Recruiters legit? Forum

[lagamemnon]

I'm well into my second year and have been getting a lot of recruiter calls and emails. How can I tell who's worth reaching out to? Googling never turns up any meaningful reviews.

Those who successfully used recruiters: did you use recruiters who cold called you? Or those recommended to you by other lawyers?

Thanks, hope you're all finding some space to breathe.

[nealric]

I'm well into my second year and have been getting a lot of recruiter calls and emails. How can I tell who's worth reaching out to? Googling never turns up any meaningful reviews.

Those who successfully used recruiters: did you use recruiters who cold called you? Or those recommended to you by other lawyers?

Thanks, hope you're all finding some space to breathe.

Are you actually looking to lateral? Seems like deciding on a recruiter before you have a job in mind is putting the cart before the horse. In general, I'm not a fan of recruiters. They significantly increase the firm's cost to hire you. Only exception would be recruiters from a company looking to fill a specific position in the company (rare to have a junior cold called for something like this).

If you do decide to use a recruiter, I'd ask friends at other firms for recommendations and be very careful who you give a resume to. A bad recruiter can do horrible things for your job prospects by spamming your resume over town. Or worse, can end up leaking to your firm that you are looking.

[Anonymous User]

It doesn’t sound like you really want to move yet. I’ve never seen any benefit to talking with recruiters just to get a sense of the market generally - you won’t get any information from them that’s particularly insightful and will just get deluged with calls/emails. IME, recruiters are only a component of any successful job search - they get leads by hitting up HR managers, hiring partners, or former candidates to see whether they have a need and so their usefulness is limited to whatever network they have. Almost always, that means law firms. If you are looking for something a little more specific, better off just contacting the employer directly or trying to network into that job, especially if you have a connection there.

I second the poster above - never send them your resume unless you intend for them to submit and never let them just blanket submit unless they have a specific job in mind that they can describe on a phone call. Also, if they offer to “blind profile” you, make sure that you specifically know what they are going to say. Especially in smaller markets/more specific practice groups it would be pretty easy to out you with even a school/firm rank/practice area type of profile.

[Anonymous User]

You can definitely get a job working with them. They are not all scammers. I second the advice that you should ask friends for referral. Before you decide to use a recruiter, tap your network - internal referrals work the best IME.

[lagamemnon]

I should have been clearer in the original post--I am looking to move to another firm. It sounds like people are saying that while some recruiters are good, it's hard to know which will help and which will spam your resume to your detriment without talking to people who have used them. Does that sound right? Would career services at the law school I went to be able to help distinguish between good and bad recruiters?