter will not waste time contacting you if they think you are a dormant account holder on LinkedIn and there is no surer indicator of this than an incomplete profile. Whether its the absence of a profile photo, incomplete work history or few connections, an incomplete profile sends one very clear message – you don’t use LinkedIn often enough for it to be a viable method of communication with you. The fact that this may or may not be true is irrelevant – you represent a risk of being a waste of time and that will be enough for the recruiter to skip to the next profile.

2. Job Title
Due to the limited boolean search capacity of LinkedIn, searching by Job Title is a far more common search technique than is the case with Online Job Boards or proprietary recruitment databases. What this means for job seekers is straightforward – not only do you need to have Job Titles in your work summary, but they should be aligned as closely as you can to industry standard nomenclature. Avoid using esoteric language or grandiose titles that don’t reflect the actualite – don’t let corporate narcissism or personal vanity damage your chances of appearing in search results relevant to you.

3. Location
As a formerly US centric networking tool, UK recruiters have been quick to learn to use the Location filter to generate only UK based profiles. This remains an essential part of the profile to get right. Without a country category or a postcode, you will end up being lost from searches as recruiters almost always recruit against geography and use the Location or promixity filter to do so. Furthermore, with geolocation likely to become the next big thing in social media (and social recruiting), it is essential that this is not overlooked as you complete your profile.

4. Company Name
The norms of recruitment have changed. The era of excessive privacy, cloak and dagger levels of subterfuge, and of headhunters behaving like MI5 agents is over. Not revealing the name of your employer on your LinkedIn profile might have been something you would do 10 years ago, but today it is anachronistic and counter productive from what you are hoping to achieve by being on LinkedIn. Company Name comes second only to Job Title as a search field for recruiters – you’re guaranteeing that you will be missing from searches if you do not add your company name where it should be.

1. Be available

When your phone rings, answer it. In a hyper competitive labour market, you will lose opportunities by being difficult to contact. Its understandable you can’t always talk at work and its difficult when your boss is sitting on the desk right behind you. Nevertheless that means little to recruiter trying to build a pipeline. From his point of view, he’s got a list of 30 people to call – he needs only 5 to be able to say he’s got a shortlist. You don’t answer and he’s simply going to go, ‘next’. Don’t let it get that way – if you’re serious about job hunting, answering your phone is worth the risk and has to be your number one priority.

2. Be honest

This is fighting fire with water. Yes, recruiters do have a reputation for being ‘economical with the truth’, but you know what? So does anyone who is trying to sell you something. That doesn’t mean that adopting their ways is necessarily in your best interests. Indeed, sometimes, the recruiter simply needs answers to closed questions (are you looking for a job y/n? would you relocate for the right opportunity y/n? are you interested in working in this or that industry y/n?). Being disengenuous to these questions will simply generate options that are not right for you. Recognise that certain questions are not there to test you – they are there to qualify your suitability for the post he has in mind. More importantly, an honest answer will save your most valuable resource in the job search – your time.

3. Know what you want

There is nothing more irritating to a recruiter than a candidate whose prepared to be an everyman. Agents recruit to a spec – a set of instructions from a client detailing the targeted candidates background, skillset and personality. Candidate qualification is often no more than a box ticking exercise. The ‘I’ll do anything/everything’ approach smacks of desperation and ticks none of those boxes and will lead straight to the ‘delete’ pile. Be clear on who you are, what you can do and what you want to do – that’s all.

4. Do as you say

If you agree on a topic or make an arrangement, then stick to it. This may be considered a minimum professional responsibility in any circumstance, but it is especially important when your career prospects are on the line. If you agree to be available for a phone call, make sure you are. If you agree to meet the agent, be there 15 minutes beforehand. And if you agree to interview with a client, please make sure you go!

5. Get that job