You want a new banking job but you’re tired of constantly sending your CV to different recruiters each time you spot a vacancy. You’d prefer recruiters to contact you as soon as they receive a new role you’d be suitable for.
Thankfully, it is still possible to get headhunted in the banking sector. The tips below will help boost your chances of being called up by recruiters eager to poach you away from your current position.
1. Start up relationships with two or three recruiters
You are much more likely to get chased up by recruiters if you’ve already taken the time to develop a long-term relationship with them – regardless of whether you’ve been actively looking for a new job, says Jeremy Poh, a recruitment consultant at Taylor Root in Singapore. Researching two or three recruiters who specialise in you field and contacting them directly typically works better than calling the recruitment firm’s switchboard – you risk being transferred to administrator who will put your details on a database rather than discuss your career with you.
2. Explain your aspirations
Meeting a recruiter face-to-face is another critical step in building a relationship. Above all during these discussions you need to explain what you are looking for in your next job, says Daniel Warwick, Singapore managing director of recruitment agency Eames Consulting Group. Recruiters find it difficult to chase after candidates whose career aspirations are too vague or too wide.
3. Then contact them about once a month
Do you want a recruiter to contact you the minute a job crops up in your field? You also have to contact them on a regular basis. Don’t do it every day or even every week – once a month should be enough to maintain the relationship, says Richard Aldridge, a director at recruiters Black Swan Group in Singapore.
4. Update your achievements
If recruiters don’t have the most recent copy of your resume, they won’t know about that incredible new achievement which might make them come to you before other candidates. “Even if you’re not applying for a job, send us an updated CV with recent achievements whenever possible,” says Craig Brewer, director at recruitment company FiveTen Group in Singapore. “Perhaps you’ve just completed your CFA, or have overachieved your sales budget, or better still you’ve just been promoted – that’s always a good one as it’s great to represent a high-performer to a client.”
5. Establish a reputation for flexibility
Recruiters won’t prioritise you for new roles if you’ve been overly stubborn or inflexible with your job requirements in the past – they want to call candidates who they think will be immediately receptive to the vacancy they have to fill. “Candidates who are successfully headhunted are the ones who have previously been flexible and realistic about their prospects,” says Brewer. “We want won’t seek you out if your expectations are way out of line with the job market.”
6. Leave money out of it for now
Recruiters want to avoid compensation negotiations becoming too heated down the track, so they also avoid contacting candidates who they know are mainly motivated by money. When you meet a recruiter to discuss your aspirations, do not emphasise your need for a bigger pay packet, says Aldridge.
7. Be a page-one candidate
Even if you’ve not forged a relationship with a recruiter, you may still get on their radar when they trawl through LinkedIn or external CV databases. “But often a LinkedIn search brings up more than 1,000 people and almost always we’ll have to move onto something else before we finish this search – so to maximise your success in being headhunted first, try to get your profile on the first one or two pages of a typical search,” says Kate Reid, an associate director at recruiters Eximus Group in Hong Kong.
8. Get granular with your keywords
How to achieve the above? Start by identifying the keywords (usually skills) that recruiters are likely to search for and include these on your LinkedIn profile and any resumes you’ve uploaded onto databases. “But you need to be specific – research the requirements of the role you aspire to, then translate your current experience into the context of that job,” says Ben Tang, a client solutions director at recruitment firm Randstad in Hong Kong. “Banks are looking for very specific skill sets. For example, trade surveillance and transaction monitoring are hot keywords in compliance right now.”
9. Don’t overdo your skills
If you are highly skilled in a particular area which is no longer part of your career plans, don’t clutter your online profiles with detail about it that could confuse recruiters who have little time to assess your strengths. “The ‘more the merrier’ is a misconception in job searching. Loading up your profile with unnecessary keywords doesn’t increase your chance of catching a recruiter’s attention and may even risk undermining your credibility. Include five to seven key skills only,” advises Tang.
10. Have credible connections
A keyword-efficient LinkedIn profile may grab recruiters’ attention, but they won’t then contact you if they suspect your profile lacks credibility. “I always check which other professionals you have in your network and I make sure they are relevant and credible before I even consider approaching you,” says Angela Kuek, director of search firm Meyer Consulting Group in Singapore.
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