I live in a big banking city so Wells Fargo is a huge employer in town. Wells Fargo uses both internal and external recruiters (we’ll cover this in another blog) to fill their job openings. The recruiters go out into the world looking for qualified candidates (like you!).
The recruiters review resumes, screen candidates, and then bring a shortlist of candidates to interview. Hiring managers are busy people. They don’t want to spend days on end making job postings and sifting through thousands of resumes. The Applicant Tracking System (ATS) takes the first pass at the resumes which is why I recommend writing a targeted resume. Then the recruiters take a second pass. The recruiters are supposed to weed through the stack and bring the best of the best to interview. This saves the hiring manager from interviewing hundreds of unqualified candidates.
Who pays for all these recruiting services? It’s not you. It’s the client, Wells Fargo. Why does this matter to you? Because you need to keep in mind that the recruiter doesn’t serve two masters. They only serve one master, the client, which in this example is Wells Fargo.
I’m not trying to give recruiters a bad wrap. I use recruiters on a regular basis and they are instrumental in the job hunt. Recruiters and candidates are inherently joined at the hip.