Six reasons not to share your CV across multiple Recruitment Agencies

Looking for a new role can be challenging. Especially if you’re already pulling a 40+ hour week, have stacks of life commitments, a list of things to do that only seems to get longer and longer, not a whole lot of time, and countless other circumstances that obstruct your progress.

Sure, you can search Indeed, Totaljobs, and Supply Chain Online and scroll through listing after listing, hoping that you’ll somehow strike gold and find a job that mirrors your qualifications, experience, remuneration, benefits, and all the other criteria to make you click the link and throw your hat into the mix. But isn’t that just shooting fish in a barrel?

A solid, results-driven job hunt is about finding the right job for you. It’s more than a CV, a reference, or a location. It’s about your personality, skills, career goals, and the future as much as the present. What you want and what you need. And so much more.

Now, when you break it down like this, it sounds simple, right? But like anything else that’s rewarding in life, there’s more to it than that. You need to put in the effort and make the right decisions. Not go about finding a new job in a haphazard way.

The bottom line is this: if you want to find the right job, you need to work with a recruiter that knows what they’re doing. Has the right contacts, the right clients.

Now, sure, it’s tempting to spread a wide net. Enlist several agencies at once to help you find a new role. But this doesn’t automatically guarantee success. Surely a better approach would be to enlist a recruiter who can find the right job for the right person, right?

Interested in learning more about why you should be selective with the agencies you share your CV with? Below is a list of five reasons to be selective with the agencies you partner with to find the perfect role.

A finger on the pulse of the job market

Let’s say you send your CV to five agencies. They each get in touch, eager to set up a meeting to learn more about you. You think great! I’m getting somewhere. Five agencies, five in-person or video calls. One of them is bound to have a position for you.

But here’s the rub. Recruitment agencies don’t dictate the market. If there are limited roles because of, let’s say, an economic downturn, a flatlined sector, or a hiring freeze, there’s not much you can do.

However, if you build up a solid relationship with one agency, let’s say, for argument’s sake, it’s LME, and they have a great relationship with Port One Logistics Park, that agency—LME—will know of recruiting needs immediately, or better yet, may be able to anticipate what positions will need to be filled in the weeks and months before they go live.

The result? Your relationship with a recruiter has helped you score an opportunity before anyone else!

The same CVs won’t inspire different results

No employer wants to sift through tonnes and tonnes of CVs for one role. Employers also rarely act favourably when they receive candidate CVs when they’re not even recruiting! Then there’s, arguably, what employers find even more frustrating: having to sift through countless candidate CVs with little to zero relevance to the role they’re recruiting for.

Then there’s the cardinal sin recruiters make; sending the same candidate CVs over and over again. Employers who reject a candidate once are highly unlikely to rethink their decision the second time around. That’s the definition of insanity, right? Doing the same thing and expecting different results!

In this day and age, or any day and age really, CV blasts don’t work. In fact, it has the opposite effect of what they intend. Employers may automatically dismiss candidate CVs sent from one recruiter out of hand. The result? Damaged recruitment agency reputation, and candidates not even getting a fair shake for roles that they may be suited to!

LME take great care in matching the right candidates with the right roles. We won’t send unsolicited candidate CVs. We focus on matching quality candidates with the right roles, helping employers in the shipping and logistics sectors to source skilled candidates who will add real value to your business.

Agencies may prioritise getting candidates into a role quickly instead of getting you into the right role

Stop if this sounds familiar. You’re working with an agency. One you hope will help you achieve your goals. You’re speaking to your contact, and they casually ask you if you’ve had any contact with another agency. You’re honest, and you replied yes.

The agency could then assume two things:

• They’ve got competition.
• You’ll likely be loyal to the recruiter who pitches you the better opportunity quicker

This can be a problem. Why? Well, for one, assume that recruiters talk to one another. They know which candidates are working with different recruiters. This can make their lives more difficult.

Some agencies may even decide to prioritise candidates that they are most likely to find roles for. After all, that’s their job. The result? Certain candidates may find agencies pitching them several roles, often not the role they’re looking for to put them in a job and retain their business.

