The job searchers p1 - Military Transition - Military Times EDGE

Army Capt. Brian Bergen didn’t want to go it alone. As he prepared to leave the service in October 2008, he knew he would need help launching his post-military career.

The New Jersey native was serving as a company commander at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., but he wanted to get back to his home turf, and distance prevented an effective job search.

“I didn’t believe I had the time or the resources to reach out to places in New Jersey and the East Coast from Arizona to manage that whole process effectively, to find the right job,” he said.

Now a transportation supervisor at Iron Mountain, a major player in records retention and security, Bergen landed the job with the help of Tony Sindoni from the recruiting firm Advance Career Technology.

Bergen is not alone. A recent report by CareerBuilder found that nearly 25 percent of job seekers say they plan to use a staffing or recruiting firm in the third quarter of 2009.

For many, recruiters can be a shortcut to a winning career. They know how to evaluate candidates’ skills and match them with the right company. They send out résumés and arrange interviews. And most importantly: They have their hands on actual jobs.

“The best reason to use a recruiter is that they may have positions that are not advertised,” said Thomas Licari, president of The Recruiter’s Association, a national organization representing the industry. Recruiters are plugged into the corporate human resource networks. Hiring authorities often will go directly to a recruiter to fill a position rather than broadcast the vacancy to the public at large, Licari said. This puts a recruiter’s client on the inside track.

Of course, recruiters won’t help everyone in every job search. They might have a hard time placing you if you are trying to break into a new field or if you have a very narrow expertise. And since their commission is based on the new employee’s salary, they tend to place for higher-paying jobs — but there are certainly a lot of midlevel managers placed through recruiters.

Think you could benefit from a professional job-searcher? Here’s what you need to know:

You pay nothing

Lesson #1: You should never have to pay a recruiter. The recruiter works for the company that is hiring, and that’s who should be paying the bill.

“If you are working with somebody who is asking you for money, then run far, far away,” Licari said.

A recruiter should fine-tune you

The best recruiters will work closely with job seekers to hone résumés and identify target markets.

“A recruiter can help you present yourself in the best light,” Sindoni said. “People coming out of the service don’t know what they don’t know. A good recruiter should coach you, help you understand your own résumé, teach you how to interview.”

Look for ‘rifle’ approach

Bergen worked with several recruiters simultaneously for a while, and not all took the same approach. A number of them sent him out to hotel events where a range of companies set up shop for a day and the candidate circulates, doing does multiple interviews for various positions.

“I’m not a big fan of that” shotgun-type approach, Bergen said. He preferred when Sindoni sent him on interviews with specific employers. “There is a down side because I have to be there for each of these interviews, but there is a flip side in that he put me in front of companies, and individuals within companies, ... who are looking for my kind of skills, and I am looking for their kind of company.”

It’s a fundamental distinction in the recruiting world.There are some recruiters who take narrow aim in the hopes of getting a hit every time, while others heap piles of candidates on every client.

“Unscrupulous recruiters may just throw your paperwork in front of some company and hope they are going to make a match so they can get paid,” Licari said.

Cover your back

That’s a real danger, and not just because it tends to be ineffective. Once a company has seen, and dismissed, a service member’s résumé, that person will have little chance of getting into that company further down the road.

“The only thing you can do is to put into writing asking that the recruiter not forward your résumé on to any company without your permission,” Licari said.

In spite of all the potential hazards, recruiters can be a boon.

“It’s comforting to have people working for you, so that you can do interviews with companies that you know are more serious,” Bergen said. “They can push past a lot of what is out there and help you to make better use of your time.”

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Finding the right recruiter

Advice from Tony Sindoni, Advance Career Technology

• Look who’s talking. In your initial meeting, the recruiter should listen to what you want before launching into what he or she can do for you.

• Got feedback? A recruiter who is serious about you will help you polish your résumé and hone your interviewing skills — not just launch you out of the gate unprepared.

• Track record. The longer a recruiter has been around, the better his or her contacts will be inside corporations. Ask to see your recruiter’s track record.

• Get heard. Look for a recruiter who will get your approval before sending out your résumé. You want to be in the loop all the time.

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Military-friendly recruiters

Five recruiters who specialize in placing veterans, and who they tend to work with:

• Orion International: Junior military officers, noncommissioned officers and enlisted technicians

• Bradley-Morris: Officers, noncommissioned officers and technicians

• Defense Placements: Executive-level positions in the fields of defense/ aerospace and security firms supporting homeland security

• Kaye/Bassman Military Specialty Practice: Officers, noncommissioned officers, industry-experienced veterans

• Leaders Professional Recruiting: Officers