A recruiter is someone who represents you, so you want to make sure you’re dealing with someone you trust. It’s also important to start building a relationship. Let him or her know how you like to be reached, what sort of information you want to receive as well as what your goals are and where you are on your career path. Here are some questions to get the ball rolling.

1. Are you specialized to a certain industry and how many positions do you fill monthly and at what levels?

You want a recruiter to know your industry well, not just their specific client’s needs well. Four to five positions a month is believable. At management tiers, one or two per month can be considered high performance due to the extra time requirements. Climb up a notch to VP levels and even one complete search per month or quarter can be considered outstanding. A good recruiter should be prepared for this question and should give a believable response.

2. How long have you been at it?

It’s no secret that recruiting is an easy-entry profession. And like a lot of jobs, it usually takes a year before you really know what you’re doing and can fire on all cylinders. You should also try to find out if the person you are talking to is going to be doing all the legwork or if that’s dispatched to underlings. It’s best to deal with the person who’s actually in the trenches for you.

3. Do you have any references?

Anyone with a few years’ experience under their belt would be proud to share references, but they do have legitimate concerns for not sharing. Some corporate CEOs may not want to be bothered, or there may be confidentiality issues. In such cases, candidate references ought to be available in lieu of client references at the very least. If they can’t supply references, find out why. This could be a red flag.

Sometimes the way people answer these questions can be just as important as the answers. You need to find a recruiter you can trust as well as one with experience and competence. Good recruiters are out there, but you have to do your part to ensure you get one.

About NextGen

NextGen is the brainchild of longtime telecom professionals with nearly 50 years of experience and millions of dollars in Telecom Recruiting Services. We focus on establishing long term relationships with our clients and candidates so we can recruit the best and the brightest in the telecom industry. This ‘quality over quantity’ approach is at the heart of everything we do and has resulted in successful job placements at Fortune 1000 firms worldwide.