Job Advice to PAs in dealing with recruitment agents

Here is some advice, specifically aimed at helping our graduate PAs handle the recruitment and hiring process.

London’s job market is very recruitment agent focused. The agents act as an intermediary between the company and the candidates, attempting to place the best candidates in roles for their companies. Their job is not so easy, as it can be very difficult to attain a good candidate. They spend a lot of money on advertising campaigns and SEO, in order to attract a good candidate.

A good candidate will ensure that they will get a placement and a fee, so it is important that they find the best candidates. However, bad candidates ruin their reputation and can lead to the loss of a client. Therefore, one of the biggest questions on a recruitment agent’s mind is whether they can place you and how easily they can sell you to their clients.

If you want to impress recruitment agents, you must think of the pressures in their roles. They want good candidates, so try to present yourself as a quality candidate. They also will need to know how to sell you to a client. You can help them do this by presenting yourself in a clear manner that enables them to easily place into suitable roles.

There are lots of techniques that you can use in order to meet an agent’s requirements.

1 - Remember that it is always easier to place candidate with previous experience and skills. Bearing this in mind, it can be good to look for similar roles to your previous roles. However, a higher grade is certainly possible and shows ambition to the employers.

2 - Always try to give the agent priority, responding to them as soon as you can. This shows to them that you are reliable and most likely easy to deal with for themselves and the potential employers.

3 – You can look for a career change, but you will need to present a good case for this change. Redoing your CV, retraining or highlighting transferable skills can help this cause.

4 – Make your CV very clear hitting all of the keyword skills that your industry and human resources love to see.

However, you also need to stay true to your own needs and ensure that you get the best you can from the recruitment agent. You must ensure that you are clear as to the type of role you want, don’t be pushed into taking the job you don’t want. If you are unhappy with a new job before you started, you will find it hard to stay in this job and will soon need to move again