I began working as a recruiter in 2000 around the time that the dot com bubble started bursting and shortly after companies had exceeded their Y2K budgets and had no money to hire new staff.

It wasnt the best time to be looking for a new job (especially if you were an IT professional) and it was even worse to be someone who tried to get paid to get people hired.

Working with a recruiter is a great way to supplement your job search. Obviously Im biased because Im a recruiter but the fact is that good recruiters add value and help people get jobs.

If you are going to work with a recruiter, you simply need to adhere to a few common sense rules in order to get the benefits associated with working with a recruiter. Here are the most common mistakes that people make when working with a recruiter that you should avoid doing:

1. Dont plaster your resume on every Internet job board you come across. Recruiters get paid when they introduce a suitable job candidate to a company and that person gets hired by the company. Recruiters find it difficult to help you find a job if your resume is already public domain and is easily found on the Internet by employers. Employers often use Internet job boards and generally wont pay a recruiter for a candidate who they could have found themselves so if you are planning on placing your resume online, expect that some recruiters will not work with you.

2. Dont lie. Specifically, dont lie about how much money you are currently earning, dont lie about why you left your last job, dont lie about your job title or responsibilities, dont lie about what companies youve already applied to, dont lie about the degree that you dont actually have because you are two credits short, etc. If you expect a recruiter to be honest with you, you need to be honest with them. The first time I find a job searcher lying is the last time I work with them.

3. Dont rely on a recruiter to get you a job. A recruiter gets paid by the employer not by you. Most recruiters work on contingency which means they only get paid when their client hires one of their candidates. The job of a recruiter isnt to get you a job, its to get the job filled regardless of whether its you or someone else. If you use a recruiter(s), ensure you are using them to supplement your job search not to lead it.

4. Dont work with recruiters who are incompetent. Some recruiters arent that good. Learn to tell the difference between a good one and a bad one. Signs that your recruiter is not very good:

• You live in the same city as the recruiter and they dont ask you to meet them in their office for a face to face interview
• They fire off your resume to their clients after speaking with you on the phone for only a few minutes without first meeting you or really getting to know you.
• They send your resume to companies without first asking for your permission.
• They ask you to lie on your resume to make it appear better than it is.
• They dont help you prepare for interviews and dont provide any value with regards to learning more about a company you are interviewing with.

Carl Mueller

My name is Carl Mueller and I'd like to thank you for learning a bit more about me!

I feel that I have numerous relevant experiences during my career that come in useful when helping people with their careers:

I know what it?s like to work internationally, having worked overseas (in New Zealand, from 1994-1998).

I've survived several corporate downsizings while many of my colleagues were being laid off.

I have also experienced being laid off twice myself during corporate downsizings.

I know what it?s like to be self-employed.

I've helped many people find better jobs. I started to work as a professional recruiter in 2000 first as an Information Technology (IT) recruiter and then in general recruitment across many industries including IT, manufacturing and marketing. Since this time, I have helped many people find their dream career and it?s a great feeling.

I experienced one of the slowest hiring periods in recent memory especially during the general hiring slowdown that followed the Y2K frenzy in 1999, the bursting of the dot com bubble in early 2000, and then the employment market bottoming out following September 11, 2001.

These were certainly not great times to be a job searcher in most industries nor was it a particularly good time to be a recruiter.

Following this, I began running the day to day operations of an Internet-based company in early 2003 that focused on developing online software and subscription-based websites for consumers. It was then that I fully realized the power, usefulness and potential of the Internet which really spurred me to set up my own website which you can view in my Personal URL section below this bio.

I?m also a Platinum Ezine Articles Expert as recognized by EzineArticles.com, one of the most visited websites on the Internet. This special designation is earned by having consistently high-quality articles published and viewed on their website. All of my submissions are related to helping you find your dream career and many of my articles get reproduced on other websites by their webmasters.

Good luck with your career and I hope I have been of assistance to you!