A great suit? A strong handshake? What is a recruiter really looking for when they meet you? What they\u2019re looking for is you. Not the \u2018you\u2019 in your CV but the other one. The one with motivations, successes, strengths, weaknesses. The real you.<\/p>\n
Of course they\u2019re looking for the basic essentials: your skills, experience and whether these are a good match for the current opportunities they have at hand and the organisations they work with. But much of this can be gauged from reading your CV or LinkedIn profile and what recruiters really want is the information that lies beyond that, the elements that have a much greater bearing on recommending you for a role.<\/p>\n
To match you to a role you will love, and have a strong chance of securing and succeeding in, recruiters need to understand far more about you than what\u2019s on your CV. They need insight into your work preferences, career plans and motivations \u2013 the kind of things that get you out of bed in the morning and the kind of things that don\u2019t. Why? Because it\u2019s only with this knowledge that they can match your strengths and expectations to a role that\u2019s best suited for you. Because the highest indicator of future success in a role, according to the Hudson Performance Driver Model, is not your \u201cknow how\u201d or knowledge but instead your \u201cwant to\u201d or motivational fit.<\/p>\n
And that means that in order to find you the best job that you will really enjoy and where you will really perform, a recruiter needs to understand you: what drives you, what motivates you, what you want.<\/p>\n
So how do you show a recruiter the real \u2019you\u2019, in a professional sense? Here are five ways to give a recruiter the genuine insights they need to know, in order to help you and help build your career.<\/p>\n
A lot of candidates feel they should position themselves as generally as possible when they meet a recruiter, but that\u2019s actually not helpful. It means the recruiter will be limited in finding you the right opportunities because they simply don\u2019t know enough about you to know exactly where you would excel. The clearer you are about what you want, the more you will stand out from the crowd and the easier it will be for a recruiter to find and propose the right opportunity to match your career aspirations<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Ensure you explain not only what you\u2019ve done in previous roles but your key successes. This gives your recruiter concrete examples of your achievements that they can tell directly to clients. In my experience, when we have a candidate for whom we can quote a concrete example of their success, there is always a higher chance they will get through to the client interview.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Most recruiters will understand the basics of your role. But by highlighting niche skills you immediately distinguish yourself and become more memorable and marketable. So if you\u2019re a change manager with expertise in M&A, detail this. Orif you\u2019re a marketer with specific expertise in developing content marketing strategies, detail that. The more information you share about your niche skills the more a recruiter can propose you for both generalist and more specialised roles. It gives you a far greater chance of hearing about more opportunities.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n