You’re having a bad day at work, and you get this email from a recruiter holding the promise of a higher paying, more exciting job. What do you do? If you’re curious, it’s actually not that hard to start checking it out. The first thing to explore is the person sending you the “opportunity”, (i.e., the recruiter). Forbes recently ran an article with five good questions to ask a recruiter you’re just getting to know.

1. What is the salary range for the position you’ve contacted me about?

2. If I send you my resume as you’ve requested, when will I hear from you next?

3. You have contacted me about a position that your client is trying to fill. What was it about my background that got you to contact me? Which aspects of my career history make you feel that I might be a good fit for this job?

4. How many positions did you or your firm fill for this particular employer over the past year?

5. What is the short job description for the open position you’ve contacted me about, and why is the job open right now?

In many polls, the number of people who claim to be open to exploring a new job is as high as 70% of the workforce, depending on the poll and the wording. Sometimes bad days are only that, but if they start stacking up then it might be time to do more than respond to recruiters. It might be time to go after one in your industry and start building a relationship.

About NextGen

NextGen is the brainchild of longtime telecom professionals with nearly 50 years of experience and millions of dollars in Telecom Recruiting Services. We focus on establishing long term relationships with our clients and candidates so we can recruit the best and the brightest in the telecom industry. This ‘quality over quantity’ approach is at the heart of everything we do and has resulted in successful job placements at Fortune 1000 firms worldwide.