My experience with recruiters have been consistently bad, no matter which country I have lived in.
As a foreign resident, I am exposed to many bilingual-focused recruiters who are simply a waste of time
– Insisting on a chat on your career goals which is a huge waste of time
– Not providing a JD and compensation range unless you interview. Some even won’t do so until you get accepted.
– Very vague or misleading answers to working conditions such as remote work policy
– Providing little value besides being a middleman and passing messages
If you are a recruiter, feel free to give insights on how to get the most value. I know not all are bad but they are a dime in a dozen.
13 comments
Nah, don’t waste your time
I’ve had recruiters that would call my phone and then hang up to try to get me to call back lol. I’ve worked with a few good ones but some of them do nothing but play mind games.
I’m in the industry for over a decade here in Japan, so please allow me to chime in.
Yes, there are a lot of bad recruiters out there, absolutely. At the same time I think a lot of people don’t know how to work with recruiters to get the most out of them.
For Japan, unless you either speak fluent Japanese or are working in IT (even then Japanese would be a plus), the “usual suspects” here won’t be able to help. They’ll probably default to pitching you a role at their firm.
You mention “insisting on a chat on your career goals which is a huge waste of time”. How do you expect them to introduce you roles that meet your expectations? I need to know the story behind your career, where you’re coming from, where you are at and where you want to go. What are your aspirations, what are your priorities when looking for a job etc.? Without that, I can’t recommend companies or jobs that meet your requirements. The more you share with your agent about those things, the better they can support you.
However, that requires you to share a lot of personal details with you and I recommend working with a small number of good recruiters (2 or 3 maximum) to get the most out of them. Work closely with them, stay in touch.
Recruiters speak to companies every day and they know which industries or companies are hiring. They know which companies are good and which ones are not.
If you get a good recruiter they will add a lot of value and will definitely be more than just a messenger. Those are transactional recruiters you want to stay away from.
The challenge is finding a good recruiter though because it’s not about the agency but the individual recruiter. Some big name firms have shitty recruiters and some small boutiques have excellent recruiters. You can ask them about their experience, how long they are in the market, ask them how the job market is generally doing etc.
So true.
I only use recruiters for employment market info, and go directly to the in-house HR or referral by friend or acquaintances working there.
I’ve had buddies who have found good jobs through recruiters, and they helped them prepare for interviews and such.
My experience has been a bit bland. A few talks, a few company interviews, nothing too out there in terms of issues. Biggest issue I had was I was always working with junior/assistant recruiters who didn’t know my industry well, so asking them for further info was worthless.
To be honest, to get the most value you best find a recruiter that actually takes their time for point one that you declared as a waste of time.
If the recruiter does not know you, your preferences and what you actually want to do, they don’t know what roles to send you. A good recruiter might even give you options that you did not think about but can actually do based on your skillset. I find it highly ineffective to send random job descriptions around in hope you hit the right person that is interested in whatever you send them.
Having a thorough talk of 30-60 minutes about the roles and then working together to find a match ensures
1. That they actually share roles with you you are most likely interested in and
2. have an actual chance of getting through the assessment process.
If there is nothing for you, they can keep you up to date. Agencies get new roles weekly and if something lands on the recruiters desk that matches with whatever you talked about, you got another useful lead that probably is worth applying to.
A longer discussion also helps you to evaluate the recruiter. How do they work? How well do they know their client and how they are connected with them? Is it just a portal they are using or do they actually know the hiring managers or people in executive positions? Does the recruiter seem like they know what they are talking about?
Meet them in person, have a coffee or lunch. If they are up for that, then they are also ready to put in the time to actually listen to you.
It’s a hit and miss. I received a dozen or so messages every weeks. Most of them are not worth the time, but occasionally I meet some good ones. Generally, I have better experience dealing with in-house recruiters than with people from agencies.
Recruiters can be great – it can be difficult to stand out when applying directly to a role (if a company even allows it). Having someone with connections that fights for you to get an interview and prepares you can give you a real edge.
The problem here is that it’s a catch-all job for foreigners who’ve graduated from teaching English. They are forced into a shitty position where they have to meet targets just to keep their job. Many of them are not qualified and lack the knowledge in the target field, spouting buzz words and being a useless person in the middle with their limited Japanese ability.
My last couple of jobs were all introduced by recruiters/headhunters. Some of them I have known for a decade and they keep coming back with solid opportunities. I am very happy with those guys.
My problem with recruiters as a fresh grad working part-time was me fitting them in my very busy schedule only for them to ghost me and leave me hanging. They could’ve sent a polite email that the job they found for me was no longer available loo
I got my current position by recruiter recommendation, so I can’t be totally negative, but we also got a lot of bullshit from some of them other times.
It’s a mixed bag, and some of them are really trying to do their best with what they have. Their careers are usually very short too.
But in general, I would mostly say they don’t even know what they are really offering
I am a recruiter. Unlike others I do give a salary range and do my best to explain the policies of the companies I am working with. But my specialty is in IT sales roles so 99 percent of the time I deal with Japanese candidates who speak English or who are monolingual. As a result I have to put extra effort to provide excellent customer service because there is a certain expectation.
Most agents don’t disclose company information because they do not want you to go behind their back to apply directly. They also hide the salary information because they probably want to low ball you for a job you are overqualified. I figured early on it is not the best way to approach things. I share the salary information and tell a rough estimate of how much a company will offer based on the candidate’s current salary to manage expectations. Unfortunately, no company pays the highest number unless you are the unicorn they are looking for.
In order to make most out of a recruiter, I would suggest you to speak with bunch of them. You will quickly figure out which ones are good and which ones are not. Then you can filter them out and work with the ones you want to work with. Hope this helps!
Worse than recruiters are dispatch companies that try hard to pretend they’re not dispatch companies.