Avoid The Sirens' Song: How to qualify a recruiting call By Nick Corcodilos

Qualify the recruiter continued

3. What is it about my qualifications that is so relevant to you? (That is, why are you calling me?)
This is the one question in this collection that helps you actually find out what the caller wants from you. Without this specific information, you cannot make a judgment about whether to spend your valuable time talking further. If you proceed blindly, you will likely wind up part of a fishing expedition. You'll be frustrated and the fault will be your own.

If a recruiter answers this question intelligently and reveals real knowledge about your field of work, close your door, listen, and get ready to go on to the next question.

If it's a personnel jockey (that is, she works in the employer’s personnel department), she will tell you she doesn't know; she's just lining up interviews or gathering resumes. That's not good enough. If you start down this path, you will soon have spent a couple of hours of your time, not just mailing out a resume, but filling out forms and participating in a screening interview. Do you really want to waste time talking to someone you don't know for reasons that she can't explain to you? Take control:

"Sorry, I don't have time to talk about a job to anyone who isn't an engineer [or a marketer, or whatever you are]. I'd be glad to talk with the hiring manager to discuss the details of this job, if he or she wants to call me." If the personnel rep balks, hang up. Believe me, if there's a manager lurking back there who really wants to talk to you, he'll call, and you will bypass hours of nonsense.

4. Who's the boss?
If a personnel manager calls and says he needs to screen you before inviting you to meet the manager, reply that professional courtesy dictates that you should be given the same opportunity — to evaluate the manager before you take time off from work to come meet someone you know nothing about.

This may sound brassy, but it quickly reveals that you’re a busy professional who expects to be treated with respect. In taking this approach, you raise the standards in a manipulative, wishy-washy hiring process. “What can you tell me about the manager? Can you have him call me?”

Bottom line: your time is worth more than some personnel jockey's. No matter how well-meaning they are, personnel reps are once removed from the person who should be calling you. If you don't expect (and demand) more, you'll end up in a process to which you have relinquished control. 'Nuff said.

Go to Part 6
Show me the job and show me the money

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