Why should career coaches and career service providers know about staffing and recruiting agencies?

Listen to this interview with an owner of a staffing agency and a top recruiter discuss why you might want to
refer a client or student to a staffing and recruiting agency.

My guests today are:

Wendy Schoen, CEO & Managing Partner of Schoen Legal Search
Cathy DeMerchant, President and Co-Owner of Capital Area Staffing Solutions

What we explore:

When might career coaches and practitioners refer their clients to a staffing or recruiting agency?

What recommendations do you have for identifying the right recruiter for the client?

This complements my blog on the same topic Read Blog

BIOS

Wendy Schoen, CEO & managing partner of Schoen Legal Search, is an example to all of the up and coming women professionals today that you can succeed in your chosen career if you want to. And if not, you can change your career, multiple times in fact, and be tremendously successful. Wendy was one of a handful of women to earn her MBA from the University of Chicago in 1980. She returned to Wall Street where she worked in investment banking through the turbulent and exciting ‘80s. Wendy made the first of her career turnarounds when she earned her law degree in 1991 from Boston University Law School. She embraced this second career by clerking and then joining a law firm.
By late 1992 Wendy knew that practicing law wasn’t for her so it was time for another career change, and she turned herself into the legal recruiter she is today. Twenty some odd years later and she is one of the top legal recruiters in New York, placing attorneys into law firms, banks, management consulting firms, and funds through her own company Schoen Legal Search. Wendy places general counsel, partners, counsel, and associates. More importantly, she has a list of connections that just cannot be beat.

Cathy DeMerchant is president and co-owner of Capital Area Staffing Solutions. Cathy and her two partners, Edward Moran and Peter E. Dunn, Jr., opened the corporate office of Capital Area Staffing Solutions, Inc. in March of 2003 in Augusta Maine, followed by their first branch, Bangor Area Staffing Solutions, in 2011. She has been in the staffing industry since 1996 and was a founding member of the Kennebec Valley Human Resource Association. Cathy has active memberships on the Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce, the National Rifle Association, the Kennebec Valley Human Resource Association, the Maine Staffing Association, the American Staffing Association, and the Society for Human Resource Management. An avid hunter, Cathy and her husband live in Vassalboro with their labs, Buck and Trapper.

Jim Peacock is the principal at Peak-Careers Consulting and writes a monthly newsletter for career practitioners. Peak-Careers offers discussion-based online seminars for career practitioners focused on meeting continuing education needs for CCSP, GCDF and BCC certified professionals as well as workshops for career practitioners and individual career coaching. He is the author of A Field Guide for Career Practitioners: Helping Your Clients Create Their Next Move

Sign up to receive my TOP 10 TIPS WHEN WORKING WITH AN UNDECIDED PERSON. You can also receive the career practitioners newsletter which includes a variety of career topics, industry news, interesting events, and more.

Staffing and Recruiting Agencies
When to refer a client or student.

staffing and recruiting agency — – – – – ANOTHER TOOL IN YOUR TOOLBOX- – – –

Career coaching is not an exact science and results can not be guaranteed. Kind of like fishing. I can take a person fishing to my favorite spots with my preferred lures, but it does not guarantee we will catch fish… it depends.

Same is true with career coaching. Many things are out of my control.

I can assign work to my client…but did they do it?
I may encourage them to network but they might make a “bad impression” not a good one (See It Cuts Both Ways)
Sometimes it just takes more time than the client expects
*You can fill in as many areas here as you’d like…there are lots of examples of things out of our control as career service providers.

I was working with a client who had taken time off to care for his elderly parents and wanted to return to the workplace. He could not go back to his past job and was ready to find new work. Very bright man. Always seemed to understand what needed to be done, but had difficulty with the networking required to find his “ideal job”. After a number of failed attempts, I suggested he contact a local staffing & recruiting agency to find work and extend his savings, while he continued his search for the “ideal job”.

Staffing agencies fill temporary, full-time, part-time, temp-for-hire, and even permanent positions. Recruiting agencies can do the same but are typically working with companies that are hiring professional and executive positions. Recruiters are always looking for talented people for specific companies and often in specific industries. Finding the recruiter that meets your client’s needs is the key to success. (Check out my interview with a recruiter and a staffing agency owner for ideas on how to do this).

Coaches and clients may want to utilize staffing and recruiting agencies but it does not replace the work we do as career coaches, it can complement our work.

Here are 8 reasons why you might refer a client/student to
a staffing and recruiting agency.

A stay at home spouse can ease back into the workforce and try different employers in the area
A temp or contract position still gives time for a person to continue the search for a full-time permanent position
It can extend a person’s savings or out-placement severance pay
Prevents a gap in their resume
Gets a person’s “foot in the door” which can often lead to full-time work
A person with few skills or experience can build skills and work experience…like a coop or internship
If a person is new to a geographic area, it is a great way to build their network and references
Recruiters specialize in specific areas and when you find a recruiter who is looking for people in the industry you want to work in, they can be real assets in your search

Remember that staffing and recruiting agencies do NOT work for the job-seeker, they work for the company hiring. It is their job to find the best candidate for the position so that the company will come back to them and ask for more referrals.

As a career coach, we need to have many “tools in our toolbox” and referring to a staffing and recruiting firm is just one of the many tools we should have available to us.

Photo credit: Pixabay / Tumisu

Jim Peacock is the Principal at Peak-Careers Consulting and writes a monthly newsletter for career practitioners. Peak-Careers offers discussion-based online seminars for career practitioners focused on meeting continuing education needs for CCSP, GCDF and BCC certified professionals as well as workshops for career practitioners and individual career coaching. He is the author of A Field Guide for Career Practitioners: Helping Your Clients Create Their Next Move

Sign up here to receive my TOP 10 TIPS WHEN WORKING WITH AN UNDECIDED PERSON. You can also receive the career practitioners newsletter which includes a variety of career topics, industry news, interesting events, and more.

INTERVIEW: Staffing & Recruiting Agencies

Why should career coaches and career service providers know about staffing and recruiting agencies?