We can all apply for jobs with employers, sell our own house and even compose a will. So why in the world would we need Recruiters, Realtors and Lawyers? There are plenty of amazing free online tools like Linkedin, Craigslist and even 369,000,000 Google results for “Sell your home Free”.
These are the biggest transactions in our lives, and working with an expert can only help when making a huge transaction that we do only a handful of times in our lives. Take the value of a home; at an initial cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, 25 years of interest payments and thousands in annual maintenance, taxes and utilities. Canadians purchase an average of 5 homes in a lifetime, where a good realtor will help at least a dozen people buy and sell a home every year. A great realtor will have expertise in a specific market where they have excellent knowledge about home values, neighborhoods and excellent relationships with other realtors, banks, house inspectors and mortgage brokers.
Some Canadians are brilliant and don’t have enough to do in their day job and may do a good job selling their own condo. There are other Canadians who would use that time learning to sell a house and energy to take courses to enhance their career or work extra to a promotion. Making investments in one’s career can pay off year after year, where learning to sell a condo in downtown Vancouver might not help three years later, when you get new job offer and have to sell your detached house in Richmond.
The same could be said for working with a recruiter. A top recruiter from a good employment agency should be placing at least a dozen people a year in positions they specialize in. This specialization should mean that they have helped negotiate a lot of job offers for position’s that are similar such as for our candidates Industrial Electricians, E&I Supervisors and Maintenance Managers. They should know the maximum amount you can negotiate from Salary Surveys they have and know the averages for the industries they recruit for like Mining, Manufacturing and Utilities. A recruiter should have excellent relationships with hiring managers, supervisors and recruiters in the provinces and communities you are considering relocating to.
Yes, there are Realtors and Recruiters that are “jacks of all trades” trying to handle any type of business that comes their way but really these professionals are “masters of none”. A good professional specializes, gains expertise over years and can provide value that pays off for clients year after year. A great career move can pay off in thousands or tens of thousands a year, making your career moves worth hundreds of thousands. Why wouldn’t you use a professional?