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Seven Things A Headhunter Won't Tell You


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floating ducks

When a headhunter contacts you about a job, your chance of getting it is 25% to 33%.

Credit: Forbes

At some point you may find yourself working with a headhunter, so it's helpful to understand how they operate and how their thinking can influence your job search. An experienced headhunter has inside information from the job market and knowledge about openings that will never be advertised, meaning that he or she can search more efficiently for jobs than you can. While they can be a catalyst for your career growth and help match you with a job, they don't necessarily have the same rigor and dedication as you do to propel your career growth. Their focus is to fill a job, satisfy a client, and collect a fee. That said, there are some general recommendations on how to make headhunting a win-win for both the candidate and the recruiter.

Typically, headhunters are generalists in a world of specialists, so they might not understand what you do for a living, what a particular job entails, or how a specific job might advance your career. Do your research and do not expect them to give you well-informed answers to your questions about the company or job responsibilities. Moreover, their decision about whether to call you for an opening is based on a 5 to 10-second glance at your resume. Make sure they can quickly spot the essential information by boiling your bio down to a maximum of two or three pages. Since the decision of whether or not to tell you about a job opening is based on your presentation, a headhunter might decide not to put you in front of a customer for reasons that are completely unrelated to your skills or experience.

From Forbes
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