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Messages to Recruiters that hurt your job search
FYI for candidates — read this before you reach out to recruiters.
Read this article on LinkedIn.
In order to be effective in your job search, it is important to learn how to communicate with recruiters. They are the ones who facilitate the career transitions for you, they are the agents of change. However, rarely we see resources that are teaching us how to communicate with recruiters effectively.
I remember when I first came to the country, there was no one place to explain it all to me — all the things I needed to know about the Canadian job market, Canadian resumes, cover letters and simply how to talk to people. So I decided to build that resource.
In this article, I want to address all the messages that we (recruiters) receive on a daily basis but do not lead to anything.
Here are some messages that I find ineffective (+ my comments on why I think so).
1. “Hi, how are you?”
This message is not effective because it signals to me that the person hasn’t mastered asynchronous communication.
And you don’t want to signal that. Basically you are telling your reader that this is how you’re going to communicate within the business, and within the business, there’s a lot of asynchronous communication that is happening at all times, especially in a large global business where you need to work across several time zones. You will piss a lot of people in the business if your internal communication is like that.
The moment they read 💬 “hi, how are you” is the moment they think 💭 “What do you want from me?”. Not having an answer to the question from the get-go is not going to play in your favour.
Effective communication is resolving the question even before it’s being asked.
Simple structure for the message:
- Hi, how are you? (Ok, you can lead with that if you want)
- What is the ask?
- What context do I need to know to answer your question?
