Consider recruiters as your business partners in a very serious project – job search. Being treated this way they would feel more respectable and therefore may be helpful.
Be honest with them and speak openly about any concerns you may have regarding a potential job opportunity, so that they could help you. Of course, it depends on how professional your recruiter is. A professional recruiter always appreciates integrity of their candidates, which helps them coordinate their work properly and find the right fit.
Do not underestimate a recruiter’s importance. Recruiter is a crucial figure who at an early stage decides whether you move forward in the process or not. Nobody’s perfect and mistakes happen though.
Address to the recruiter all the question that you normally wouldn’t ask in a job interview. i.e. regarding salary/benefits or some personal characteristics of your prospective manager, the atmosphere in the company, what happened to the person who was in this job before etc.
If something didn’t work out for your and you did not receive a job, it is not a reason to burn bridges behind you. Thank your recruiter any way for their effort to help you and by all means stay in touch with them. If you do so, most likely they would think of you when other openings come about or may recommend you to their colleagues.
Do not be afraid to bother your recruiter periodically (of course, be judicious). The idea is to make your recruiter keep you in mind.
Stay in touch with your recruiter even when you’ve got a job and apparently are not in need of their service at the time being. Good recruiters as well as good candidates are hard to find and you never know when you might need their help again. Social media are at your disposal on this as well as live contacts.
The recruiter is the first person you need to persuade that you are a skilled candidate and they, using their exceptional sales skills, will find a way to sell this idea to their client. If you manage to gain your recruiter’s confidence in the first place, there is a better chance that they will help you get a job. You have to understand that they won’t present a “questionable” candidate to the client if there is something that may compromise their reputation. Interests of those who pay for the service will always prevail. That’s why they always put their clients’ interests above yours as a candidate. At the end of the day, recruiters are not a social service. Foremost, they are here not to help you find a job, but to help their clients find skillful candidates.
Feedback.
In spite of a certain percent of unemployment the job market of qualified candidates is pretty restrained. Recruiters these days clearly realize it. The way they treat their candidates has changed accordingly. If 3-4 years ago it was pretty normal that you would not hear from your recruiter after the first interview, meaning that you were probably screened out. Now, they try to stay in touch with you any way, not ruling out a possibility to consider you for future openings. If you happened not to hear from your recruiter after an interview do not hesitate to make the first move and call them. Sometimes bad news is better than uncertainty. All you need is a closure to move on. Professional recruiters must remain your business partners even if your first project did not work out.