Ask Vicki: Should I call recruiters or wait for them to call me?

Each week, Monster’s career expert Vicki Salemi—a former recruiter who utilizes 15-plus years of experience in recruiting and human resources to empower job seekers—answers user questions on Quora. We’ll be republishing the answers here. If you have a question for Vicki, send it to socialmedia@monster.com.

Q. Should I call recruiters or wait for them to call me?

A. If you wait until a recruiter contacts you to help you find a job, you’re missing the boat. You need to be proactive, and that includes reaching out to recruiters on a regular basis (notice I didn’t say daily—once every two weeks is fine), looking for jobs on Monster and setting up job alerts, among other job-search strategies.

If you connected with an in-house recruiter at a company that you would like to work for and there’s an opportunity you applied to, definitely reach out to them.

If the opportunity doesn’t work out, ask the recruiter to keep you in mind for future jobs. You can periodically get in touch with them to stay top of mind—many times they’ll know about job openings down the pike before the jobs are officially available to applicants.

On the other hand, if you’re working with a third-party recruiter via an agency, you can be more aggressive. They’re in the business of placing you in a job. In fact, they typically get paid a commission from the employer that hired them (usually a percentage based on your starting salary), so it’s in their best interest to help you land that job. If you wait for them to call you, you may be waiting a while since they’re incredibly busy. 

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Read Vicki Salemi's answer to "Should I call recruiters or wait for them to call me?" on Quora.