One or the Other

What you need determines where you turn

When you’re seeking a job, you need all the help you can get. This is especially true for the older job seeker. To be sure, there is a cornucopia of help out there for those who are willing to go out and find it.

For job seekers of any age, help is where you can find it. Friends. Relatives. Colleagues. Former co-workers. Former vendors and other contacts. The list goes on.

In addition, there is professional help such as that found through government agencies and libraries. There are also job coaches and recruiters. But what’s the difference?

How does one choose between a job coach and a recruiter? The simple answer is this: a job coach assists you in your overall job search – tactics, techniques, strategies, etc.; while the recruiter’s focus is on the specific job. Look at it this way: the job coach deals with the general, and the recruiter deals with the specific.

Division of labor

Of course, which one you need depends entirely on your situation. If you haven’t had to search for a job in a long time and you don’t know where to start, you may benefit from the expertise that a job coach can offer. This can include help preparing your resume, drafting cover letters, interview techniques, strategies as to how to best use LinkedIn – including help writing your LinkedIn profile – etc. A thorough job coach may even help acquaint you with resources that may help you uncover potential target companies in specific industries.

A recruiter, on the other hand, is primarily concerned with placing you in a particular job. To that end, a recruiter also may provide some resume and LinkedIn assistance. But typically it’s with one company, or one job in mind. Remember: in most cases recruiters are paid by the companies to fill specific positions. It’s the recruiter’s job to funnel as many qualified candidates to the employer as possible – with the thought that one of them will be selected to fill a specific job opening.

Regardless of what you need – whether it’s generic resume writing, or specific to a job interview techniques, there is help out there at every turn.

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