Joe Turner was a recruiter for more than 15 years, so job seekers often ask him for advice on how to meet recruiters and how to make working with recruiters a beneficial experience. His reply is not always what they want to hear: Top recruiters don’t want to meet you. They don’t want you to call them, and they don’t want you to send your resume to them.
They are already wired into their own network of potential candidates in the fields they cover. If they’re doing their jobs correctly, they already know all the top candidates in their fields or know where to find them. In other words, if they want to meet you, they’ll find you.
But these are the people you want to meet! These are the executive search firms that will introduce you to a company or corporate recruiters who want to fill open positions.
There are ways you can increase the odds that they will find you. By making sure you are visible in the places recruiters look for new talent and by optimizing your profile to appear high in their search for candidates, you can increase the odds you’ll become one of those candidates recruiters in your field seek out.