Transitioning from Having a Job to Being a Job Candidate – How Staffing Agencies Help

Leaving a job, or being laid off, is a big transition. There are strong emotional and financial implications, especially if you were in the position long term. Once the dust has settled, adjusting to life as a candidate and searching for a job can feel overwhelming.

Staffing agencies can help. When a newly on-the-market job candidate connects with a good staffing agency, they find recruiters who have decades of experience with both the practical aspects of landing a job and the emotional elements that go with a job search. Because the agency is paid by the company that’s hiring, the help and support of the recruiter is free for the jobseeker.

Here a few reasons to consider teaming up with a staffing agency.

Recruiters often advise job candidates on resumes, portfolios, and profiles

Staffing agencies can provide guidance on optimizing resumes and LinkedIn profiles. Their recruiters understand current market trends and industry expectations, so they can offer suggestions that align with what hiring managers want to see on a resume or online platform.

In some fields, where a portfolio is required, recruiters can help job candidates take their years, or decades, of experience and promote the project or creative examples that really shine.

There’s also the personal attention a recruiter brings into the job search. Recruiters will meet with candidates to discuss everything from status of the job market to achieving career goals.

Agencies offer job candidates transparency and clarity

Job posts on agency websites usually include basic information that’s missing from platforms like LinkedIn and Indeed: salary; benefits; location; in-office/remote/hybrid. If the post itself doesn’t have the information, the recruiter handling the opening does. Good recruiters are happy to take phone calls and respond to emails.

There’s a big difference between applying for a job that has a “salary based on experience” and a “robust benefits package” and applying for one that has an actual salary ranges and a benefits package that’s spelled out in detail. In today’s market, job candidates can, and should, expect clear practical information up front about compensation and benefits. It saves both the candidate and the company from wasting time by going through a review and interview process for a job that doesn’t meet the financial needs of expectations of the candidate.

Recruiters are also very good at distilling a job listing that has a dozen “must have” skills and half a dozen “preferred qualifications” into a much clearer idea of what the company truly needs and expects from the person they hire.

Recruiters know which job candidates fit the company culture

Recruiters at staffing agencies have established relationships with their client companies. Because of this, they can work with the hiring team at the company to consider what makes a candidate a good culture fit and therefore is likely to be successful in the company.

The recruiter can then translate this knowledge to the job candidate and rule out companies that have a culture that isn’t a good match. Job candidates can capitalize on the recruiter’s knowledge by being honest about who they are, their work habits and communication styles. This allows the recruiter to screen appropriately.

Why is this important? Because company culture is part of every minute of the workday. Each job description has a set of hard and fast “must have skills” but a job candidate who is a great fit for the company culture can, if they are willing, learn many other skills.

A staffing agency will help job candidates know which skills are mandatory for the position, and which can be learned over time. This helps untie the job search from a rigid skill set and refocuses the search on a good job at a company with a great culture for the candidate.

As this article published by Harvard points out,

“During the job search process, it’s easy to focus only on the duties of the role. What is often overlooked is the workplace culture, which is more important when it comes to long-term job satisfaction.

A poor workplace culture can negatively impact a person’s wellbeing. It can also significantly impact the company’s bottom line, leading to low productivity and high turnover.”

Job candidates that work with a recruiter who can make a good corporate culture match will find themselves interviewing for positions that are more likely to be satisfying on a daily basis.

With a staffing agency, a job candidate always knows where they stand

In today’s market, it’s vital that hiring managers are timely about decisions and communicate those decisions, even if a candidate doesn’t get an offer. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen.

This is another way that recruiters help candidates. A professional recruiter will never “ghost” a candidate. On the contrary, if an interview doesn’t land a job offer the recruiter can share information with the candidate about what did, and did not, go well during the process. This will help with future interviews.

It’s not easy to go from having a job to searching for a job. The transition from employee to job candidate is a process, one that’s made easier with experienced professionals as a resource.

As one of the top recruiting agencies in Pennsylvania, TriStarr specializes in legal staff, accounting, IT, human resources and administrative staffing placements. Our services also include recruiting for administrative, professional and management roles. If you are a job candidate that would like to leverage our decades of staffing agency experience, reach out! Submit your resume via our website, or call us at 717-560-2111 for more information.