How to Work With Recruiters (From Someone Who Was One)

A candidate once asked me, halfway through a phone screen, whether I worked for the company or for her. Honest question, and I gave her the honest answer. The employer paid my fee, the employer set the brief, and the employer decided who got hired. I still fought hard for her, because she made herself easy to fight for.

That exchange contains most of what job seekers misunderstand about recruiters. We get described as career coaches, gatekeepers, or adversaries, and every one of those labels leads candidates to work with us badly. A recruiter is a broker. Once you understand a broker’s incentives, the whole relationship becomes simple.

I spent 12+ years as an international recruiter before founding MyStar Resumes, so this is the guide I wish I could have handed every candidate who ever called me.

The short answer

Agency recruiters are paid by employers, carry many roles at once, and are motivated to make placements this month. Work with them by being findable, precise about what you want, honest about your salary and your other interviews, and fast to reply. Do those four things consistently and you become the rarest thing in a recruiter’s day, a candidate who makes their job easier, and they will move mountains for you in return.

The rest of this article unpacks how the machine works and gives you the exact words for the awkward moments.

How agency recruiters make their money

An agency recruiter earns a fee from the employer when a placement happens, and in most cases only when it happens. Many roles run on a contingency basis, meaning several agencies race to fill the same vacancy and only the winner gets paid. Senior searches are often retained instead, with one firm engaged exclusively and paid in stages.

Hold the contingency picture in mind for a moment, because it explains nearly everything candidates find baffling. A recruiter juggling a full desk of live roles, racing rival agencies, paid only on success, will naturally pour their energy into the candidates most likely to be placed this month. When you match a live brief, you get three calls in a day. When you drift outside their live roles, you hear nothing for weeks. Neither is personal. Both are the business model doing what it does.

The useful conclusion runs in your favor. When a recruiter puts you forward, they want you to win, they will coach you for the interview, and they will push your salary case harder than you would push it yourself, since their fee usually scales with it.

Internal recruiters play a different game

Internal recruiters are employees of the company doing the hiring. They work one company’s roles, they answer to hiring managers down the corridor, and they think in longer arcs, because they may hire dozens of people into the same business over the years and they carry its reputation with every rejection email.

That changes how you work with them. An agency recruiter who has no role for you today may forget you by Friday, so staying visible matters. An internal recruiter who liked you for a role you narrowly missed will often bring you back for the next one, so every interaction is an investment. Be generous with internal recruiters even when the answer was no. Thank them, tell them you remain interested in the company, and ask them to keep you in mind. In my experience the candidates who handled rejection gracefully were the first names raised when the next role opened.

Getting on a recruiter’s radar

Recruiters find most candidates through search, so make yourself findable before you need them. Your LinkedIn headline should name the job you want next and the skills that justify it, because those are the words recruiters type into their tools. I have written full guides on how recruiters search LinkedIn and on headlines that get recruiters clicking, and together they are the highest-return hour available to you this week.

When you reach out directly, lead with a one-sentence target. “I’m a payroll manager with multi-country experience looking for a senior payroll or payroll operations role, ideally hybrid.” A recruiter can act on that sentence in seconds. Vague openers about exploring opportunities force them to interview you just to learn what to do with you, and busy people postpone that work.

Then reply fast. Recruiters operate in hours because shortlists close in days, and a same-day response has won candidates interview slots that a three-day response would have lost to the next name on the list. Keep your resume or CV current and ready to send, so an interested recruiter never has to wait a weekend for it.

Becoming the candidate recruiters fight for

Recruiters advocate hardest for candidates who bring them zero surprises, and three habits put you in that group.

Be honest about money and about your other processes. Tell the recruiter your real salary range and every live interview you have elsewhere. A candidate I remember volunteered at our first call that she was at final stage with another company, and instead of sinking her, that honesty made her my priority, because I could move my client faster and set expectations truthfully on both sides. Surprises at offer stage kill deals, and recruiters remember who caused them.

Be reliable. Show up to every call on time and prepared, and treat commitments to a recruiter exactly like commitments to an employer, because in their eyes your behavior with them predicts your behavior with their client.

Close the loop. Debrief within a day after every interview they arrange, and tell them promptly when your interest cools or when you accept elsewhere. A recruiter would far rather lose you honestly than chase a ghost, and the ones you treat this way remember you for years. Some candidates I placed more than once over my career, and every one of them was a loop-closer.

Handling the frustrating parts politely

Silence after a submission is the most common complaint, and usually it means the client has gone slow rather than the recruiter has gone cold. Give it about a week, then send one graceful nudge. “Hi [name], checking in on the [role] submission from last week. Any feedback from the client I should hear? Happy to be considered for other roles if this one has moved on.” That last line earns its keep, reminding them you are a live candidate for their whole desk rather than one vacancy.

Roles that vanish mid-process are the second complaint, and having sat on the inside, I can tell you the recruiter is usually as frustrated as you are, because their time went unpaid too. Budgets get pulled and briefs get rewritten. Respond with grace, then convert the moment. “Thanks for letting me know. I enjoyed the process, so please keep me in mind for anything similar.” The candidate who reacts that way jumps the queue for the next brief.

Recognizing a good recruiter

A good recruiter asks your consent before sending your resume or CV anywhere, and tells you the client’s name before submission, because your document circulating without your knowledge can collide with an application you already made and embarrass everyone. A good recruiter shares the salary range straight, gives you real time to weigh an offer, and accepts a no while keeping the relationship warm for the next role. A good recruiter tells you the hard feedback, kindly, because they would rather fix your interview technique than watch you repeat it.

Hold everyone to that standard. If someone pressures you to accept by Friday, floats your details without asking, or dodges every question about the client, take your search to someone who works the way I have just described. Plenty do.

Recruiters respond to the same things everyone responds to, clarity, honesty, and reliability, delivered by someone easy to find. Give them those four and you stop being one resume or CV in a pile and become the candidate they call first. If you want your whole search working that way, The Hired Package at $545 gives you professionally written documents, a personal job search plan, interview prep, and 30 days of my support, which includes exactly how to run your recruiter relationships.

I’m Claire Lawrence. I spent more than 12 years as an international recruiter, and since 2013 I’ve helped over 30,000 clients get noticed and get hired.

Want me in your corner? The Hired Package ($545) includes your documents written for you, a personal job search plan, interview prep and 30 days of support.

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