Here’s every exasperated job hunter’s wish come true: The phone rings, and on the other end, the capable-sounding voice of a headhunter asks if you’d be interested in a top-level job – one with perks, prestige and benefits.
All you need to do is e-mail your resume, and wait for the call back.
If it sounds more miraculous than believable, it’s because it may well be. According to AskTheHeadHunter.com writer Nick Corcodilos, executive recruiters (many times called headhunters), fill a startlingly low percentage of jobs — something around 3 percent of open positions in the United States.
Even if you are contacted by one, it’s best to be honest about your work experience and qualifications as they probably know more about you than you’d think.
An even better strategy??Keep on looking for work when the phone call ends.
“Once someone believes they’ve got a headhunter helping them find their dream job they tend to think, ‘I’ve got a headhunter working for me, thank God. Now I can go to the movies,’” he says.
But headhunters aren’t paid to land jobs for jobseekers. They work for corporations that often pay them five-digit commissions to fill company openings.
Which is why you should be wary, Corcodilos says, of the increasingly common faux recruiter — the dubious characters who find want ads on job boards, then collects hundreds of other people’s resumes to e-mail bomb the hiring contact, in the hope that they’ll receive some type of commission if one of their e-mails leads to a hire.
“All they’re doing is collecting job listings and people’s resumes, and throwing spaghetti on the wall,” he says.
