Do recruiters prefer people who are already employed?

70%* of recruiters will run a search for candidates and check the box which says “show current”.

What this means is, if you don’t have a current job title that matches what the recruiter is searching for, you won’t appear in their list of candidates.

If you are hoping to be found by recruiters/headhunters, and are between roles, and have added an end date to your most recent role then you will not be found when this kind of search is run.

To get around this:

– Go to your Experience Section.

– Click on the + button to add new experience

– In the job title add in the role you are going for (NB you can add multiple roles here, up to a total of 100 characters – just add something to separate the titles, each one would be found in a search – the order doesn’t matter)

– In employer name – type something like “seeking next opportunity” – be aware of any companies that have been set up with a name like this.

– Go down to description and add some text outlining that you are looking for your next role. Think about the kinds of things that role will be doing, and add some examples of when you’ve done that in previous roles.

– Add a start month and year

– Save

My headhunter contacts tell me this is absolutely what recruiters and other headhunters recommend to be picked up in searches.

* My headhunter contacts tell me this is a realistic estimate of how many people would click the “current” filter.