QUESTION: What’s the best way to find the right recruiter to help me in my job search?

Angela Watts, MyPro Resumes

There are different types of recruiters: corporate (internal), agency (external), retained (executive search). Corporate folks are focused on filling open roles. Agency and retained recruiters specialize in certain fields or industries and are more open to connecting. You can find recruiters through searches by title, agency calls and by asking your network who they’ve worked with in the past.

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Robert Rosales, EZ Resume Services

If you are on LinkedIn and have a well-optimized profile, recruiters will find you. LinkedIn is also a great way to locate recruiters. You can use LinkedIn’s People Search function to find a contact. For example, you may type in: recruiter, consumer products, marketing, San Jose, and the search will yield results you can review to find potential recruiter contacts.

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Paul Bennett, NOVA Career Strategies

One of the best tools for finding recruiters is LinkedIn. In the search bar, enter “headhunter OR recruiter OR recruitment” plus more specific terms enabling you to focus on a specific job type, level, and industry. The syntax is straightforward and powerful; you can use quotes, boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) and parentheses to build highly focused searches that will save you a lot of time.

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Alison King, Copyedit Queen | Royal Resumes

A recruiter’s job is not to find a job for you; their job is to find the right candidate for the company. Use LinkedIn to find recruiters for your target company/industry. Make an introduction: “Hi, I’m [name]. I am a [profession] with [#] years’ experience in [top skills]. Please let me know if I can help you fill any positions through my network or if you have jobs that fit my qualifications.”

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Dawn Rasmussen, Pathfinder Careers

The best way to find the right recruiter is to do your research. Many recruiting companies specialize in specific industries or job types, so you need to do the legwork to make sure you are a good match to their typical client company. The next step is to reach out to them. But remember, recruiters work for their clients, not you. Your job is to sell yourself as a solution to their job order.

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What’s the best way to find the right recruiter to help me in my job search?