COURTING A RECRUITER

[jng...@gmail.com]

COURTING A RECRUITER
Published every other Thursday by VisionQuest

June 7, 2007
Volume iv, issue 12

So there you are, sitting at your desk working on an important
project, when the phone rings. And you pick it up. It's a recruiter,
who introduces himself, his firm, and asks if you have a minute. What
do you say? "Thanks for calling, but I'm happy where I am." And hang
up the phone? WRONG ANSWER!!!!

Why? Because you just cut yourself off from knowing what's moving and
shaking in your industry, which means you just cut yourself off from
hearing about unadvertised opportunities that could potentially
leverage your career.

You've just made the decision to limit your options. And if you don't
have access to information, you can't make an informed decision, can
you?

What should you do instead? No matter how happy you are with your
current company, listen to what the recruiter has to say. You have a
far better chance of leveraging your career when a recruiter calls you
rather than when (and if) you contact a recruiter.

There are people who are truly happy with their current position and
not interested in currently making a change, regardless of the
opportunity presented to them at that moment. But you listen anyway,
not to change, but to develop a relationship and keep yourself
informed and in control for you when you do need to change.

A friend of mine went with a company that had statewide offices. She
began in their corporate office right out of college. Over the years,
she obtained her MBA and continued to rise through the ranks. For
TWENTY-FIVE years she was with this company.....until she got laid off
a few months ago. She hadn't seen it coming. And she freaked out.

If YOU aren't in control of your career, then your company IS.
Corporate restructuring, layoffs and downsizing are taking place with
alarming frequency as companies tighten their belts and look hard at
who is contributing and who isn't.

Sometimes it isn't even a matter of wcontribution. In those plushly
carpeted, window offices, the top executives and board members
comfortably decide whose heads will roll and for what reason.
Sometimes it's simply eliminating an entire department - and it has
nothing to do with YOU, individually, at all. For instance, it's not
uncommon for a new manager or president to come in and bring his own
people with him.

But it can happen that quickly, and it can happen to you.

Will you have a network to fall back on if it does? Will you have
relationships developed with recruiters that you can tap into on a
moment's notice? Develop it before you need it. The time to take
control of your career is exactly when you think it isn't necessary:
when you are happy and successful where you are.

Quote

People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I
don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world
are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want,
and, if they can't find them, make them.
--George Bernard Shaw