Are You A Placeable Candidate?

Recruiters often classify ideal job searchers as being a Placeable Candidate or a Hireable Candidate:

Placeable Candidate: A job searcher who can be placed in a suitable position by a recruiter. In other words, this is a person who a company will pay a recruiter for referring to them. Recruiters look for the Most Placeable Candidate (MPC) for each job search they undertake. In other words, this is the ideal person for the job from all the people they have identified for the position.

Hireable Candidate: A job searcher who will get a job at some point but possibly not through a recruiter. Simply put, some job searchers are not worth paying for. Is a hiring company going to pay a recruiter thousands of dollars to find a candidate who has switched jobs several times in the past few years, has skills that are easily found, and isn’t considered to be exceptional in one area or another?

Probably not.

This person might be hireable for a specific position – if they applied for the job directly – but some hiring managers might not be willing to pay a recruiter to represent this person.

There are also candidates who recruiters won’t touch with a ten-foot pole because they simply don’t believe they can help this person find a job. These people unfortunately might be on their own as far as their job search goes.

How can you tell if you are a Most Placeable Candidate and are therefore someone a recruiter would love to work with and more importantly, that a hiring manager would want to hire?

Recruiters look for job searchers who have the following profile.

Most Placeable Candidates Have:

1. A stable work history without too much job-hopping and no unexplainable gaps in employment.

2. Marketable skills that are in demand in their industry or transferable skills required in other industries.

3. A clear progression in terms of increased responsibilities with each position they’ve held.

4. Above-average communication and presentation skills.

5. A willingness to accept relevant advice and instructions from the recruiter particularly as it pertains to interviewing with the recruiters’ client(s).

6. An up-to-date and professional-looking resume that stands out from the others.

7. .......

etc.