Successful agencies run a volume business, so they are less discriminating than executive recruiters about whom they see and who they recommend. Like executive recruiters, though, they also are specialists (in engineering, computers, etc.).
A letter and a resume will get you registered with an agency. Sometimes employment agencies ask you to sign a contract obligating you for the fee if the employer doesn't pay it. Be sure you know what you are signing and that you will be willing to pay the fee if you accept one of the jobs an agency handles. Fees are generally 7 percent to 12 percent of annual salary.
Executive recruiters often operate on a nationwide basis. Employment agency searches are primarily confined to one geographical area. The best way to get information about the quality of agencies is to ask knowledgeable people in your field. Another way is by watching the employment ads in your area papers. Your best chance of seeing a key person in an agency is by appointment. If you decide to appear without appointment, do it at the least busy times - in the afternoon on any day other than Monday.
Help wanted ads
Answering ads is highly competitive. Frequently there will be 500 to 1,000 or more responses to one ad in The Wall Street Journal or in the New York Times Sunday edition. In spite of the poor chances of your getting an interview by answering an ad, this source is probably the best of the visible sources - if you answer ads effectively.
Because screening responses to such ads is such a tremendous undertaking, there are certain things that you can do to greatly increase your chances of getting an interview. Try to identify the company and the hiring executive. Approach him for his help, not in answer to the ad. He may be very frustrated with the delay in the hiring process and be receptive to an approach directly to him. Responses by mail are initially given a rough cut against a checklist of the highest priority items they're looking for. The most important items are usually outlined in the ad. The first step in preparing your response and then to carefully analyze the ad, underlining the key requirements. Then in your cover letter, if you show in one column the requirement and in the opposite column your applicable experience, you make it easy for the person doing the screening to see that you have the principal requirements.
From 500 responses, the initial screening might narrow the field to 50 for more careful consideration. Because of the volume of replies, screeners have a natural bias to reject candidates - the principal reasons being too much or too little experience, or background in incompatible industries.
A more skilled screener then reviews the 50 to select perhaps 6 to 12 to interview. This second screener will probably read the resumes more carefully, although still rapidly. You may find it desirable to underline in red pencil in your resume the specific experience called for. This draws the screener's attention to your most pertinent back ground and should increase the chances of careful consideration.
Timing your answer to the ad is important. A survey of responses to a Sunday New York Times ad indicated that two thirds were received the first week. One arriving within that time has little chance of being carefully examined. You have nothing to lose by submitting several answers to the ad. The latest letter often will be screened against only a couple of others received the same day, so it will stand a better chance of careful consideration. In addition, if the early screening process fails to identify enough promising candidates, there may be a reluctance to review the file of rejects (on the basis, "If we couldn't find enough good candidates out of the best of the large number of early replies, why bother to go back through all of them again?").
The final decision to close the screening process on most executive job advertisements usually takes a month or more. Since, as we have seen, perhaps one half of The Wall Street Journal and New York Times Sunday edition ads aren't filled 90 days later, at the start of your campaign you may find it worth your while to go back and answer all the ads for your type of job that appeared in the previous 60 days.
