In staffing terms, recruitment refers to the process of looking for new staff.
A recruitment agency is a company that specializes in recruitment. They employ recruiters to find client companies who are willing to pay the recruitment firm to find their staff for them.
A recruiter is someone who recruits people to join their company or someone else’s company.
Typically a recruiter gets paid by the hiring company to help them find new staff and recruits people like yourself using various means.
One of the benefits of working with a recruiter – specifically a good recruiter – is that they often have access to information that can benefit you if you are being considered for a job that they are trying to fill.
A good recruiter has an intimate knowledge of their clients and what they want. They can shed light on specific aspects of a particular job that can help you get the job.
This is information that you wouldn’t otherwise know about if you had have applied for the job on your own or through other means.
As a recruiter I can tell you that this additional flow of information can be worth its weight in gold to you.
Taking a step backwards, being recruitable refers to your ability to catch the interest of recruiters and more importantly and by extension, hiring managers.
Being desirable in the eyes of recruiters and hiring managers can affect your ability to get the job you want whether you choose to use recruiters or not.
With the rise of the Internet, it’s become easier in many regards to “find” people. These days you can Google your own name to see what pops up. Last month I was trying to find a friend of my dad’s who we’d lost track of. I couldn’t find him so I searched for his kids and found his daughter’s contact information on her employer’s website!
Clearly, the increasing popularity of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and the like have also made it easier to find people. Posting your resume on multiple job boards, posting articles or comments on Internet websites can further increase your online profile.
Increasing your online profile can make it easier for people (ie. recruiters, hiring managers) to find you…mind you depending on what you’re saying and how you are presenting yourself online, that can both help or hurt you.
