Are You A Hireable Candidate?

Are you a hireable candidate or a placeable candidate?

In the eyes of a recruiter, there is a difference between being a hireable job candidate and being a placeable job candidate.

A hireable candidate is someone who most likely will get a job at some point and is hireable for a particular position but who might not be able to get a job through a recruiter.

A placeable candidate is a person who can get a job through a recruiter. Specifically, a recruiter will think of you as a placeable candidate if they feel strongly that they can place you in a new job.

In other words, a company will pay a recruiter to place this person in their company.

A recruiter gets paid when one of their client companies hires a job candidate that the recruiter sent to them.

Quite simply, a recruiter will work with you only if they believe a company will pay them for hiring you.

If they don't think you are a placeable candidate, why would they work with you?

Even if you aren't using a recruiter, don't think this doesn't apply to you.

Hiring companies think the same way.

Quite simply, there are job candidates who a company will not hire through a recruiter and there are a number of reasons why.

Hiring companies are looking for valuable people to hire.

If a company is going to hire someone, they are investing in that person by agreeing to pay that person a salary, perhaps they'll pay for benefits, a bonus, expenses, etc.

In other words, they are spending a lot of money on this person.

If they hire this same person through a recruiter, the hiring company is paying all of these costs PLUS they are paying the recruiter a fee for finding this person.

If the hiring company thinks that there is a better candidate on the market that they can get for free (ie. not through a recruiter), they may be hesitant to pay a recruiter for the person they presented.

If the hiring manager has a tight staffing budget, this can really become an issue especially if the job candidate is a marginal one or is one who the hiring manager believes might be easily find for free.

A recruiter will only work with you if they believe they can get paid to help find you a job.

A hiring manager will hire you only if they feel you are worth paying.