By Gary Edwards

Every day, people all over the world are applying for jobs; some of them use internet sites, personal connections, recruiting companies, and many other resources. So, we asked the big question that is on everyone’s mind: when a candidate is looking for a new job, what is the advantage of finding a job using conventional methods versus using a recruiter or a headhunter?

This is a great question because, as noted above, a job seeker has plenty of options. The simple answer is that finding a job on your own can be a lengthy and daunting task; using a recruiter whose services are free of charge to you, can take all of the guesswork out of the interview process and significantly speed up the time of landing a new job. There are many methods of finding a new career, depending on your level of experience and the industry you work in, but your chances diminish without an inside contact in the company who will end up hiring you.

Another big question that is frequently asked is: when I’m searching for a new job, how will I find that golden opportunity? Will I open up a newspaper and comb through the ads? Do newspapers even publish job ads these days? In this digital era, you will likely only have three good options:

1. Go out to the job boards and sift through thousands of jobs, and then post your resume to those boards and sit and wait for your phone to ring.
2. Networking by using your contacts within your target hiring companies to help break down the hiring manager’s door. This method can be time consuming, but effective, depending on who you know and the level of influence that your contacts have within the company.
3. Contact a headhunter who works in your industry, or, if you are lucky, one or more headhunter will contact you on a regular basis. In which case, you likely do not have to search for a job on your own ever again! You get to access the recruiter’s contacts within the hiring companies, and they will present the cream of the crop jobs to you.

A headhunter or a recruiter has an established relationship with their clients, one of whom may just become your new employer. Therefore, with the help, coaching, and value that the headhunter brings to you and their client, this can be an incredibly valuable asset to you!

If you still have doubts, think about who you are interfacing with when submitting your resume on a job board, social media site, or on a resume portal; your resume and application typically go into an unmanned electronic database, or sometimes into a black hole. Never to be seen again, unless a human being searches this database. Often, when a live person searches this database, they are not the hiring manager. You still might be overlooked since this person will use key words to identify the best candidate for the job, and if your resume does not include all of the right key words, you will not be contacted.

Finding the right job in the current job market without knowing a hiring manager is not easy, but with the help of a good headhunter they can significantly improve your chances of being hired. The headhunter will help you make the first contact with a hiring manager, coach you throughout the entire interviewing process, educate you on what the hiring manager wants in a new hire, and prepare you to deliver those goods during the interviews. I call this information “ammunition”; you will have inside knowledge about the company, the team, and the managers that other candidates will not have. Instantly, your chances of being hired for the job increase by at least 50%.

A last bit of advice when seeking a new job, whether you use a headhunter or search on your own, is to NEVER blast out your resume to dozens of hiring companies, headhunters, and human resources professionals unless you are at least 80% qualified for the job. Otherwise, you will quickly gain the reputation of an individual who is not respectful of others’ time and it will likely hurt your chances of landing an interview. Strategically share your resume and submit applications only for positions that you are highly qualified for and be sure that your resume clearly reflects your applicable skills.

Quote 1: You will have inside knowledge about the company, the team, and the managers that other candidates will not have. Instantly, your chances of being hired for the job increase by at least 50%.

Quote 2: Finding a job on your own can be a lengthy and daunting task; using a recruiter whose services are free of charge to you, can take all of the guesswork out of the interview process and significantly speed up the time of landing a new job.