If you’ve signed up with numerous recruitment agencies and now you’ve been sitting around, anxiously waiting for the phone to ring or a ‘New Mail’ notification in your inbox, but no contact, then read on. There are a number of things to know about the recruiting industry and the techniques used to shortlist candidates.

First, don’t take agency rejection personally. One key thing to remember is that recruitment agencies exist to make a profit; their interests are at the center of everything they do, and not yours. Don’t get the illusion that an agent will go to great lengths to find your next career move, as you will ultimately be working hard to fill the openings on their books. Once you consider this, you won’t feel so bad when they don’t call you back. You will almost never get a call from an agent if you are not shortlisted or unsuccessful in an interview. His time is spent talking on the phone with people who will help them earn their commission, without giving him advice on how he can improve his job hunting skills.

The next thing to consider is how agents discover you as a potential candidate. They will have access to a huge database of CVs, the contents of which they would have probably purchased from one of the largest job boards, and they will use a keyword search to find candidates that match the vacancy requirements of their clients (employers). It’s not just about whether a keyword appears on a CV; it is also the frequency with which it appears. Therefore, a recruiter looking for a web developer will likely look for resumes with multiple occurrences of “Java script”, “HTML”, and “CSS” in their search. Therefore, it is not enough to briefly mention his experience. He should make sure to mention the relevant terms for his desired career change in his CV several times. It’s also helpful to have a ‘Key Skills’ section on your CV, a list of his skills that will help you gain extra hit points. Make sure that while you are aware of the need for keywords, your resume reads well and avoid “keyword stuffing.”

Once you’re happy that a CV is easy to search and has been submitted to various job sites, the worst thing a job seeker can do is sit and wait for interviews to roll in. They need to go online and start looking for vacancies, avoiding the major sites where they have already registered. Try local newspaper job sites, industry-specific sites, and direct employer websites to find job openings. In the meantime, hopefully your CV is working behind the scenes and you’ll soon be getting calls from IT recruitment agencies too.

Once you receive a call from an agent regarding a job opening, there are certain questions to ask yourself. Where did they find your CV? With whom is the opportunity? What is the package? When are you looking for an interview? If the agent has any of these pieces of information, then you should seriously consider whether or not you want to continue the call. There are a number of tricks some recruiters use to get information from job applicants that would be useful to them, such as the name of their current manager, who they know will be hiring soon.

Once aware of these practices and techniques, the job search becomes a little less arduous. By asking certain questions and avoiding unnecessary emotional turmoil from lack of contact, efforts can be focused in the right place. Ultimately, this will lead to a more effective job search.