Respond To Recruiter When You're Not Looking?
 

Started a new job 3 months ago. Now have received a message from an executive recruiter asking me to talk with them about a similar but possibly higher-level job for a different company in my area. I am happy where I am, people and clients are fantastic and organization is very good, money is not great but not terrible, so I am not looking to move. What do you do? Respond and have a chat? Just to keep building the network? Or ignore?

Talk

Sure, find out the skinny.

Tabs is close. The more correct answer is: listen.

_

I never shut the door but tell them politely that I am presently engaged until... but would be happy to entertain similar offers in the future. I hear them out but am respectful of ther time.

Talk. I am not looking to move. I was offered a couple of very nice gigs with an equity stake recently. The flattery was great for my ego and esteem. The offers were useful in that I was able to honestly assess how much I enjoyed my current gig.

Summary - the talking made me happier where I am.

Good luck,
Larry

Always respond and throw them a bone if you can. You never know when you'll need their help.

Unless the situation at the current new gig was terrible I'd pass.

FWIW, if a recruiter passed me someone who just 3 months prior had taken a new position I'd be very reluctant to give it even minimal consideration.

Keep in mind, a recruiters job is to present qualified candidates. The more the better.

Whether they are viable candidates does not really matter as much.

and people wonder why it's so hard to get and keep a good job. businesses must have absolutely zero faith in the loyalty of their employees any more.

I know a few folks who bounce around like clockwork. I would not hire any of them regardless of skill.

That's a two-way street...

Maybe if businesses led by example and weren't so eager to kick "their most valuable resource" (har-har) out onto the street at the first sign of possible trouble then they'd actually EARN some loyalty.

My attitude is I am a free agent (virtually all of us are). If I can do better elsewhere I believe I owe my current employer a chance to respond to why I'm considering leaving and counter or make it right - nothing more, nothing less. If they don't, I have no reservation about jumping ship.

I've been at my current position for almost seven years. They hired me at the end of 2009 when jobs were pretty hard to come by - especially in my field. I haven't forgotten that and it has been a factor in my turning down a few competing offers I've gotten since (including two that had higher salaries and four that had higher compensation package values when total remuneration was considered - quality of life and work-life balance was a huge factor too. I'm just not willing to work 90 hour weeks anymore. My free time and having a life / time for family, friends, hobbies, personal interests, etc. is more important now than just sucking in huge numbers.

My next job change will be dictated by my wanting to move out of New England, not because I don't like the job or firm per se.

Even though I stayed nearly 20 years at my last employer I always responded to headhunters. I politely and professionally told them that I was currently employed, not looking to leave but would gladly make a recommendation if I knew someone that was qualified and looking. You never know when you will need their services.

Try to appreciate your happiness and satisfaction where you are. It's worth more than money--a lot more.

Perhaps you can use this request to get more money/benefits where you are. Drop a hint to your boss that a recruiter called, and you talked to him......let him sweat for awhile.

Hear him/her out. Always good to keep an open ear.

headhunters are PIMPS. without the soft heart.


they will lick your balls if you're worth a darn and looking for a job.

A lot of times a recruiter will use you as cannon fodder. They will put you out there as a comparison for the candidate they are really trying to place.

They are pimps ... pure and simple.

But handy when you are in need of getting laid.

Three months is too short of a time to move unless your situation was so bad you couldn't stand it or the offer was so once in a lifetime that you couldn't say no. Anything else and you'll damage your career by moving from one to the other too fast.

I'd respond and tell the recruiter that you just started the job three months ago and are happy, so you're not interested in making a move, but that he could check back in a year and see how you are doing then.

Makes sense.

I know two guys looking in this industry and area. Maybe worth finding out and pointing him to those guys.

My tenure at every job from first to current:
2 y first job out of school
12 y stuck it out to partnership and stayed until left the profession
7 y laid off
<1 y whole team left right after I was hired
10 y company shut down

Changing jobs isn't fun.

This is perfect:

This is potentially a disaster:

After a lifetime of helping recruiters more than they ever helped me...well, you get the idea.

This could very well be the worst advice on the www. A reminder to always question anyone who confidently tells you what you should do.

I had an interview today with a gun company. I wasn't looking and have only been in my current job for four mos. But, c'mon! It's a gun job, a short commute, includes a lot of range time, selling to gun stores and gunsmiths and is better money. I had to check it out. I didn't have my current job on my resume, but told him right up front that's because I wasn't looking. I just applied for this job because it would be such a hobby/passion job, but was otherwise not looking. If I get and take it, I wouldn't put the current job on my resume, but I would hope I wouldn't be looking again for a long time.

I did it once with great success. I used an offer to get a counter offer to stay. I got a 40% raise on the spot, made retroactive to the first of the month and a reduced quota for the next 18 mos.

Give it two years.

We all have advice. The only ones I have seen do well in skipping are those with brutally strong technical skills in demand (e.g., SAP - well, in my time) or those managers possessing brutal linear thought or brutal lateral thought. Smarties with a genuine mission.

Anyone heard of or know of an employer that put a recruiter up to asking his employees to test their loyalty? If so what would that gain the employer? Ticked of employees for sure it they found out.

I think quota carrying sales jobs are unique. Everyone knows reps are coin-operated, no coin no rep.

I always figure it can't hurt to listen. I killed myself for eight years at a job, the company was acquired, and I was laid off by a new manager that never even took the opportunity to get to know me or my abilities. I was outperforming counterparts that were 20 years my senior, and he never bothered to spend 5 minutes talking with me. Sorry but for the vast majority of companies, loyalty to employees is a smoking hole in the ground.

Then you are the exception. As general advice, it's horrible. Any leader worth his/her salt would not take that bait.

It is potentially a good opportunity. Would be mid five figures more $ in a substantially larger organization. That's not enough to shake me loose. But might be a good job for two to three of my friends who are looking. So I asked recruiter to send me more info.

Edit: potentially low six figures more $.

I absolutely had planned to leave, but did like my then job. Problem was that I was crushing my numbers and not making close to what the boss said I'd make if I "were any good." I took a big pay cut to go there in the expectation that I'd make it back quickly. After almost two years, I was tired of struggling to pay the bills. I loved the company and my boss. My mom said I really should give him a chance to counter. I was so sure they couldn't match the offer. But I was wrong and I ended up staying there another 10 years.

I know people who, at the company that later acquired us, used the countering game to even go back and forth between current and future company, got another counter and kept playing the game. It's dicey, but you gotta look out for #1 and get paid what you can command in the marketplace.

Actually I completely disagree.

There are a lot of times when Dept Heads / Managers are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

They have good people who everyone knows is underpaid but are dealing with an organization that will only address it when push comes to shove.

It's often the ammo the Manager needs to get equity for their people.

BTDTGTS.

The best approach for the employee is always to present it as "I need help, got this great offer, really want to stay here, love my job, can we figure something out?

Only if you're really prepared to walk. I've seen it work out very well for people who really had better offers and were ready to give notice. Absent that, it's a dangerous game of chicken.

Well that's a given.

Of course you only bet that hand if you are willing to have it called.

I've worked with a few headhunters, they made used car salesmen look like saints.

Keep in mind all they care about is their commission. that's ALL.