After seeing just one too many posts where someone claimed that they had called "their" Recruiter several hundred times and had no response, I thought about it and decided to put together these tips for everyone on contacting a Recruiter post-initial contact/application.
1) Patience - Recruiters are people, like any other. We have lives, take vacations etc. Quite often, we aren't in the office - WE'RE RECRUITERS! - we're on the road recruiting. We're at events, job fairs, meetings, giving presentations, answering questions, giving out business cards, working the front desk / customer service etc. We aren't going to be available to your beck and call at all times. We know that this is important to you and your life, but you have to understand that we are doing our best to help everyone.
2) Phone etiquette - Remember that Recruiters deal with dozens of people PER DAY. If you leave a message on my phone, "Hi, this is so and so (often garbelled) please call me back" ... you are not going to get a call back. I don't necessarily have the time to figure out WHO you are, go look up your file to find out your phone number and your current situation, and then call you back! Leave a brief, concise message with who you are (speak clearly, especially if you have an accent), your phone number, and what information you're looking for (again, BE BRIEF!) Basically, help us help you. Similarly, if you leave a long rambling message telling me your entire life story of how desperate you are to join because you've always wanted to be Military, ever since you were an embryo, I will move on to help the next person.
3) E-mail etiquette - PUT A TITLE ON YOUR E-MAIL! Like everyone else on the planet, I get spam. If I think it may be spam, I may inadvertently delete it. If you give it a brief title with who you are or what you want, I may be more inclined to read the whole thing. Again, I don't want your entire life story, but a brief description of who you are and what you want will suffice.
Quick note - E-mail is preferable to phone as it's more descriptive and I can make notes on it and come back to it later if I don't immediately have time to research your answer! Plus, I have no hesitation to answering an e-mail after 6pm whereas I will not call someone that late in the day.
Lastly, I again want to stress, we know this is a major life decision, life changing event to YOU, but it's also a major, life changing event to the 30 other people we're personally dealing with that week. Not to mention the 150 or so other people we casually just talk to, or meet at an event, or try to help out while in the office. The nicer you are to us, the more likely we are to WANT to go out of our way to help you get that job you're looking for!
