As an owner of a search firm I am often asked the question "Why do I not hear back from recruiters?" or "Why don’t they work on my position?" To answer those questions we need to look at what motivates a recruiter. Most recruiters work on commission, especially contingency-based recruiters. Picking the right assignment to focus on can mean the difference between making the mortgage or not. We can do a great job, work our dialing fingers to the bone, and if the company we are working for is not serious about working with us, or doesn’t give our candidate fair look, all of our work is for nothing.

Of course, everyone we talk to tell us they are serious and yet many times they are not. Therefore we watch for indications that may reduce our chance of success. We weigh those against the indications on other job openings we are working on and put our emphasis on those that we think are the most serious.

Some of the factors we look at:

We analyze the position.

If the position has been open for a very long time we determine why it has not been filed and what the problem could be. Then we determine if anything has changed to make it more likely that it will be filled. We will work with the company to make the changes if they are needed.

If no candidates have been found or no interviews have taken place we have to ask:

We also look the job description, How detailed is it, does the manager truly know what he or she wants?

We consider how the manager works with us, Does he or she give us everything we need in order to sell the position to potential candidates. Extra’s like sending out company information to send to strong contenders, taking extra time to explain the corporate ladder etc… all play a part in determining how likely it is that we can fill your position.

The biggest factor of all is the manager, is he or she really working with us or just telling us about what he has open. The difference can be substantial.