The most universally mistrusted group in Industry is Recruiters.
More than Salespeople, more than Finance, and even more than HR.
But it shouldn’t be that way.
Today, I’m joined by Jordan Humphreys to dig into the value that a good recruiter can bring to your network.
Our question for you: What do you want to know about recruiters? What insights do you want into the recruiters’ perspective?
Plus catch the whole series.
Dave: Today. I want to talk about some of the most universally mistrusted people in industry. And no, it’s not sales guys. Don’t worry. No, it’s not the finance people who don’t give you money to buy the stuff you want. It’s not even those human resources people who demand you do stuff like fill out paperwork so they can pay you and give you health insurance. Today I want to talk about recruiters. You know what, hold up. Hey Google, call Jordan Humphreys.
Dave: So some things that I hear from people are, you know, all recruiters are bad. We hear that, you know, if I connect with a recruiter or I get an email from a recruiter, I should tell my boss because they’re going to think I’m looking for a job. Even if I am looking for a job, I don’t want them to think that. And you know, it’s just a lot of negativity throughout the recruiting as an industry. And you and I have known each other for a couple of years and I want to get your take as a longterm and now independent recruiter for the industrial automation industry.
Jordan: Well, thanks for having me on Dave. I really appreciate, the relationship that we’ve built, what you’re doing. So very, very cool to be partnered with you, and again, honored. So yeah, I’m basically just to kind of give you the skinny on anything recruiting, what the recruiting industry is. There’s a lot of assumptions out there. Maybe you have dealt with a recruiter, maybe you haven’t. Surely you’ve been pinged a few million times only from recruiters. So yeah, I’m just kinda here to give you whatever questions I can answer. What kind of information I can do. Like what’s the number one thing that you want talent, everyone else to know about good recruiters? Yeah, good recruiters, they are few and far between. There’s a lot of reasons for that. We’d need many videos to decipher and break that down. But, I do want to let you guys know there are good recruiters out there and they are worth having in your network.
Jordan: They are worth having a small relationship with. You don’t need to call them every day, every week, every month, but establish a line of communication, what you’ve done, what you might be looking for. There might be a fit now, there might be a fit a year from now. Develop a relationship with a couple of recruiters, test them out, feel them out, and make sure that they have a pipeline. They’re putting you into a pipeline I find that all the time with people, if I contact you or you contact me and I don’t have anything available, I can still market your skills and if there’s not an open spot for that, I know what you’re looking for and when that pops up I can contact you and say, Hey Dave, I know we spoke three months ago. Timing wasn’t right for the opportunities I had, but after our conversation, you were looking for A, B, and C. Well, A, B, and C has popped up with this company and then roll it out. Yup. Have a conversation, see if that person, Dave, are you still interested in something like this? Yes, I am. Perfect. Well, three months later I get in my network and I reached out to you three months later. That’s how it’s supposed to work. And a lot of people don’t do that.
Dave: Yeah, and I think one of the major values of having recruiters and having those relationships, you know, with recruiters similar to other industry folks, is if people know they’re looking and you’re a known entity, they’re going to want to help you and recruiters’ jobs are literally to find placements that you’re going to be happy and you’re going to thrive. So much so that, if and when you decide that later on you’re ready for that next step that you can’t get internally, you’re going to go back to that person. Like Jordan say, Hey Jordan, these last five years have been great. I’m ready to move up to a manager or director or a C level opportunity. What do you have, or who do you know that we can get in contact to find that opportunity for me?
Jordan: Exactly. And especially on moving up in roles, like you said, great example going into manager. If you don’t have the chops for a manager, I can tell you that. I can say, Hey Dave, my clients that are looking for a manager want this kind of experience, want this kind of certification, you know, these things. You don’t have those yet, but if you really want to be in management, I can get you a management position, work on these things. That way I can also coach you and say, Hey, this is what you need to do. This is what you’re looking for.
Dave: And having that honest, you know, third party is really good because if you apply for a manager role internally, they may say no, they may give it to you cause they don’t want to lose you as an employee. But they may say no and they may not be able to have that open, honest conversation. It’s like having outside mentors. All of those things are very important because they can give you clarity that your wife, your friends, your family can’t necessarily give you because they like you too much to say, Hey, you need X, Y and Z things in order to get where you are. And if they’re a friend or family member, then its a normal human reaction to be upset.
Jordan: As far as what you first asked, it’s a good question. LinkedIn, how do I operate LinkedIn versus, you know, it’s for me, who am I connected with? Who sees that? You know, LinkedIn is supposed to be somewhat private, but due to it being social media, people you’re connected with can also see some of your activity. Obviously you don’t want your, HR or managers seeing that you’re conversing with a recruiter or that you’re open to other opportunities. So obviously you want to keep that on the DL. As it comes to LinkedIn the, you know, whatever company you work with does not own that. That’s your own IP. That is how you represent yourself, your ideas. Sure, you can kind of put your resume on there, who you currently work for, but by no means should you be afraid that you connected with a recruiter, had a conversation with a recruiter. When you get into, Oh no, my boss might see this, then they’re going to call me into the office, why are you looking this, kind of thing. My standpoint from that, if I’m in a relationship, I want to be in a secure relationship. And that means like with my wife for instance, I love her. We’ve been married, we’re going on seven years now. We’re very secure. I don’t mind, you know, it doesn’t, not happening a lot because we’re under a situation, but if somebody were to, another guy were to walk up to her and say, Hey, how do you do and show her some attention, you know, there’s one of two ways. Whoa, Whoa, what are you doing? What do you, you know, you don’t need to be doing, talking to my wife and putting on a territorial defense, that’s not very secure. I know my wife loves me and I know my wife isn’t going anywhere, so I want to bring that into the job market.
Jordan: I want to work for somebody that’s secure. I want somebody that has my best interest. You are valuable. I hired you for a reason. You’re doing a great job, but I also have a responsibility to you as a manager. I know that at my company, we may not be able to service your career for the rest of your career. There might be other good opportunities out there. I don’t want to be the one to hold you back. I understand not wanting your boss to see those kinds of things, but remember that everybody’s a free agent. Whether you’re a permanent hire, you’re a contract, and you need to do what’s best for you and your career. Nobody else is going to do that for you. Don’t be afraid to connect with a recruiter. Be afraid to connect with a bad recruiter.
Dave: So now we’re going to kick it over to you guys. Do you have questions that you want to ask a recruiter that you don’t necessarily know someone well enough on your network and you want an honest opinion on just about anything, well, anything that we can possibly talk about on the internet like this? Go ahead and send us in some questions. My contact info, Jordan’s contact info is below. If there are a bunch of them, we will batch together some and continue down this as like an Ask A Recruiter series where we continue to put Jordan on the spot.
Jordan: Please send me your best questions. Anything goes.
