If you’re looking for a new role, engaging a recruitment professional is an obvious place to start. As well as giving you sound career advice, recruiters can provide advice and insight into the job market, provide pre-interview coaching and open up job opportunities that aren’t publicly listed.  

If you want to get the most out of working with a recruiter, you need to play your part, too. It’s a two-way process. So it’s important that you choose someone who’s a good fit for you – and vice versa. Here’s what you need to know.  

1. Everyone is different 

There are around 40,000 recruiters in the UK, ranging from multi-national corporate recruitment firm to one-man bands. Some differentiate their service on the basis of function (such as software engineering or accountancy), whilst some have an industry focus (financial services or retail, for example). Some work collaboratively with just a handful of clients, whilst others work with several hundred.  

Finding the right agency that specialises in your niche, your market or your industry is the logical first step in deciding who you want to work with.  

Here at ISL Talent, we focus on recruiting for tech startups and scaleups. So no matter your background, if you’re looking for a career in startups, then we’d love to talk to you. 

2. Think recruiter first, company second 

As a career, recruitment is an easy industry to enter, but a difficult industry to succeed in. So even within the same recruitment firm, it’s very common to work with a range of consultants of varying competencies – and particularly so in larger firms with a high number of trainees and junior-level consultants.  

So, if you find a recruitment consultant who understands your niche, keep in touch with them – even after you’ve secured a role. No matter where you are in the job-hunting process, there are numerous benefits in building a solid long-term relationship with a specialist recruiter that you know and trust. 

3. It’s fee-free (for you, at least) 

A good recruiter won’t just find you a new job. Rather, they’ll be a wealth of knowledge and insight about your industry and the opportunities that exist in your market or sector.  And the best news? It’s free. Recruiters won’t charge you to find a job.  

As a rule, employment agencies and employment businesses are prohibited (by the Employment Agencies Act 1973 and the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003) from charging or seeking to charge jobseekers to find or seek work for them. 

There are, of course, some exceptions, such as actors/actresses and sports professionals. However, unless you’ve secured a walk-in part in Eastenders or are poised to sign for Bristol City FC, it’s safe to assume that candidate recruitment services are completely free.  

4. Priority is to the client 

As recruiters, we’re the person in the middle. Our success is based on our ability to build solid relationships and to act in the interests of both parties to create a win-win.  

Ultimately our client is the paying customer, however. They’ve hired us as their trusted advisor because we can bring sought-after talent to the table. As recruiters, we are here to give you guidance. We can provide candid appraisal of your strengths as a candidate. But whilst we’re happy to give you an objective view of your chances of landing a role, we can’t (and won’t) put you forward for a position if you don’t meet the needs and requirements of our client.  

5. Your recruiter won’t be an expert in your field 

Psst… disclaimer: your specialist tech recruiter is highly unlikely to be a certified DevOps Engineer. But that doesn’t mean they don’t know your industry. In fact, it’s likely that their knowledge of your industry and the opportunities that exist within it is pretty comprehensive.  

Whilst we can’t account for the occasional trainee that pronounces C# as ‘C hashtag’, most recruiters that specialise in your area provide added value through their experience and knowledge of the career options open to someone in your field, based on your previous roles and experience. More importantly however, they also know who is actively seeking skillsets such as yours and can present new opportunities generated purely through their existing client relationships.  

6. Know where your CV is going 

Rewind 20 years and it was common practice not to disclose the client’s name until an interview was secured – something that seems unfathomable now.  

Luckily that’s no longer considered good practice, so before you consent to a recruiter sending your CV to a client, ask them who the company is. Our advice: don’t progress with any recruitment agency that isn’t prepared to share this vital information with you.  

At ISL Talent, we never send a candidate’s CV to a hiring manager without your permission. We’re also moving more towards co-branded campaigns – so as well as telling you who our client is, we’ll showcase the founders, profile the team and tell you their story so that you can make a clear judgement on whether you’d like to explore the opportunity further (or not).  

7. Beware: fake jobs 

A fake job ad is exactly as it sounds; it's an advertised vacancy that simply doesn't exist. Sadly fake recruitment ads are rampant – and whilst it’s both illegal and immoral to advertise a job that doesn’t exist, recruiters still do it. It’s a means of gathering CVs to help win new clients or to put active jobseekers onto a jobs mailing list. 

Be mindful of the reputation of any recruiters you’re applying to. And it goes without saying that you should exercise caution. Sometimes fake jobs aren’t simply marketing tools but a scam to defraud job seekers, so avoid providing more personal information than is necessary and for reassurance, do a quick Google search of any recruitment agencies or recruiters you’re unfamiliar with.  

8. Ask for support 

Some recruiters will be purely transactional. I you’re not interested in their role, they’ll simply move on to the next person. Not all recruitment businesses work like this however, and there are many things that a good recruiter can do to ensure that you, the candidate, is getting the most out of the hiring process – even if they don’t secure your next role. 

For example, Teagan is a Managing Consultant at ISL Talent. Emma specialises in placing tech startup roles and in her years of experience, has provided candid advice to hundreds of candidates about the jobs market, expected salaries and their CV. Whilst Teagan hasn’t found all these candidates a job, they’ve all benefitted from engaging with her. Some have returned to her for future roles, whilst others have turned to Teagan to recruit product specialists for their own team because they knew they could trust her...

9. Honesty is the best policy 

To truly get the most from your candidate-recruiter relationship, be honest and communicate clearly. Build a good relationship with some of the key recruiters in your field and they will work hard to get you a role. They’ll keep you front of mind when talking to their clients about future roles and could even nudge an on-the-fence client in your favour.  

We want to ensure that your next role is the right role for you, so be honest and straightforward about your salary expectations, your previous responsibilities and your reasons for leaving past roles. First impressions set the tone for your relationship and being up front demonstrates trustworthiness. 

To speak to a specialist tech recruiter about your next role, contact us on 0117 428 0600 to chat to a member of the ISL Talent team.