Career advice: The Right Approach Will Attract Recruiters

We hope you give the recruiters you contact more information than you've given us. Since we don't know how you approach these recruiters, it's hard to diagnose whether the problem might lie in the style of your initial approach to them, or in your choice of companies to contact. Your approach is probably different if you operate in the open market (ads), the hidden market (unsolicited approach), or the grey market (you are approached).

However, for this discussion, let's assume the problem is both with your approach and companies contacted. First, you need to contact recruiting firms used successfully by two people you know. As with most effective job-hunting strategies, you'll fare far better if you use your network of industry contacts to help you select which recruiters to pursue, rather than randomly cold-calling companies. Second, vary your initial approach to see what brings you the best response (be sure to use same approach two or three times to gauge its success). You might try practicing this initial approach on three firms that interest you the least, and when you're sure of and comfortable with this approach begin contacting your referrals. Third, make a plan on how you'll follow up if you don't receive a response.

Just because you don't hear from them doesn't mean that they haven't added your information to their resume database. You'll need to stay very proactive in order to ensure that you're given attention.

For a guide that might help you understand how to work with search firms, refer to "The Directory of Executive Recruiters 2001" (Kennedy Publications, 2000).

Finally, we hope you'll try other job-search strategies. It's been proven that using a number of different methods improves your chances of finding a good job faster.