The Devil You Already Know
May 24, 2018 5:08 PM   Subscribe

I’m looking to get in touch with a recruiter who’s already in my LinkedIn connections—she requested to add me earlier this year. My big MetaFilter ask is, How would i continue approaching someone who’s expressed initial interest this way?

Much appreciated: Any suggestions for how best to take the next step of having a conversation about my career, and how her initiation of that first connection would change the language of how I approach her in an email or LinkedIn DM.

This recruiter/headhunter has worked in-house at some great places and has really encouraging recommendations on her LinkedIn profile, so I’m eager not to be just another annoying job seeker that didn’t make it to her radar.

Also, I don’t think headhunters are the devil as the title of this post might have you assume, but I’d consider interacting with the the latter for a job I love. Har har har.

Thanks, MetaFilter!
posted by shelle to Grab Bag (10 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
so I’m eager not to be just another annoying job seeker that didn’t make it to her radar.

I think you might be overdramatizing the life of a recruiter. Message her and say you're circling back after connecting earlier this year, and would she have 15 minutes for a call sometime soon to chat about what she's looking for right now, as you're considering your career options.
posted by Lyn Never at 5:20 PM on May 24, 2018 [19 favorites]


If she's a recruiter by trade, she wants to hear from people who are both interested in and qualified for the jobs she's trying to fill.

"Hi; I think we met at/through [event/person]. I'm currently looking for a [better] job, and you seem to have a lot of good connections. Do you have some time for a call about what openings you expect to have soon?"

Adjust as needed; if your only connection is "she asked to connect earlier this year," use that - "you contacted me in February, and I'm wondering if you have some time to discuss what openings you have," or similar.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 5:23 PM on May 24, 2018 [7 favorites]


What they said, make a contact post, hit send, pick up your phone as it'll probably be ringing.
posted by sammyo at 5:28 PM on May 24, 2018 [1 favorite]


The worst that will happen is she will reply back with a canned email stating that she’s recently placed people in the company you work for and attempt to sells her recruiting skills to help your company hire moar people.

at least that is all recruiters ever seem to want from me sobs
posted by nikaspark at 5:39 PM on May 24, 2018 [1 favorite]


Why do you think she added you, your awesome cupcake recipes? This is why people are on LinkedIn in the first place.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 6:40 PM on May 24, 2018 [1 favorite]


They live for this. You could send:

“Hey. Me. Job. Need. Pls call thx”

And they’re on it. Just say what you want, use three short sentences, and include when you’re free to talk.
posted by jeffamaphone at 7:35 PM on May 24, 2018 [1 favorite]


They're not the devil but really you need to realise that you're also doing them a favour as much as they may be the path to a new opportunity for you. Just message her today with the above casual messages. You'll make their weekend.
posted by like_neon at 1:38 AM on May 25, 2018


Response by poster: Thank you, friendly Me-Fites! I sent messages to two recruiters in my network yesterday. I haven’t heard back yet but hopefully I will once the long weekend is over.
posted by shelle at 11:08 AM on May 25, 2018


Response by poster: I’m going to try not to make this a habit, but I haven’t heard from either of these dudes. It’s cool, right? Recruiters can take any amount of time to get back to you, right?

Dang it, I knew I shouldn’t have used the phrasing “exciting opportunities“ when asking if they knew of any. I am being punished for daring to see a better world!
posted by shelle at 9:11 AM on May 29, 2018


Given the lifespan of a recruiter they may both be working in other industries by now. Assuming they're still recruiting, they may not have much zip in their reply back to you unless they're trying to actively fill something for which you could qualify, so you might not hear back for a while. But I think this is also high season for recruiter vacations because with the holiday and end of the school year both hiring managers and candidates tend to be out of pocket. In any case, where I am the long weekend has been over for two whole hours, so you may have to wait a little longer.

You'd literally have to be really openly racist or maybe threatening personal violence to turn them off by one phrase you used. I think you're thinking of them like sleek high-powered sharks (or the old school concept of "headhunters" but those mostly only exist for C-level/VP/high-end Director positions now) but mostly they are brokers of warm bodies. None of them are going to say "ooh, I better clear my desk and start looking for a job for shelle", because that's not how it works, they don't look for a job for you, they look for candidates for jobs that are hiring. If the keywords of the jobs in their database form some kind of Venn overlap with the keywords from your resume that you already sent them and they have gotten entered in their other database, they will be extremely eager to speak with you as soon as possible. If they work a lot in the very specific industry you are in, you might get a call just to confirm you are capable of having a reasonable conversation with another human being even if they do not have a potential commission on the line, in order to have a high-quality candidate in pocket if a matching job comes along, but mostly they don't do that anymore.

You did your part, you should probably just move on to doing whatever other job search tasks you need to do like putting your resume on Indeed and updating it every couple of days to keep it fresh, which will generate interest from additional brokers each time you bump it.
posted by Lyn Never at 10:09 AM on May 29, 2018


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