Forget about recruitment agencies

Why recruitment agencies are the last place to turn to when you want to change career.

It amazes me how many people, when they want to change career, come to us and complain that recruitment consultants have been utterly hopeless in helping them - only wanting to consider them for roles similar to the ones they've done before, totally disregarding their transferable skills and refusing to consider them for new roles.

Now before you go thinking that I'm about to launch into an assault on recruitment consultants and how narrow minded they are, let me assure you that, if anything, I'm about to do them a favour...

A recruitment consultant's worst nightmare is the career changer who relentlessly calls up saying 'I know I can do this job, I have transferable skills perfectly suited to the role and I'm prepared to take a pay cut'.

I know that it's easy to see a role and say 'yep, I'd be able to do that, and that, and that, and even that - this is perfect for me', but that's not what a recruiter is looking for. They don't assess candidates on their transferable skills - they need to see evidence and proof that you can do that particular job.

Look at it from their point of view - recruiters are hired by their clients to find candidates that match a specific job description perfectly and with 1000s of people on their books to choose from, consultants are going to be selecting the candidates that are the closest possible match to what the client is asking for.

They're hardly going to go back to their client and present someone for the role who 'hasn't got the experience they've asked for but would really like to give it a go'... it's just not going to wash.

So where does it leave career changers? Well, the first thing to remember is that only 25% of roles go through recruitment agencies and advertising. A phenomenal 75% of roles are found through word of mouth and I suspect that with companies keen to cut costs at the moment this percentage is currently even higher.

The great thing about many of these 'word-of-mouth' jobs is that the people that get hired are often taken on, not because they match the role perfectly, but because they've been recommended to the employer by someone that they know. It offers a great way in for career changers.

Career changers have to get out there and make sure they are in the right places to be hearing about those 'word of mouth' job opportunities and that people know that they are out there, what they're looking for and what they can offer.

It's about interviewing people, networking, being clear on what you want and knowing how to sell yourself.

So my advice to all career changers would be to steer clear of recruitment agencies and instead get out there and get yourself known.

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