Managing Multiple Recruiters and Why

By far the most frequent question we receive on this site is:

“Is it really that important to work with multiple recruiters?”

To us, the answer is an emphatic YES!

Now, if you really enjoy working with one particular recruiter there is nothing wrong with doing that.  My first recruiter wooed me for nearly 3 years before we took our first travel job with her.  She built a recruiter relationship with me before Ellen and I had even begun dating.  But just because I had this great working relationship with one recruiter it did not mean that I ONLY worked with her.

Control

One of our main goals in beginning careers as travel therapists was to take back control of our professional lives. We were tired of being locked into a pay scale, begging for raises, and being told when and how much vacation we could take (we were even told with whom we could take our vacation!)

Using multiple recruiters always puts the PT in the drivers seat, instead of the other way around.

In marketing there is a tactic called the scarcity principle.  I’m sure you are familiar with it. “Limited time offer,” “Going Fast!” “Supply is running out!”  All of these are aimed at playing on our innate urge to get something when it is either limited or fleeting.  When you work with one recruiter you see one picture, and it is ONLY the picture that they choose (or are able) to show you.  This puts the agency in control of the situation.  Jobs, when only coming from one source, seem scarce and often more lucrative than they really are.

However, when you work with multiple agencies there are quite a few more jobs available because of various differences in contracts and contacts on their end, and now the only thing that becomes “Scarce” is YOU.  They compete for your business.

I do not want to sound like a miser.  We love our recruiter and have been with the same one for nearly 18 months now.  But at every new contract they know that we are talking with 2-3 others, and at every contract they bust their butts to help us find the right job, in the right place, at the right pay.  In our case, the same recruiter keeps coming through in the clutch.

80-20 Rule

The second reason why we work with multiple recruiters at all times is because of what we call the 80-20 rule. You may have heard of it before. 80% of the results come from 20% of the work, 80% of the problems come from 20% of the clients, etc. There are endless versions in every field.

For travel therapy all travel agencies have 80% of the same jobs. It is buried in the odd 20% that the real gems are found. The outpatient ortho job in some quiet surf town, the high paced neuro rehab hospital in the big city you have always dream of, you get the point.

Working with multiple agencies casts a wider net than simply using one agency. Ellen and I called 8 different agencies looking for work in Anchorage, AK during the summer of 2014. No one had any jobs until the 9th agency… they had 4!

Hopefully the thought of managing phone calls and emails from 2-3 recruiters is not too daunting for you. We often use up to 4. It has helped us to obtain jobs in towns we never dreamed that two PT jobs would be available in and at rates we NEVER thought PTs could be making. Yes it is a little extra work, but trust us, its worth it!

 

Written by: Stephen Stockhausen