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One sign you've found the right IT recruiter

This is the h2

Feb. 13, 2017 | By Lisa Dare, TEKsystems Digital Content Strategist

candidate meets a recruiter in a coffee shop

This may weird you out, but I spend a lot of time reading up on you. OK, not you exactly, but IT professionals. Communities like Reddit, Quora and Indeed are filled with IT workers who have strong opinions about how the recruiting industry could do better.

I see three main sources of frustration:

  1. Some IT recruiters just want to plug you into an opening, regardless of whether it fits your skills or interests.
  2. Tech recruiters take no time to understand you or your resume.
  3. You don’t want to take time out of your busy life to meet with a recruiter in person.

But here’s something that’s critical for you to know: A recruiter who wants to form a mutually beneficial relationship with you (and not just plug you in) is going to want to get to know you in person. Which means taking time out of your busy life to meet them.

Why you should *only* work with recruiters who want to meet you in person

At TEKsystems—much to some applicants’ displeasure—we don’t talk to everyone who applies for a job. There are typically two times when we ask candidates to meet us:

If you have a niche specialty, like ERP or TIBCO, our specialized recruiters may want to get to know you in person. After all, the job options and available workers to fill them are narrow, so it pays for both recruiters and candidates to be proactive.

Or, you seem like a good fit for a current opening.

An IT recruiter worth working with will want to meet you in person because we need to be able to vouch for your presentation, soft skills and other intangible qualities. It's how we maintain our credibility with hiring managers, which in turn helps us get your resume more attention.

[TEKsystems wins a Best of Staffing Award® for exceptional talent service]

This is particularly important if you're an untraditional candidate. Did you ever see a job posting you know you'd be perfect for, but your resume doesn't exactly match the requirements? Our long history of only presenting fully screened candidates means we’ve earned the trust of a hiring manager. They’ll listen when we say your broad knowledge outweighs any gaps in your resume, or you’re eager to learn, or you’ll fit in well with their hardworking team.

The second reason a professional recruiter wants to meet you is to get a sense of your aspirations and strengths beyond your resume. Because a great recruiter doesn’t just think about putting a candidate into the first opening that matches their resume; instead, we understand the value of IT professionals. We want to treat you right, provide you with career options and work with you for a long time.

Related: Why IT workers deserve better from recruiters