Page 45 - James Caan - Get the Job you Really Want

with specific consultants who can then become your personal
champion.
The key is finding the right consultant who has the contacts
and the relationships with those companies that will have the
kind of job you want. And by the right consultant, I mean a

particular person within the agency. This is where you can be
proactive in sourcing who that person is. Look on the agency’s
website at the consultant team, and find who matches your

sector best. Talk to friends and colleagues who have used
agencies to get similar jobs, and find out which consultants
were most successful in reaching the right decision maker.
You can also ask them to tell you which posts they have
successfully filled in your area in the last year. Tony Seager, an

experienced recruitment consultant and trainer I work with,
told me he had a CEO of a software services company come to
see him, and he quizzed Tony on his credentials as a recruiter,

very specifically on how many jobs at that level he had filled.
Candidates asking for credentials, or getting testimonials from
other clients, used to be commonplace in the recruitment
business, but that is rare now. That does not mean you can’t
do that to satisfy yourself that you are working with the right

person, the right team, the right agency.
This is a two-way relationship. Don’t think of a recruitment
consultant as simply a middleman. A good consultant will be

able to give you expert advice on careers, on specific jobs, coach
you for the interview – and all for free! The cost is going to be
borne by the employer. Successful agencies are keen to move
away from simplistic matching processes, and want to get under

33 passion