What should you expect from a recruiter?
Working with the wrong recruiter can potentially damage your reputation or hurt your current job if your information is not handled with high confidentiality
This is a time of considerable uncertainty, and many professionals and executives are looking at the job market through the help of executive recruiters. Working with the wrong recruiter can potentially damage your reputation or hurt your current job if your information is not handled with high confidentiality. Unfortunately, recruiting is an unregulated profession. It’s up to job candidates to evaluate the background of recruiters and determine if their reputation is good.
One way to guarantee absolute confidence is by making sure you are speaking to a trusted executive search firm that is held to the highest standards in the industry. The Association of Executive Search and Leadership Consultants (AESC) has been around since 1959, and they set the quality standard for the executive search and leadership consulting profession. Members of The Association of Executive Search and Leadership Consultants are the leaders in executive talent and leadership advisory solutions.
If the recruiter that you are working with is a member of the AESC you can be confident that the firm has been carefully vetted and subscribes to the highest ethics and standards in the profession.
This is what you should expect and demand from the recruiter that you are working with:
- Full Disclosure. The recruiter should be transparent about how they are going to use and present your information. It is essential to clarify that your information must not be sent to people or companies without your explicit prior consent.
- Feedback. You are entitled to feedback. Make sure you close the loop. After working with a recruiter in a search project, make sure that you understand when that search project ends and what will happen to your information once that happens.
- Guidance. Recruiters get paid by companies. It’s essential never to forget that. However, you are entitled to be treated with professionalism and respect. While recruiters have a fiduciary responsibility with their clients, they should also have a moral obligation with you. Make sure that the recruiter will also have your best interest in mind and not place you in a difficult situation.
Most job seekers find that the recruiting process very rewarding and a learning opportunity regardless of the outcome. With the guidance of a top executive search firm and a great recruiter, you will have the chance to explore your interests and improve your interview and negotiation skills. Every time you work with a recruiter, it has the potential of being a win situation. You can either find a great job or become better at working with recruiters and improve your job search capabilities. You will also become a known entity to a reputable search firm, which could open many doors in the future.
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