Kaye Monty

I have received several amusing phone calls and voice mails.  It was not the content that I found amusing but rather its lack of content.  A recruiter spends most of their day on the phone or meeting candidates in person.  This means hundreds of candidate interactions in a year.  If you are going to leave a message, here are some suggestions to make sure that your phone call/voicemail gets the attention that it deserves:

• Properly introduce yourself - This means leaving your full name.  Leaving your first name is not enough especially if you have a common name.  There are times when a recruiter could be speaking with multiple candidates with the same first name.
• Leave your phone number – Even if I contacted you, the digits might have been garbled or they have may have been background noise. Say the numbers slowly and leave it twice.  (A trick that I learned back in my past life as a sales person.)  I have had instances where I have had to play the message over and over to understand the numbers.
• Get to the point - State your name, the reason for the call and leave a number.  The premise seems so simple but I can not tell you how many rambling messages I have received over the years.
• Leave a message at work – If you have a choice between calling an office number and a cell phone number, then I would recommend calling the work number first especially if this is a cold call. (You have not spoken with this person in the past or you do not have a mutual acquaintance who introduced you.)  If you have a scheduled appointment but are running late, then the cell phone would be acceptable.
• No phone calls please – Some recruiters specifically write “No phone calls” please on their job postings.  This means that they do not want unsolicited phone calls.  Please respect the request.  Recruiters are often inundated with phone calls and simply can not return every single unsolicited call.  If your background is suitable for the position, then you will receive a phone call.

Good luck!