Trying times, indeed. Lots of fear that this day will be the day that the ax will fall and the dreaded security detail with the moving boxes shows up at your cubicle or office. Or, maybe you are the ‘survivor’ who now has to take on the work of the people who have left.
In my 33+ years of experience, I have found that in almost all cases (exceptions are usually when the terminations are for cause) the discharged worker lands on his/her feet into something as good, or better.
Add to that the ‘portability’ of many IT skills and the prospects can be very good for finding a job. This assumes, of course, that you have kept yourself current and that you have some degree of mobility, if required.
I can tell you that the most critical success factor is networking and leveraging the people that know you or who know someone who knows you and can open a door or feed you a lead. This is a little bit more than running out and setting up a Twitter account and following everbody that you can or Facebook, LinkedIn etc. These should be viewed as tools but, ultimately, with a buyer’s market, you will need help, personal help from people who know people.
Which brings me to recruiters. As with any profession, there are extremely professional and polished organizations and individuals that are a joy to work with. They are backed by staff researchers who know how to find quality candidates. Some will get paid whether they fill the position or not – exclusives – and others are fighting to present their candidate(s) to clients essentially pitted against other recruiters. To succeed, they must have a stockpile of resumes. Sometimes the recruiters bump into themselves and get into a fight over you.
At the end of the day, you are a piece of meat. You may never actually meet the person who is marketing you other than a phone call, e-mails, etc.
Think of it like real estate and you are the “house” that is being sold. Perhaps the recruiter has made a deal to receive 25-30% of the amount that is offered to the succesful candidate. On a $100k position, that is $25-$30k. Maybe you wanted $115k. How far will your recruiter go to negotiate? For you, its an extra $15k for EVERY YEAR going forward. For the recruiter, it is around $4k ONE TIME and it totally risks the $25-$30k they are exepcting.
So, it makes me laugh when I see the articles and blog posts about something like be nice to your recruiter and they will be nice to you. Try to get in good graces with them, etc.
I’m sorry, but YOU MAKE MONEY FOR THEM. If you did not exist, they would have no product to sell. Are they having a tough time since the number of jobs available to be filled are fewer – of course? BUT SO ARE YOU!
It all comes down to being professional. Some recruiters do not like getting phone calls about status from candidates. Once a day is too much. True, the client is not often very acomodating in terms of feedback and there certainly are issues in rounding up all of the internal stakeholders within a hiring organization and it takes time. But, come on – Joe might cash a check on your head but doesn’t want to talk – pa-lese.
Joe is probably bugging his customer, though, wanting to know when a decision is going to be made, trying to pin it down to figure out when the revenue will be coming in. For you? Not likely.
You calling every day or other day might make you look ‘desperate’ some say. Maybe it is starting to feel like a desparate situation – you’ve got a family to feed and bills to pay.
So, as I say, be professional and recognize that you are human and not a machine or a piece of meat. No one said it would be easy and it takes lots of work and time. The good recruiters will become partners with you.
Just wait when the tables turn and companies start hiring again. You will be the one that will have your e-mail box and voice mail filled with messages from strangers that will call you about an opportunity….
Or, maybe you might know somebody who might be interested…..