The Questions You Should Be Asking Your
Finance Recruiter
When you’re working with a recruiter for the first time, it’s not always easy to understand how the process works. What kind of attention and support should you expect in the search for the right role or project? Do you know how to make the most out of the opportunity?
The finance and accounting industry is big and complex, which makes the employment opportunities vast. A recruiter can be a tremendous resource and guide in navigating the complex financial employment market, identifying the right opportunities and employers, and ensuring you are finding roles that can fulfill your ambitions. To ensure you are making the most of the recruiting partnership and you’ve found an expert who has the knowledge and skill to support your ambitions, take time to ask your finance recruiter these questions.
What Types of Roles and Employers Can You Match Me with?
Some finance and accounting recruiters will focus on consulting engagements from short to long-term project work. Others may focus on direct hire, also known as full-time placements, and some do both. Explore what areas of employment your recruiter specializes in to determine whether they can deliver the kinds of opportunities you prefer. Make it clear to your recruiter what your employment preferences are, what you are open to, and under what circumstances.
Explore the various industries the recruiter works with to understand the variety of opportunities they can put in front of you. Some recruiters narrowly focus on one industry or even for one client. Others serve a diverse range of sectors, working as a finance and accounting talent partner for all. It’s important to know how much opportunity and variety your recruiter brings to the table.
One good strategy is to ask for a list of employers where they have placed professionals with your specific skills. This is a good way to assess the strength of their network and if their placement record aligns with employers, industries and opportunities that interest you.
How Can You Help Me Meet My Flexibility Goals?
Flexibility and work-life balance have risen to the top of the list of job requirements for many candidates. Finance recruiters today have to be adept at helping financial professionals and accounting experts find employers and/or consulting projects that match those needs. From remote work to hybrid roles to on-site jobs with flexible schedules, employers of all sizes and sectors offer flexible options. Work with your recruiter to determine what kinds of flexibility you want and what roles to filter out based on workplace arrangements.
Another important consideration around flexibility in remote work is whether the arrangement could change. Many employers, plenty in the finance and accounting sectors, have adapted to allow for more hybrid and remote work. However, a growing number of employers want workers back in the office for more time. Work with your recruiter to determine the long-term flexibility plan. Could circumstances change and, if so, how much flexibility would be lost?
What’s the Typical Placement Timeline for Accounting and Finance Jobs?
Recruiters are often equally, if not more, focused on time-to-placement than you are. They want to fill jobs efficiently because they are compensated by every job filled. That is a good thing if your recruiter’s speed does not negatively impact the quality of the service or opportunities they deliver.
Ask your recruiter to outline the phases of the recruitment and placement life cycle and how long it typically takes. A good process should include:
- A good amount of discovery time to assess and package your career goals and job requirements
- Employer and opportunity searches and matching
- Interview preparation, support, and scheduling
- Offer negotiation
- Onboarding, if it’s a project or consulting position
- Ongoing support if it’s a project or consulting position
Good jobs and great matches between employers and professionals do take time. On average, you should expect a fast recruitment life cycle for full-time jobs or long-term projects to last between three to five weeks. A longer cycle for management level jobs or sophisticated positions with hard-to-find skills should take six to ten weeks. C-level roles can take two to five months depending on the size of the organization and the reach of the role.
For Accounting and Finance Consulting Roles and Project Engagements: Who is the Employer?
If your recruiter is presenting only consulting or project-based roles, be sure to determine who the employer is. In most cases, the recruiter’s firm serves as the consulting firm to the client. In that case, you are a W-2 employee of the firm. Your pay, benefits, and perks are also generally provided by the firm. When you understand the employment relationship, be sure to analyze the benefits package to see if any of your job requirements, such as healthcare, flexibility, PTO, or retirement investment, are affected. Questions to address your employment package should include:
- Who provides my benefits (or are there benefits)?
- Is PTO or any kind of leave offered?
- Who determines work hours (schedule) and number of hours worked per day/week?
- For remote work, do time zones affect work hours and expectations?
- Who helps me navigate issues on the job (difficulties with managers, questions about getting resources or support needed, etc.)
- What happens next when my engagement ends?
- Will I have to fill out timesheets?
How can I (the Job Seeker) Make This Relationship Successful?
While the recruiter’s job is to support your career goals, work relationships of all kinds are more effective when there is collaboration and alignment. Ask your recruiter what you can do to increase the chances of success in finding the right role. For example, highly narrow requirements and expectations will limit your possibilities. At Sayva, we encourage finance and accounting candidates to cast a wide net. The more open you can be to various employers, sectors, titles, and roles, the more opportunities will come. Finance and accounting are professions that touch every industry and businesses of all sizes. That alone offers a lot of opportunities. The more candidates are willing to look at the many possibilities, the more chances for success, satisfaction, and exploration they have.
Embrace the Journey and the Guidance
Once you understand the recruiter’s role and yours, then it’s time to let the process work. Enjoy the extra insight and guidance a recruiter provides and stay open to the many and varied doors an accounting/finance employment expert can open for you. To connect Sayva and our accounting/finance employment experts for recruiting and career advice go to www.sayvasolutions.com/talent/.
