Hey, it's Iris, welcome to my YouTube channel.
If you've been here before,
thank you so much for coming back,
it's great to have you here.
And if you're new: hello, hello, hello, so nice to meet you.
So, in previous videos
I've been speaking about the importance of building
and strengthening your network,
and how this can help you to find a job you love,
because companies prefer to hire people they already know
or through referrals,
so it really pays to get to know people at the companies
that you'd like to work for, but what about recruiters?
Shouldn't you contact them?
After all, aren't they the gatekeepers into an organisation?
And aren't they the ones who know
what job opportunities are available or are coming up?
Well, in today's video,
I'm going to be answering that question,
should you contact recruiters on LinkedIn?
But before I do that: you know the drill,
if you like this video, please leave a like
and make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel
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as soon as I publish new videos.
All right, let's get to it.
So, should you or should you not contact a recruiter
when you're looking for a job?
The answer is... drum roll... yes, you should!
But you shouldn't just reach out to the first recruiter
that you find on LinkedIn.
Recruiters are generally speaking very busy people,
they have a lot on their plate
and they can get inundated with messages.
So there are some best practices that you can follow
that will not only help you to get a response,
but that will help you to build a relationship with them
that will serve you in the long run.
I'll share four with you,
best practice number one is understand
the position that they're in.
No recruiter's job is the same.
The company that a recruiter works for has a massive impact
on the day to day work of a recruiter
and what I mean with that is this:
a recruiter who works for a well-known company
that many people want to work for
tends to receive a lot of messages,
and not only that, when there is a job opening,
they tend to receive a lot of applications
from high quality candidates.
They're in a real luxury position.
They don't necessarily need to focus as much
on finding the right candidates or filling the pipeline,
so to speak.
On the flip side, a recruiter
who works for a lesser known company
that doesn't have people lined up wanting to work for it
needs to be much more proactive
about finding the right candidates and filling the pipeline.
They tend to receive fewer messages,
and also fewer high quality job applications.
So it's something to bear in mind
when contacting a recruiter.
So what does that mean?
For example, if you would like to work
at a company like Google, or Amazon,
or Apple or something like that,
and you wanna contact a recruiter,
your chance of them getting back to you
are likely to be lower,
so you need to be more tactical about how you contact them.
The first thing is to make sure
that you're contacting the right recruiter.
Bigger companies tend to have different recruiters working
in different parts of the business,
so they might have one recruiter for marketing and sales,
one recruiter for IT, one for finance, so on and so on.
So if you're after a role in marketing,
make sure you contact the recruiter who's responsible
for that business area and not for IT.
The second thing is to be patient
and contact them when a specific job opening comes up
that you're interested in.
When that's the case,
reach out to them and ask them specific questions
that will help you to prepare for the job application,
or if it's easier for them,
ask if they are willing to put you in touch
with the hiring manager,
so you can ask him or her some questions
that will help you prepare for the job application.
Now those are obviously also great things to do
when contacting a recruiter who works for a lesser known
or less popular company,
but as they tend to more proactively seek for candidates,
you can also contact them
when there's no specific job opening
that you're interested in.
The second best practice is put in the work.
Recruiters like to see that you've made an effort,
don't ask them to do all the hard work.
A big no-no will be to send them an email,
attach your CV and simply say,
"hey, let me know if you got any roles for me?"
That won't go down well, so don't do it!
There's a good chance you won't get a response.
Instead, learn about the organisation,
try to understand their biggest opportunities
and its biggest challenges.
And if there's a job opening that you're interested in,
then learn as much as you can about the role
and try to find out who the hiring manager is
because hiring managers tend to get fewer messages
than recruiters, so it might be really smart
to reach out to the hiring manager instead of the recruiter.
Now, if there isn't a current job open
that you're interested in, then also do your homework.
Put in some effort before you reach out to them.
So try to understand
which part of the business you'll be able
to add most value to.
Understand what skills, experience
and knowledge you bring to the table.
Don't let the recruiter
or a hiring manager do that work for you,
don't let them connect those dots.
Best practice number three:
be specific but start a wider conversation.
Now you might feel a little bit nervous
when reaching out to a recruiter,
and that's totally understandable.
Maybe you feel like you've got this one shot
and that you can't mess it up,
so when you do send that message,
you feel like you might need to big yourself up
and impress the recruiter
by explaining why you are the perfect person
for this job that you've seen,
or why you are a perfect fit for the company.
And whilst this is well-intended,
a much better approach will be one where
instead of convincing the recruiter
that you're the perfect candidate for the role,
or a perfect fit for the company,
you genuinely seek to better understand
where you can best add value to the organisation
and where your skills, experience,
and knowledge could make the biggest difference.
Sure, you've put in the work and done your homework,
but that doesn't mean that you know their whole story.
So engage in a conversation.
Be open to having that wider dialogue,
one that's not just about the job posting
or the job opening that you've seen,
but one where you focus more on understanding
what the organisation's needs are
and building a connection in the long term.
Now I have created a little swipe file
with some examples email scripts that you can use,
and I'll add the link to that in the description,
below this video, so make sure you go check that out.
Alright, the final best practice is: follow up,
but don't ask for a response.
It's good practice to send the recruiter
a follow up message once you've applied for a job,
say a week after you submitted your job application.
In this message,
you want to communicate what relevant skills,
experience and knowledge you have,
and why you're excited about this job opening.
But keep it short, two to three paragraphs max,
and don't ask for a response.
You would want to include your email address
and phone number though
in case they would wish to contact you.
I've included an example
of what a message like this could look like
in the swipe file that I just mentioned,
so make sure you check that out
in the description below this video,
so there you have it:
four best practices to connect with recruiters on LinkedIn.
Number one: understand the position that they're in.
Number two: put in the work.
Number three: start a wider conversation
and, number four: follow up.
But remember, it's just as important
to reach out and connect with people who are not recruiters,
people who work at the companies
that you'd love to work for.
If you're doing both,
so if you're connecting with recruiters
and people who work at companies
that you'd love to work for,
you're probably doing more than most people are doing,
most job seekers are doing
so you're massively increasing your chances of landing a job
at one of your favourite companies to work for.
Thank you so much for watching.
Next week, I'll be giving a step-by-step tutorial
on how to set up and do informational interviews.
Informational interviews are often the first step
to build a relationship with people who work at companies
that you'd love to work for, so don't miss it.
Make sure you subscribe to my channel
and hit the bell right next to that subscribe button,
so you get a notification as soon as I publish that video.
Thank you so much for watching
and sending you all the best wherever you are in the world,
see you next week, bye.