How can a good recruiter help you as an individual?
A recruiter gets paid by the company they recruit for and a bulk of our work is actively targeting people for live roles within our clients business.
However, a good recruiter can also be proactive and help you explore the market as an individual.
This does not mean taking a slapdash approach and sending your CV everywhere and hoping something comes back.
An experienced consultant should also be able to use their knowledge, contacts and networks to be able to advise or enquire as to whether there may be any suitable openings on the horizon.
This is what is meant when recruiters say "mapping out the market".
This can be done strictly anonymously without naming you, the firm you work for currently or any other identifying factors.
That often results in opportunities presenting themselves to candidates that are not on the "open market" and are not being advertised on firms websites.
You can then make the decision as to whether you wish to proceed further and make an approach.
This is how a lot of firms have been able to expand their teams over the years by taking this approach. Thriving firms will always be happy to reviewing their plans and business needs for a department against a candidates skillset and experience.
If the person sounds like they would be a good addition to the team and there is a good business case to do so a lot of firms will hire proactively in this way.
Just because "there is nothing on the website" does not necessarily mean there are definitely no opportunities available.
If you are potentially looking for something new at any point then it is worth bearing in mind, rather than just keeping an eye on job boards or firms websites.