There are some things in life I do not understand. I am guessing I will never understand them. One that has popped up all of my life is being a resource for recruiters. Now, in my world, recruiters are always just some sales person for some body shop, and I mean always. Why am I supposed to open up my contacts for them? What do I gain for doing this? Why should I help someone that has never done anything for me? Why should I help someone that works in an industry that has never done anything for me? Why help someone that won't pay? I know I sound rather harsh, but I have my reasons. Let's look at these one by one.
- I have actually helped a couple of recruiters in the past. What did they do for me? Nothing. I never got anything from them. I never got promotion of any of my material. I never got them to say anything nice about me. I never found anything on anyone's social media, blogs, or anything that helped anything I was doing. Here is an important lesson that I have learned, it is important to build up good will. I say please. I say "Thank you." I will randomly promote other people's stuff online, assuming it is not in direct conflict with my own. I have some stuff that I currently promote from other people. Why? Because the material is good. I also think about the other person, what are their motivations, and is there something simple I can do to that will actually be a great help to them. I'm not going to do something that hurts me, but if you help me, you can be damned well sure I'm going to remember that and help you.
- Thinking beyond your nose. You want to set yourself up for success long term. The problem is that recruiters are so driven by what is happening today and getting paid today. Here is a real situation that occurred years ago. I was contacted about a failing startup by a recruiter. Let's leave out the thinking about why would a startup use a recruiter and their overhead for the moment. They gave me the blowhard pitch about only working through them and taking a pay cut to do that and blah blah. I literally said, "So you would let them fail instead of letting me get my money. I'm not going to screw someone who brings me in. You would be able to sell others into them at a later time and I would support you in that." The response was literally, "I have to make all of my money. If they fail, it's not my fault it is theirs and yours." So, let's parse this a bit. Two issues that I see here. One, it shows that recruiters are only about their money. Second, they don't really care if their customer is successful or not as long as they get their money.
- In the world I live in, people aren't starving. These are high income jobs. What is my motivation? The people that I know are all working. They tend to be working for more money than these advertisements for open jobs. My contacts really don't want to be hassled. I know who is looking right now and who isn't, and these people aren't looking especially to take a pay cut.
- I've gotten calls from recruiters. What is the motivation to not do what I am doing? What do they bring to the table for me? My expertise is worth more than what they are offering. Expertise is not about what you know at any one moment. Expertise is about seeing patterns. Expertise is about being able to adapt to the marketplace of needs. Expertise is about going forward and the ability to learn new and different.
- Recruiter asks me to go to lunch. Ok, I assume they want to build a relationship. There is always, and I mean ALWAYS, some excuse and lunch gets cancelled and they are never to be heard from again.
- One of the great tricks I have heard is recruiters that say they will gladly recommend someone that is beyond their pay ability and step out of the way for customers. Seriously, does anyone really believe that? No, no they won't. Recruiters are all about getting between their customer and a solution to get a percentage. See, recruiters are about the 50% split. Say a customer can pay $100 per hour. The recruiter and company want 50% and they'll give the other 50% to the person. What do you do when someone is worth more than $50 per hour? The recruiter thinks that the customer must pay 2x multiplier on everything. Out in the big time consulting world, yes, there are 3x, 4x, 5x, and higher multiples. Recruiters and body shops are really just look shops. They simply don't have the justification for some of these larger multiples. Plus, once you get over a certain income amount, the rest is all profit, pure profit. Now, everyone is entitled to profit. However, one has to understand the amount of value that they provide, the years of experience, the work ethic, and a host of other things. Yes, beating the bushes for customers is hard and time consuming. So are books, articles, training materials, and creating content as sales material. I remember early in my career some recruiter getting in my face about "Nothing you've done before matters." If that is true, then why are we did you ask me to come in? Does learning not matter?
- Financial incentives matter and must be understood. Recruiters and body shops aren't on your side. They are on their side with their financial motivations. They want to get a deal signed, get a body in a seat, and just start watching the hours tick up. I'm about process and improvement. I'm about seeing top and bottom line numbers increase due to the judicious use of technology and custom software. I work for customers that are interested in this, not for body shops that just want to see hours ring up like a cash register. Now, some customers judge success in a project by looking at hours billed against the project, yes that is true for a few. I've found the vast majority of customers want to be better off and are somewhat coachable in this regard.
Instead of flailing, there are ways to create a two way relationship. Go, talk to people. Go to lunch. Be coachable. Be flexible. Help each other. Don't be dogmatic. You catch more flies with honey than with a message on linkedin.
