Obviously, you'd love to have the most respected retainer firms phoning every few months to tempt you with leap-ahead opportunities.
Then, if you happen to feel stymied and frustrated when a call comes in, you can say, "Interesting...tell me more." With very little effort... perhaps not even the preparation of an up-to-date resume...you'll be swerving past the obstacles at your present company, and gaining momentum on the fast track.
But suppose that right now you're known to only a few firms...and not well known. You have no close personal friend at any major firm who'll go out on a limb for you as we saw at the end of the last chapter. You're a stranger to most of the firms. And you want them to know you...as favorably and as soon as possible.
Be careful. Don't go "cruisin' for a bruisin'."
Whenever you develop a strong determination to seek out recruiters and spark their interest, you're ripe for trouble.
You're in just the right frame of mind to be delighted when a contingency recruiter proposes to put a price-tag on your head and rush to potential employers before you do. And you're equally vulnerable to having that same price-tag applied by a retainer recruiter, who's so impressed by you that she's tempted to slip momentarily into the contingency mode.
With enough of the right bad luck, you can even wind up with a double price on your head...tagged for $80,000 or more by someone lobbing you in on contingency, with respect to an opening that a retainer firm is already being paid over $80,000 to fill.
You certainly can't tell from the name on the door, since these days both contingency and retainer recruiters call themselves by exactly the same names ..."executive recruiters," "management consultants," "executive search consultants," etc. And you can't tell from the office decor, since both have posh layouts.
Moreover, both types fill $100,000+ and $200,000+ positions, although they're far more frequently handled by retainer firms than by contingency firms. Both may have the utmost polish...tf"d impeccable integrity. And to make things even more confusing, both types may switch opportunistically to the opposite payment method.
A warm welcome is a hot clue.
It's only natural, when you're presenting yourself to a recruiter, to want a favorable reaction.
Ironically, it's a contingency recruiter inclined toward the broadest possible distribution of unasked-for resumes, who will be most eager to grant you a courtesy interview. After all, his business is attaching price-tags to people and scattering their resumes to the four winds. He wants people coming in.
So if your appointment is easy to get, and the visit itself rushes along very favorably, warning bells should go off in your head. You may be "working with" a recruiter who feels you're "highly marketable"...a lottery ticket to be played with a few dollars worth of postage or a list of e-mail addresses.
Beware of the recruiter who tells you what you want to hear.
Imagine someone arriving for a courtesy interview. After the opening pleasantries, he hands the recruiter his resume. As the recruiter scans it quickly, the executive speaks to reinforce the major points, telling about present responsibilities and outstanding accomplishments. The recruiter looks thoughtful... smiles...and renders a verdict:
An executive who didn't know as much as you already do about recruiters might make a serious error in interpreting what we just saw. He might meet his wife for lunch and say:
This guy's interview was certainly no cause for rejoicing. Quite the contrary. The recruiter just gave his guest fair warning that he intends to begin racing him to the employers most likely to want to hire him.
It was obvious from a scan of the executive's resume and the fine personal impression he made that he was highly employable, if unemployed...or obviously ready to move up, if currently employed. So the recruiter is about to offer the executive-with price-tag attached, of course-to all the appropriate employers the recruiter can think of.
When a recruiter circulates a resume to various likely employers it's called "floating" the resume. I consider it absolutely reprehensible for any recruiter, whether contingency or retainer, to refer the name and background of any individual to any employer without the prior knowledge and consent of the individual.
And every recruiter will invariably tell you he would never do such a thing. In fact, however, it seems to happen fairly often...and it may be done by both contingency and retainer people. "Floating resumes" is a little like "insider trading." Everyone claims not to do it. And yet it still happens.
What to Tell the Eager Recruiter
Whenever you hear a recruiter say he thinks he can "help," the best thing to do is grab your resume and head for the door. Tell him you don't want to be submitted, unless he contacts you ahead of time and gets your approval to offer you to that particular employer for that particular opening.
The recruiter talks on and on, outlining what seem like nothing more than attractive options for the future development of your career. You think he's merely mentioning some of the types of companies for which he might consider you, if and when they come to him with an appropriate opening to fill.
But he's deliberately taking your nods and smiles as permission to send your resume to all of the companies and industries he's mentioned. If he does a good job of canvassing your interests and mentioning potential employers, you may find that he's outrun you to almost all of the companies you're likely to end up working for.
