Tips on Tuesdays: Ask-a-Recruiter

Our new series, “Ask a Recruiter,” gives all of you out there the opportunity to ask all of the questions you’ve always wanted to know on hiring, interviewing, the job hunt, recruiters, career tips and more! In return, one of our experienced recruiters will answer these questions on our blog each week. This week’s question came from a candidate on LinkedIn who sent this in:

Hello,

Thanks for offering this service online.  My question is the following: if you contact a staffing recruiter weekly, as you were suggested to do when you first registered, and keep on receiving the same e-mail reply “We’ll let you know when we find a suitable assignment/project” – is this an indicator that the recruiter is not interested any longer in providing you work, or is he/she really genuine on not finding something suitable?  My hunch is that the recruiter is not interested.

Thank you.

Here is the answer by Luke Bosso, a Technical Recruiter at SkillStorm.

Answer:

Thank you for your question. First off, I don’t think there is ever a time when a recruiter doesn’t want to provide work for a candidate. I think most of the time when a recruiter replies with, “We’ll let you know when we find a suitable assignment/project,” they are being genuine and don’t have work for that person at that time but that doesn’t mean they won’t have work for you soon. As recruiters, we would love to put everyone we contact to work, but we know that’s not immediately possible. I think it is always best to contact a recruiter by phone, after uploading your resume to their site, so that you may have a conversation instead of multiple emails with multiple questions.

My advice would be to continue keeping in contact with your recruiter on a weekly basis, either by means of being contacted by the recruiter or by you contacting them. This way it lets the recruiter know that you are serious about working with them and that you’re still available. It also seems everyone is always trying to learn new tricks of their trade to make themselves more marketable. If you are taking classes to get certifications, let your recruiter know. If you have a sudden change in career aspirations, let them know as well.

Most important of all, be open with a recruiter let them know what you are looking for and where you see yourself as the best fit. Like anything else, if you stay involved, only good things can happen!

Have a question you want answered? There are a number of ways to do it!

-          Post your question on our Discussion board on LinkedIn

-          E-mail PR@SkillStorm.com

-          Tweet your question to @SkillStorm

-          Post it on our Facebook wall

Remember, all questions will remain anonymous when posted! Check back every week for answers to your questions!