Your Network Builds Your Career

This is the final part of our “Benchmark Search Hiring Forecast” series, studying the essential place of a recruiter network in your career.

Who is a recruiter to you?

Recruitment, contrary to popular belief, is not a transaction: it’s a network, and to take full advantage of your recruiter network takes planning, strategy, and patience.

Business owners and hiring managers rely on the recruiters' skills and passion for people to highlight the best talent for their company. Candidates look to recruiters to assess their career and background and channel their energies to finding them a better job and advance their career.

Recruiters are matchmakers: they build relationships, above all else, and relationships are cultivated over time.

Network building in 2021

Placing your business health or career in the hands of a stranger is a terrifying prospect, and recruiters make no small effort to make sure they give you everything you need to trust them to make the right decision for you.

At Benchmark Search, we are experts at recruiting with integrity. We make sure every candidate and client who passes through our doors (digitally or in-person) is treated with complete respect and candor, and we support them throughout the process, even when they’re unsure of how we work or what we do.

Whether you’re looking to your recruiting partners now, or in 6 months, or in a year - does the length of time you’ve known your recruiter make a difference to your job search or talent sourcing?

The answer, unequivocally, is yes.

Why should you build a recruiter network?

For hiring authorities...

• Benchmark Search has made a name for itself servicing a very specific talent market, and candidate shortages are a consistent issue in our neck of the professional woods.
• Having the time and resources to source, vet, and interview these hard-to-find candidates requires incredible resolve and patience. That's where your network steps in, and we are integral to it.
• It goes without saying that the time you invest in building a trusted, effective recruitment network means when you require a certain professional you have the channels primed and recruiters prepared. Proving that your recruiting partner will do the job, however, takes more than a meeting and favorable fee structures. An unproven, fresh relationship is built on mutual values, respect, and time.
• Remember the recruitment mantra: Recruiters are in the relationship business, and much like a marriage, crafting a meaningful relationship takes time. Finding the talent you need isn’t transactional and the modern finance or accounting candidate is not easily swayed. Take your time and find the right professional and cultural mix of talent.
• And, similar to a candidate's search, the time you spend building your relationship with your recruiter, the more chance you have of talent finding you. Recruiters are an extension of your company and your brand, and they have vast access to talent. Let them work for you.

​For candidates...

• Your network will, more than likely, garner your next role, and this is even more likely in the accounting and finance field.
• You are in high demand, and our clients know it. Nurture and maintain your network, versus seeing it as an extension of work. Try and see it as paying it forward. You never know when you will want that support network to help you, and it costs nothing to keep in touch with communities and fellow professionals.
• We know changing jobs in 2021 will come with unique difficulties, such as hybrid in-person/remote working set-ups, and so as recruiters, we will make any transition between jobs a lot smoother by cultivating communication and guaranteeing an efficient, discreet interview process.
• The key thing to remember, much like how we help our clients, is the time spent in building a relationship with a recruiter gives you a much better chance of finding the perfect job. Think of recruiters like a career consultant, overseeing your career with objectivity and focus, extending your reach, and expanding your network.
• Our message here is your network is a deposit system. You must approach it without expecting anything in return, and to give your time to cultivating it freely. If you do this without considering it transactional, you will find a supportive network perfectly placed to help you when you need it most!

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Troy Ashby is the founder and president of Benchmark Search, a Dallas-based firm specializing in direct hire recruiting, executive search, and temporary staffing for accounting and finance professionals. With more than 15 years of professional service experience, including more than a decade with one of the nation’s largest recruiting firms, Ashby established Benchmark Search on the bedrock belief that exceptional people, progressive culture, and an unrelenting devotion to serving clients is the formula for developing deep and transformational relationships. BenchmarkSearchGroup.com