Discrete job seeking

Discrete Job Seeking: How to Get Employers/Recruiters to Approach You

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Discrete Job Seeking: How to Get Employers/Recruiters to Approach You

Making the decision to start looking for a new job outside of your current employer is a big decision and often it can be difficult to know where to start. Enlisting and working with specialist recruiters is a good way to become aware of vacancies and get an understanding of the current landscape, but how do you know who to work with and how to get them to approach you?

Update your LinkedIn Profile

LinkedIn is like a recruitment watering hole, so what better place to start. Whilst your LinkedIn profile doesn’t need to be as detailed as your CV, to get noticed it’s important that there is a good amount of detail available. As a minimum, it should be up to date with your most recent employer and job title that clearly explains what you do (no ninjas or gurus!), but also contain some brief details around recent projects and/or technical skill set.

Recruiters will always be looking for relevant certifications or courses. Adding these to your profile will be a great way to show your skill set and encourage recruiters that you’re a good fit.

More information on constructing your LinkedIn profile can be found in our recent blog post “When Does Your LinkedIn Profile End and Your CV Start?”

Open to Opportunities

A lot of recruitment specialists will pay for a premium LinkedIn tool, call LinkedIn Recruiter. This gives them the ability to search for professionals who have actively listed themselves as “Open To Opportunities”, a quick tick box you can select from your profile. Cleverly, your status will always remain hidden from your current employer, eliminating the risk they will find out you’re considering new opportunities.

Switching this to “On” can see the amount of approaches you receive increase by 52%, a great way to start exploring the opportunities available.

Connecting with Recruiters

Connecting with specialist recruiters across different social channels is a less subtle but equally effective way of displaying your interest. Building out your network can be beneficial in more ways than one. Whilst of course, it would suggest an obvious interest in searching for a new role but longer term, specialist recruiters often post relevant and interesting news and insights relating to their niche. If you’ve connected wisely, they will be a welcome addition to your network.

Apply for Jobs

Even if you are waiting for recruiters to approach you, you should still be applying for jobs. Once receiving relevant applications, recruiters will call to discuss your experiences, skills and motivations. Often, during these conversations’ suitability for roles outside of what you applied for, will become clear. Quickly you can have identified 3-4 roles you’d like to submit your CV to, through one recruiter.

This can be an effective way to move your hunt along. Proactivity is always a great trait.

When making these changed, it’s always wise to remember that a recruiter can only go off the information you have made available. Making this as relevant and accurate as possible, will ensure the proposals and approached you receive reflect that. 

Following these steps will greatly increase the amount of approaches you receive from recruiters and will get your job hunt off to the best possible start, whilst remaining discrete to your current employer.

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BLOG: What Do Specialist Recruiters Do?