Making a career switch in the language services industry can be a complex process to undertake alone

With an ever-growing community of agencies, M&A activity consolidating the commercial landscape and new opportunities on the client side springing up as the localization strategies of high-growth companies mature, even finding the right companies to talk to can be a challenge, let alone the right role and fit.

Add to that a variety of multi-round interview schedules, dead-end and mis-matched processes, misaligned offer negotiations… a job search can quickly turn into months of distracting and stressful effort.

Whilst working with a professional recruiter is often seen as a great way to get the ‘introductions’ to active hiring managers in the market, candidates who build a strong partnership with their recruiter can hugely improve their overall experience and get much more out of working together than a simple introduction.

Savvy candidates put their recruiter to work on their behalf, and collaborate to secure faster processes, actionable feedback, cleaner negotiations and a better end result: the best role for their skills, interests and financial goals that the market has available.

Here are a few ideas on how candidates in the language services industry can get maximum benefit from working with a recruitment specialist:

• Managing feedback and identifying areas of improvement – throughout each round of interview discussions, a strong recruiter will be debriefing with both candidate and hiring company to provide feedback, ensure key questions are on the discussion agenda and help both sides to advance a productive dialogue. Undertaking an interview process solo can mean moving through interview rounds with zero feedback or insight into what the hiring team’s thoughts, concerns and motivations might be.

• Setting time expectations – much of the frustration in an interview process can stem from a stop-start rhythm as everyone tries to juggle busy schedules. Recruiters can keep candidates notified about time-frames, any likely delays, and ensure that all parties know exactly where they are in a process so that they can manage their career search with confidence.

• Providing key insight – Adaptive Globalization has recruited within the language services industry for over ten years, and our recruiters offer candidates valuable intel on how to approach interview processes, details on hiring companies and individual hiring managers. A good recruiter will be able to brief candidates on interview formats, interviewer styles and preferences and guide a candidate to deliver a standout performance that truly represents their potential and capabilities to the hiring company.

• Managing expectations – negotiating is a major part of any process, and it’s not just salary. Benefits, vacation, pension, job title, flexible working, promotion time-frames… it’s all part of a complex conversation, and nothing is more frustrating than reaching the end of a long interview process only to be disappointed with the final offer. Professional recruiters are there to re-qualify expectations on both sides at every stage, ensuring that nobody invests time in mis-matched opportunities.

The recruitment industry is an introduction business, and Adaptive’s network helps hundreds of translation and localization industry professionals each year find their next career step. But the introduction really only scratches the surface in terms of what we are able to provide candidates in their job searches.

Remember, your consultant is there for you throughout the entire process, there are many ways that you can get the most out of recruiter at Adaptive Globalization outside of the introduction to a hiring manager, I encourage you to use as many as possible!