It's vital to be aware that,
although most recruitment consultants keep a bank of potentially suitable
applicants, they are largely vacancy driven. That means that they are most
interested in you, right now, if they have a vacancy that you might fill.
However, the positive thing about consultancies is that they have an
extremely good feel for the market they are in, and where they deal with
specialist fields, the information they can give you can be priceless.
A
good strategy is to identify about six to ten recruitment consultants
dealing with the kinds of jobs you are after, and send in a CV to each of
them. If you get a chance to have an informal interview with a recruitment
consultant, try to get a feel for your market worth, and how you are
currently projecting an image of yourself. Here are five key questions to
ask a recruitment consultant or headhunter:
-
What's my CV like? Does it work?
-
What am I worth in the marketplace?
-
What are my unique selling points?
-
How transferable are my skills to
other fields?
-
When did you last place someone like
me?