[quote]optheta wrote:
[quote]XanderBuilt wrote:
Could you clarify your question - are you asking how to network with prospective employers or recruiters?
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Is there a difference?(serious question)
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I’ve been both a prospective employer and recruiter.
I’ve networked at graduate MBA and executive MBA events (for example). Both graduates are eager to meet recruiters to discuss prospects but the executive MBA batch are more interesting to a recruiter - they are potential candidates or because of their seniority they are prospective future clients.
Recruiters are for the most part quite worldly, they know how companies link to each other, they know their target market from speaking to dozens of candidates in that market. This doesn’t mean they can do their job, just that are very knowledgeable on movements, changes to the sector, what’s going on in the industry or sector or function (Finance, HR etc).
A prospective employer will want to know how you’d fit into their business, what you know about their activities, where could you contribute, how up to date you are on their sector (even as a graduate). It does make employers feel good when prospective candidates know more than the general population about what they do. This knowledge only comes from reading deeply into business, articles related to your sector, meeting people from this sector etc.
A recruiter wants to know where your skills sets are, what your personality is like and where he/she can fit you at one of the clients.
If this is just graduate recruitment then you really ought to cold call, get to know the industry, meet people at various occasions and impress people.
What field are you in? Are you an under graduate or post graduate? Which country?
I wasn’t blessed with the best results in university but I worked heavily on my communication skills, sales ability and obscure knowledge (as funny as that sounds) - knowing how to join the dots is a critical skill, it’s strategic, it’s big picture. Stand out from the rest.
If you’re not on LinkedIn you should be. There’s many articles there discussing recruitment (recruit and staffing industry I think).