Another misnomer is that candidates can't work with more than one agency at a time—they certainly can. And many job seekers erroneously believe agencies only recruit for temp or contract workers and so miss out on all the benefits an agency can provide as well as help in finding that next great role.

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Many recruitment firms have technical recruiters who act like 'sports agents' putting the skills of the candidate in front of hiring managers. They can also assist in the negotiation of salary, holiday and job details to ensure the candidate is compensated fairly.

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It is also true that a good portion of companies uses staffing agencies exclusively in their quest for talent. HR managers and recruiters within these organisations are already very busy and utilise services like ours as extensions of their HR department. We may be working positions that our customers haven't even tried to recruit for yet," explains Bill Hickey recruiter at WJH International Ltd an individual with over 35 years of Sales, Marketing, Technical and Executive recruitment. Working with a Recruitment Consultant broadens your network and allows you to access a larger number of available positions and companies.

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And maybe, most importantly, Recruitment Consultants often have access to job opportunities that aren't publicly posted online or offline. Recruitment Consultants often have relationships with companies that do not advertise or their advertising is very limited so job seekers would not find these positions through other means.

 

The Benefits

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There are quite a few tangible benefits of partnering with a Recruitment Consultant, says Hickey. The Consultant can serve as a voice for the candidate, selling the candidate to a company on points beyond the CV.

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"A good Recruitment Consultant will prep their candidate and give them an idea of what to expect in the interview and how to prepare," he explains. that "working with a Recruitment Consultant also expands your search efforts while giving your CV more visibility."

Whilst just avoiding the sticky issue of salary negotiation is a valuable benefit, another big advantage notes Hickey is that a good Recruitment Consultant "will work diligently to find you a job that is worth changing jobs for, saving you from spending all of your free time searching job ads."

Good Recruitment Consultants also provide job coaching services and can help candidates boost interviewing skills, prepare for specific interview questions, help them research the hiring company beforehand, and of course improve the CV presentation.

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"Candidates don't realise that companies know there is an expense to hiring quality talent whether they do it themselves or through a Recruitment Consultant, but companies accept that cost! A good Recruitment Consultant will work to get their candidate the most money that they can while knowing a company's limits. The goal is ultimately to end up in a win-win situation with both of the clients, the candidate and the company, happy,".

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Picking The Right Agency

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Though job candidates can work with several recruiting agencies and aren't locked into one recruiting firm, there are some good reasons why you should limit the agencies to at most three.

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"You want to make sure no one will submit your credentials to a company without contacting you first. The last thing that you want is for your CV to be presented multiple times to a company so make sure you keep track of where you have been presented/submitted,".

The best way to find a good agency is to start with online research, searching under keywords relevant to the job title of interest.

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In considering agencies, the best approach is the direct approach. Candidates can determine which agency to work with simply by speaking with a Consultant in that agency. Find out what kinds of companies each agency works with and what types of positions they regularly fill. Some staffing agencies have different divisions, i.e. technical and non-technical so candidates should make sure they're working with the subject matter expert who deals with a job seeker's niche specialisation.