Wouldn't it be great if the ideal job could somehow find you?

Employment agencies (also called staffing firms, staffing agencies, recruiters, headhunters) make that happen every day. Companies pay our recruiters to find the best possible people for the jobs they need filled. If one of those jobs is in your wheelhouse, we do everything we can to help you get it.

Understand that recruiters don’t find jobs for people—we find people for jobs.

You can't hire a recruiter to find you a job. That's not how it works. Instead, we work for the employers who hire us to find people with specific skills and qualifications, because, for a variety of reasons, it’s easier for them to pay us than to try to find those people themselves. 

An employer doesn’t call us and say, “Find me an account executive.” She’ll say, “Find me a full-time account executive with an MBA and at least three years’ experience in advertising—oh, and it’d be great if they speak German or French.”

Or: “Find me a certified project manager with Basecamp experience, who can work on-site in Brooklyn 20 hours a week, on a contract-to-hire basis.”

Why so specific? Because hiring costs money and training can cost far more than that. The better you fit the position—and the less training you need—the faster you’ll make a positive contribution to a company’s bottom line.

So employers don’t hire us to send them a bunch of people who “sort of” fit their request or who could do the job if given the chance. They hire us to send them the 3 or 4 people who fit as specifically as possible.

Don’t just sit there.

So what does that mean for you as a jobseeker?

Well, for one thing, it means you can’t just sign up with us, then sit back and wait for us to find you a job.

But it also means you can make it easier for us to recommend you by staying in touch with us, regularly checking our job postings, tracking news and trends in your industry, and keeping your profile current.

Here’s how you can stay on our radar screen:

• Be flexible about where, when and how long you can work.
• Expand your skills—take a class, master new software, or finish that certification.
• Update your profile and resume whenever you’ve added something new that highlights your skills or makes you more marketable—new training, a new certification, a published article or blog post, an award or a noteworthy assignment.
• Have an online portfolio—if you’re a creative—and keep it current.
• Update your contact information and availability whenever they change.
• Make it easy for us to present you as an ideal candidate, and we’ll do everything we can to get you a job.

We’ll help you get the interview—and the job.

And that means more than just calling you when you match a job description.

We want you to be the best candidate you can be, and when we recommend you to an employer, we want you to nail the interview. That’s why we offer our job seekers, completely free of charge:

• Hearing about jobs that are not posted online
• Resume-writing assistance if you are being considered for one of our jobs
• Interview coaching before we send you on an interview
• Salary negotiation advice or direct negotiation on your behalf

When you get a job we’ve recommended you for, everyone’s happy. The employer hires the best person for the job, you get a job that’s ideal for you, and we get paid.

And that’s how employment (also called staffing) agencies like the WunderLand Group work.

Editors note: This article was originally published in June, 2015 and has been updated for relevancy.