Round peg, square holes and recruiters.

I met with a recruiter for coffee the other day, and we were chatting about life, the universe, the job market etc….

Interestingly, he mentioned, career changers and those that are under or over qualified are rarely going to get much value from a recruiter.

He went on:
What recruiters ultimately do is to match a round peg (you) to the round holes (openings) they know about. The closer the fit the easier they can make the connection.
The reality for the recruiter is they’re paid, by the hiring company, to find suitable candidates, quickly! The better they are at matching round pegs to round holes the more money they can make. But there’s another dimension at work here: if the closeness of fit of candidates (includes education, salary, skills, experiences, even past employers) is not close enough then the hiring company is likely to look for another recruiter to find candidates.

So while the Recruiter would genuinely like to help it doesn’t help them, or their clients (the hiring companies) if they cannot find good quality matches.

True when we look at all the skills experiences etc. we have, we’re all more then just one square shape and could quite neatly fit several different square holes. If you’re expecting a recruiter to help you with your search they need to know what types of roles are best for you.

p.s. I just read this from Dave at Execunet, and how “some” recruiters are beginning to view candidates as he points out, it’s bout time!

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