Choosing the right firm, the right recruiter and getting off on the right foot can be essential steps to landing you in a position that fulfills your ambitions. Follow these simple seven tips to get the most out of your recruiter relationships.

1. Choose firms (and recruiters) that specialize in what you do.  As obvious as it sounds, a little research will go a long way to helping you find the right position.  If a firm or recruiter doesn’t understand the language of your profession, chances are they won’t have the skill to obtain the job orders from managers hiring people like you.

2. Work with a senior recruiter when possible. It’s perfectly OK to ask a recruiter a few questions to determine their experience and ability level.  Check them out on LinkedIn.  Do they have good recommendations? Are they connected to your industry?

3. Most recruiters work for free until they make a placement and when they do, it’s the client who pays not you the candidate.  Remember this and treat them accordingly. If a recruiter doesn’t like you for whatever reason (thinks you’re rude or arrogant) it’s unlikely they’ll submit you for any jobs.

4. Staying in touch is YOUR job – just don’t stay in touch too much.  It’s essential for you to gently remind your recruiter of your existence.  However, too many phone calls or emails and your recruiter is likely to run the other direction and begin avoiding you.  Striking the balance is easy.  Ask your recruiters how often they would like status updates.  I recommend sending an email each week with your availability status, whether you have interviewed recently etc.  Include in the email “REPLY NOT REQUIRED”.  This keeps your recruiter informed without generating more work for them.

5. Take the advice.  If you’ve chosen your recruiter wisely and are working with someone with many years in the industry and he or she offers you advice TAKE IT. They know much more about resumes, interviews, and skills trends than most other people you’ll come in contact with.

6. Register with more than one firm.  More recruiters equals better odds of landing the job you want most.

7. Keep track of places you interviewed, the managers you met with and share this info with your favorite recruiters.  Many recruiters rely on leads from candidates to grow their job openings, which helps them place other people.  This is the very best way you can repay a recruiter for the time they spend with you.  Not only will it be appreciated, but it will keep you at the very top of their available candidates matrix as well.

What she noticed over time is this:

• If the first car in the heavy traffic lane allows the first car trying to merge to do so, the vehicles behind this first car follow a polite pattern of taking turns to allow both lines of cars to merge. How nice.

• If the first vehicle in traffic does not allow the first merging car to do so, then the vehicles behind this pace setter follow suit and don’t allow other vehicles to merge.

Same drivers, same cars going to the same place everyday and yet their behavior is predicated on the choice of the random stranger who jumped on the highway 4 seconds before them.

It’s amazing the influence one small act can have to perpetuate behavior or choice.

In the traffic of life it’s good to know who’s right behind us, but it’s even more important to know who we will let in so that we may follow. Choose wisely.

Here’s an example:

If I were to put together a sales presentation describing Technical Directors and shared they are good with computers, great with people, able to organize, plan and execute complex projects, I’d be doing a pretty good job. If I could say all of this AND show the websites/software produced under them, the revenue brought into the company for billing out hours to clients and a chart showing the savings accrued through client retention AND producer employee retention due to loyalty, then the client would see the actual financial gain from investing in such an employee.

Whether you’re creating a slide presentation, telephone script, advertisement, or sales pitch, remember that features are only good if they have benefits. It’s not enough to assume your customers “get it”. You must tell them to sell them.

When learning to golf I started out with affordable group lessons.  $200 got me into a six session group.  Half the time I was the only one who showed up so I benefited from one-on-one lessons with a pro.  The results were so profound I signed up for 10 more individual lessons and in a matter of a few months was able to shave off 30 strokes from my game.  Some of the best advice I got from my pro Tony was to quit reading golf magazines for advice and to only take advice from one person.  I paid a little attention to this and found an article on improving your drive distance.  One part said to tee the ball high and the next section said to tee the ball low.  RIDICULOUS!  But that’s golf.  It’s a game.  Your career is not a game.

Promoting oneself to the world with a resume made up of tips and tricks found on Google, five recruiters opinions, and your friends and family’s advice is bound to be flawed.  To begin with, most family and friends are not Pro’s and most recruiters have very little experience.  Think of them as your buddy who shoots in the 80′s.  He or she is still not a pro.  At a company I once worked for, six out of seven recruiters had less than a year of experience.  Would you hire a golf Pro with less than a year of experience?  Why would you trust your CAREER to anyone’s opinion with so little experience?

If the resume gets you an invite to the tourney, you still have to play great to win the offer.  This is where the mental game comes in.  In The Golfers Mind: Play to Play Great, Dr. Bob Rotella emphasizes the importance of confidence and playing “loose” during matches.  The tournament is not the time for trying out new ideas.  That’s what the range is for.  How confident will you be when the invite comes?  How much practice have you had to prepare for your big moment?  Where will you get your advice?  How will you know how to choose?  If you’ve ever had a golf lesson, a tennis lesson, a swim lesson, a dance lesson or a ski lesson….why wouldn’t you invest in some sessions with a Pro when it comes to your career?

Find a Pro who offers you a chance to get to know them with a free consultation.  It could be the difference between snapping your clubs in half and permanent membership in the club of your choice.

When I protect the present, I prevent the future.

It makes me think of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Willy Wonka: And Charlie: don’t forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he’d ever wished for.
Charlie Bucket: What happened?
Willy Wonka: He lived happily ever after.

Perhaps I’ve talked to too many people who had everything they ever wanted only to find it wasn’t what they wanted after all or, at least, wasn’t what they wanted at that time.  I think Wonka got it wrong, but if we take out the word “suddenly” and “ever after” it loses its fairytale ending but can still inspire us.

