Job Search: Top 5 questions to ask your agency recruiter

There are a lot of recruiters out there. Many offer good career advice.  You’ve probably been called by hundreds of them. Here’s a few questions to ask to help sift through the good and the bad for your next job search.

1. How long have you been recruiting?  Usually the best agency recruiters are industry veterans that have worked at a small number of firms.  Client relationships and tenure are two ways to help ensure your recruiter can add value when representing your profile to his/her client.
2. How long have you been with your current agency/company?  Again, tenure with a company helps affirm that your recruiter has produced results for his agency.  At the end of the day, Recruiters are matrixed employees and the ‘proof is in the pudding’.  Like sales professionals, they have goals and quotas they need to meet and ideally exceed.  If a recruiter has been with his/her agency for a long period of time, that is an indicator that the recruiter is valued by his/her recruiting agency, and makes a decent volume of placements.
3. How many placements have you made with the client you are representing?  Common sense would say, the more placements the recruiter has personally made with this company, the better chance you have at getting an interview.  This goes back to the personal relationship with the hiring manager.  The more time the recruiter has spent with the hiring manager, the better the rapport will be, which should result in more placements.
4. Are you working directly with the hiring manager, and are you sending resumes right to him/her?  Even if the recruiter has worked with the hiring manager for 10+ years, it's possible resumes may need to be sent to Human Resources or submitted through an Applicant Tracking System first.  The best case scenario is your recruiter is emailing resumes directly to the hiring manager.  If not, the hiring manager could still be an advocate for seeing the resumes your recruiter sends through their standard application process.
5. Do you have a signed agreement with your client?  If your recruiter does not have a signed agreement, he/she is not in a position to represent you.  Period.

Don’t waste your time talking with too many recruiters. Ask these questions and find the recruiters who can help you find your next job!