Freshly arrived in Switzerland, many of the job4U2 coachees report being shocked from the difficulties they faced in their past attempts to connect directly with the recruiters, both in recruiting firms and at corporations. They complain about the protection barriers set to avoid being approached directly: mostly no contact names on the job ads, no direct emails, no phone numbers only It systems. This is indeed frustrating.

On the other hand, and that’s part of our job, as career coaches and advisers, to make her clients aware of the market reality

, recruiters do not really have alternatives. The most popular the hiring company are, the biggest is the need for such barriers.

Because of its company name, job4U2 is often confused by the public with a recruiting company, although our core business is coaching and consulting. This gives us a very valuable insight into the reasons why recruiting firms do need to filter and a wonderful list of “Do’s & Don’ts “when it comes to approaching the recruiters.

Resource category;

Job Search in Switzerland

Author

Sandrine van den Oudenhoven

Copyright

© 2016 Job4U2. All right reserved

Many job seekers are not prepared and do not dedicate the required efforts to their job search, they spam recruiters on LinkedIn or by emails, most of the time with the very minimal courtesy forms. Last week I received a message with the only text “ I need a job”…I leave this without any further comments. Obviously this was a “Don’t”.

Besides the obvious nuisance it creates to the person receiving such texts, it also creates an enormous amount of data to proceed which, in business terms, translates in non-value added FTE’s (employees).

One might be shocked by the reference to non-value addition when it is about speaking to candidates for recruiting firms. However, and that’s the most obvious of the “Do’s” which I want to tell about in that post, it’s important to take a few minutes to understand business model of the party you are writing to.

Recruiters are paid when they fulfil a vacant position that a company has asked them to staff for. 99% of the emails a recruiting party receives in Switzerland are not in relation with current assignments, thus does not create value for the recruiting firm business.

Nobody in this industry can afford to pay someone to reply kindly and explain how things work to hundreds of job seekers.

The saddest is that the more people will reach effortless to recruiters, the more recruiters will set up filters not to be approached directly…

1. Obvious but too often forgotten: Visit the webpage before you send a message.

2. Look for a person name and address politely this person, even if you use a general email address. If possible, be referred by a shared connection.

3.  Contact only recruiters who are active in your region of search, in your functional, industry and seniority area.

4. Be personal, do not spam!

5. Partner with a career coach who will help you understand how to prepare yourself to talk to recruiting parties and how to best approach them.