Career Tips Guides

A recruitment agency is a very efficient way to get a job as more and more companies are choosing to outsource their recruitment function to employment agencies.

For that reason, these agencies have contacts with many companies, much more than a candidate can personally come up with on their own.

Types of Recruitment Agencies

There are two types of agencies - specialists and generalists. While specialized agencies seek for employees in a single field such as accounting, general agencies cover the whole spectrum of skill sets while providing jobs only in a fixed geographical region.

Your selection of a suitable agency should depend upon what type of job you want, specialized or limited to a particular geographical region.

Shop Around

Getting the right match for you as well as for the company is a priority for the recruitment agency, as both are their clients. To find a recruitment agency that fulfills your requirements, you need to shop around a bit.

You should gather detailed information about the recruitment agency such as the companies it recruits for, its performance record, its market reputation, and so on, before you select one.

Be Specific

You should clearly state exactly what you are looking for - your skill sets, your expectations, and the profile of the job you are seeking. This makes the task easier for both of you; it will save your time as well as theirs.

Develop Good Rapport

Build a good relationship with your recruitment agent. If you have a good relationship with them, they will work harder to get you a good job.

It’s just human nature to work harder to help people we get along with!

Create a Good Impression

When you are visiting your recruitment company for the first time, dress as you would for a job interview. This creates a good impression and makes them realize your sincerity.

You might be asked to perform a specific job, or they might also offer you some sort of training, which usually comes free of charge. You should take advantage of it and create good rapport throughout with your recruitment agent.

Stay In Contact

Ideally, you should have regular contact with your agent. This will increase the likelihood that he will think of you first when an appropriate job comes up. If you do not hear from your agency in a week, you should give them a call. It might be that no appropriate job has come up, but it might also be that they are no longer considering you for a job since they haven’t heard from you.

As the agency finds a suitable job for you, you can let the agency negotiate your salary if you are a newcomer and have no idea about pay scales. Once again, this helps in building healthy relationships with the agency.

The agency will benefit in the long run by providing good service, because you will be more likely to come back to them the next time you’re in the job market.

Taking note of all these points and practicing them when choosing a recruitment company will increase your chances of getting a good job - and one that you’re happy with.

Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solution’s Six Sigma Online offers online six sigma training and certification classes for six sigma professionals including, lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.