At LME, we take the opposite approach. We match the right candidate with the right role. In short, we don’t waste candidate’s time. We focus on building long-term relationships. Securing the right role at the right business.

Send your CV to one agency. Preferably one, like LME, who has solid, established client relationships with leading players in the logistics and shipping sectors, and you’ll bolster candidate chances of finding just the right role.

Reputation, reputation, reputation

Like any sector, businesses carry reputations. Some are good. Others are not so good. That’s the reality of the game.

Imagine you’re a major player in the logistics and shipping sectors. You’ve been in the game for decades. I worked with different recruiters. Some good. Others have caused you headaches by sending you candidate after candidate who just doesn’t fit your vacancy profiles. It’s happened so often that you’re beginning to wonder if the recruiter has any real interest in or knowledge of what you need.

Now look at this scenario from a candidate perspective. Candidates don’t know if the recruiters they place their faith in have poor relationships with employers in the sector. All they know is that they want or need a job.

Sharing your CV with recruiters who have a poor reputation or with several different recruiters hinders any chance you may have of finding, not just that ideal role, but any role at all! Why? Employers may instantly disregard any profiles or CVs of candidates sent by recruiters with poor reputations or those whose CVs and profiles they’ve seen time and time again.

Surely it’s better to choose a recruiter with a solid reputation and a strong client base, right? Clients who see that candidates are represented by a trustworthy recruiter are likely to want to learn more about them. It’s that simple.

A better candidate relationship reaps rewards in the long run

Let’s face it, candidates don’t want to get in touch with recruiters in the hope that they will find any job. They want to start building relationships that they hope will result in finding a job that’s just right for them. And they don’t want to sit by the phone for weeks on end waiting for recruiters to call.

This isn’t a particularly focused or productive way to find the ideal role. Candidates can’t take the approach of having as many irons in the fire as possible, just hoping that one recruiter will work some magic to find them their perfect role. Job hunting doesn’t work like this. Recruitment agencies cannot magic jobs out of thin air.

As the weeks and months go by with little or zero contact with recruiters, candidate frustration can set in. Heck, candidates might even give up on one or more of the agencies ever finding them the role they’re looking for.

Also, there are few things more disheartening to job seekers than feeling like they’ve not been given a fair chance. However, perhaps it’s because the agencies candidates partnered with don’t believe them to be a priority.

However, when candidates choose to work with one recruiter to build that relationship and highlight their confidence in the recruiter, the odds are that this relationship will prove fruitful. Candidates will find just the role they’re looking for.

Don’t forget that clients who receive the same CV from different recruiters, each with their own process, may judge those recruiters to not be able to find them top talent. This may even result in clients losing confidence in their preferred candidate recruiters, and this could jeopardise candidate’s chances of landing that stellar road, even though they’re not at fault.

Bigger isn’t always better

Okay, so let’s suppose that you need a job. You send your CV to all the major recruitment players in your sector. They get in touch, are keen to work with you, and are set to work finding you the job you want.

There’s just one problem with that. Big recruitment agencies have more clients. More candidates. And they may not be as committed to getting you the right job as they are to getting you any job. They simply don’t have limited time. Maybe even candidates who they’d be able to find roles for quicker and easier. This is just the reality of their commercial model.

Candidates would be better off partnering with a reputable agency that can offer that personal touch. A recruitment agency that focuses on matching candidates with the role they want. This is exactly what LME does.

What would you prefer: to be just another name and CV in a pile or a candidate who’s valued by a recruiter who takes the time to build that relationship and find you just the role you’re looking for?

We know which one we’d choose.

Be selective, and you’ll be successful.

When looking for a new role, it can be tempting for candidates to cast a wide net. Get several recruitment agencies engaged. But, as we’ve seen, this isn’t always the best approach.

Choose a recruiter like LME who cares about you, about finding you a role that you’ll be happy with and excel in, who has the client relationships to make this happen, who knows about stellar roles before they’re even opened to Joe Public, and you’ll find yourself in a strong position to be successful.

If you’re looking for a role in the logistics and shipping sectors, we at LME want to hear from you. Send us your CV today and start your relationship with us.