“Ever after” takes work and doesn’t happen “suddenly”.  It requires consistent attention to what we have, where we are and where we want to go.  A person doesn’t live happily ever after without effort or course adjustment anymore than simply putting your car in drive will take you where you want to go.

I have a client who has everything they ever wanted and suddenly feels compelled to want something else.  They will have to sacrifice the known.  Give up on protecting the present and this is scary.  They said “I want to make the right decision.”  But there is no RIGHT.  There is only DECISION.   Life is not a test and her dilemma is not a moral one.  How then can there be a right or a wrong choice?  There isn’t; it’s  simply protection versus possibility.  We are not the Charlie Buckets of the world.  We are the Willy Wonka’s and WE PRINT THE TICKETS.

“Oh man, your face is messed up!”

No one moved, not his friends, not the skaters.  No one.  “Can someone please grab him a towel?”  I asked.  Of the dozen people sitting there, no one moved and one guy, sitting down, replied they didn’t have one.  I guess he spoke for the group.  It was like a crime scene from Dexter; blood splatter on the wall and red dots making a trail to the trunk of my car where my little medical kit finally came in handy.  The skater was really grateful.  So was I and so was my son.  The awkwardness of the park rapidly diminished in the face of, well, a bloody face.  My son and I returned to skate, feeling as though we had, in some small way, earned a right to be there.  When we risk doing something new we give ourselves the chance to shine, stand out or at least be accepted.  Usually, the most we risk is a bloody face.  I think it’s worth it and I hope you do to.

“What?  You’re kidding?” I said.

“Nope! He blew the meeting.  I don’t know what he was thinking.  Everyone knows if you’re going to sell an idea at a meeting, you sell it to everyone IN the meeting BEFORE the meeting.”

A sales client of mine calls this “Warming the oven.”

On the roof of a 24 story high rise apartment building in downtown Portland, 200 revelers waited for the sun to disappear and the 4th of July fireworks show to start.  With a 300 degree view extending for miles and miles, it’s a truly beautiful vantage point.  Two guys wandered around separately poking their heads into conversations strangers were having, each saying  “Hey, uhh…just a heads up, I guess everyone’s going to sing the National Anthem in a couple minutes.  Some guy said to pass it on.  Cool?”

Ten minutes later, my friend and I led 200 proud Americans in the national anthem at the top of our lungs while explosions of color and fire erupted like miniature battles across the city.

The point of each story is that it’s rare for people to swallow an idea cooked rare. I’ve got a lousy singing voice and without warming the oven that we were all going to sing, the song would have been over by the time people warmed up to the idea.   To get more of what you want, and more out of those around you, start by building support.  Sometimes a quick “heads-up” in the hall, or a short call or email that starts with “Hey, I heard that…” and ends with”….should be pretty cool” is all you need to get people to swallow what you’re cooking.

Think about these sayings:

DIVE right in.  Just DO it.  GO for it.

Cliche’s right?   Cliche’s are made of truths, but a truth turned cliche can lose its power.  Next time you make a decision that will bring more joy, fulfillment and happiness into your life think DIVE, DO, GO!

“NO, SLOW, WHOA.” is a dream killer, your worst enemy, and the biggest obstacle you face.

It’s also only a thought that you have the power to replace.

The reality is, we can all be an underdog in at least one area of our lives.   Every day people do it every day.  The mother or father who grew up with little guidance perseveres and learns to be a great parent or break a bad cycle.  The employee without the pedigree education who works smarter and more creatively wins the promotion.  The job candidate with all the right answers bonks the interview failing to connect with the employer and the impassioned underdog, thrilled for the chance to join the team takes the desk and the pay check.

All underdogs shoot for more than others think they can handle and they all have a competitor, even if it’s who they used to be.

Ready to put your cape on?  All you have to do is decide to compete at a level higher than YOU think you can handle.  You’ll know what to do next.

Now do it.

Great elevator pitches have been known to get people Job Interviews, New Clients and Dates. Like a great resume, presentation or advertisement, it should be designed to explain how you help others.  Here’s mine:  “I help people get more offers, more sales and more out of life.”

One of the most common pitches I hear is  “I’m a consultant.” A friend of mine is convinced this is code for “I’m unemployed.”  Even if this is the case, you can develop a great pitch and increase your chances of more work, more prospects and greater income quickly.  Some Sales Professionals believe a pitch can be up to 30 seconds long, but at 30 seconds, there’s hardly time for the person you’re speaking to to ask the question you want to hear “How do you do that?”  When someone asks you this, they give you permission to have a real discussion and the opportunity to develop a relationship; quite a different experience than you shoving the door open and boring them to death with a commercial that’s uninvited.

Here’s how to write your own Elevator Pitch.

1. Explain the RESULT of your work instead of your Job Title or What You Do.  Describe the benefit…quickly.

2. Keep it short – 12 seconds max.  Time yourself saying the pitch without rushing your words

3. Use the word “help”.

4. Keep your job title to yourself.  People have assumptions about job titles, many which are negative.  Withholding this detail is the best way to keeping the conversation going.

Here are a few examples:

• General Practitioner: “I help people stay healthy to enjoy life longer.”
• Janitor: “I help others enjoy a cleaner more relaxing environment.”
• SEO Expert: “I help people and organizations improve profits by improving their internet visibility.”

A pitch isn’t spin, it’s the heart of what you do.  See if you can come up with a great elevator pitch today.  Drop it into the comments section below.  We’d love to see what you do.

If you’re feeling stuck,  contact Get It Right, Inc for a mini consult.  We’re happy to help.