MDI Medical

How To Get Recruiters to Work Hard for You

Posted Friday, December 19, 2008 by Candace Berk

Each month we send out a newsletter that incorporates an article for MDI's job seekers. These articles discuss many different aspects of our traveling therapists' lives. Over the next few weeks, I will be sharing excerpts from our articles. I will begin with an article titled "How to Get Recruiters to Work Hard for You." To read the full article click here, or simply enjoy the following blog posts.

How to Get Recruiters to Work Hard for You

As every seasoned physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech language pathology traveler knows, having a great recruiter can make all the difference in the world when it comes to advancing your career. A great recruiter knows the business like the back of their hand, has a keen sense of where the best opportunities lie, and combines that with a deep understanding of what’s important to you to build a new assignment that is even better than the last.

But there’s more to a great recruiter. Once you’ve worked with a few, the differences between good and great become much clearer. The best recruiters love what they do. They have great people skills. They’re patient, yet they know when to apply pressure to help get what you want. They also know when a little finesse is better than making hard demands. More importantly, the best recruiters in the business do something that few others are truly willing to do – they work their tails off for their travelers.

Finding the Best of the Best
For most rehab travelers, finding the recruiter that works best for you is going to take some trial and error, but it doesn’t have to be painful. Rehab therapy is a relatively small world, and word – good and bad – gets around fast. Talk with your fellow travelers and staff therapists as well. Odds are that some of them have had great experiences working with recruiters, and they can help you avoid taking an assignment that sounds too good to be true.

The staffing business is all about relationships, and your recruiter should work to build a strong bond with you from the start. You can learn a lot by listening to the questions that recruiters ask you. Are they interested in what’s important to you or are they hurrying through the call to try to get to whether or not you’d take an assignment? Are they looking beyond your resume to uncover your goals and dreams? Every recruiter wants to place you on an assignment, but the best recruiters know that a strong relationship is the foundation for a long term relationship with a hardworking recruiter that is willing to invest the time to find what’s best for you. In fact, the very best recruiters become much more than your recruiter – they’re your career agent, your coach, sometimes your counselor, and they almost always become a very close friend. Building this trust takes time, but there are several things a traveler can do to work toward such a relationship.

This article will be continued in my next blog post or to read the full article now, click here.

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