How To Make Your Recruitment
Agency Work Harder For You

By Shilpa Wymer - Principal

I'm amazed when people say that their employment agencies don't work hard enough for them.

After all, hungry agency staff need
good candidates to earn the commissions which make up a large proportion of their wages.

There's no way they'd not bother with
a candidate who makes them money!

At Pitman Training we work hard to make sure our students are highly marketable when they go to agencies.

Here are 7 simple suggestions to help
to get them firmly on your side:

1. Make Sure Your CV Looks Good.

Quite apart from your employment history, if your CV doesn't look right, agencies won't want to meet you.

Get professional help to make your CV look good and read well. There are plenty of resources on the web to help you do this (check out the links pages on this web site).

Yes, I know the arguments about showing how ambitious you are and
the philosophy that "if you don't ask
you won't get," but if you're not a close match for the job you're aiming for, you're wasting everyone's time.

Agency staff want people that are easy to place, so consider how your CV
looks to the outside world and pitch for jobs you might actually get instead of those you dream about.

Get your foot in the door first, then
prove you're worth the higher prestige jobs later on.

It's unbelievable how many candidates visit their agencies in trainers and
jeans!

They tell me that they don't think it matters - you dress up for the
interview with the employer but the agency is just a go-between. Wrong!

Once again, the agency wants candidates it can confidently market
as being worthy of a job. If you don't dress as you would for an interview
with the employer, you're being disrespectful to the agency and selling yourself short.

The agency needs to be treated with
the same level of seriousness as the
employer if you want them to market you.

4. Set A Date And Stick To It.

It can happen. You might have an emergency that might cause you to need to move an interview, but these will be rare.

If you can't stick to the arrangements the agency has made for you, they'll quickly drop you.

They'll lose confidence in you and also run the risk of upsetting their clients.

So when a date is set, stick with it at all
costs!

When you visit the agency, don't forget to show them your certificates, diplomas, references and other tangible proof
that you're as good as you say you are. You want to make the agency hungry to
market you.

You don't need to boast but you do need to prove how skilled you are. Let the
paperwork do the talking!

Make yourself seem more interested by asking the agency about what you need
to do to better position yourself to get a job.

Ask for their advice - and take it!

Also remember to ask them in detail about any
jobs for which they're putting you forward.

Again, ask for their help in your approach to winning the job.

If you're unhappy with what your agency is doing (or not doing) on your behalf, approach them in a positive frame of mind to ask how you can work more closely together to get you a job.

This is much more motivating for the agency than if you moan at them.

Try to come up with some actions that you'd like them to take on your behalf and
say what you'll be doing from your end.

Don't forget, agencies get fed up with moaning candidates who always end up
at the bottom of the pile.

A good source of further information for this can be found on the links pages of this web site.

Good luck with your job search!