The Recruitment Process in New York City.

How Do Companies in New York Go About Recruiting Employees From Within and Outside of New York City?

The answer to this question depends on the rank of the position you’re seeking. If you’re gunning for the middle to top management positions e.g., Purchasing Manager or Human Resources to Director for Sales & Marketing, the companies interested in your qualifications are going to go beyond the regular process to have you in for an interview. And these are normally the multi-national corporations. When they don’t have anyone in-house to fill the vacancy, these companies normally go to recruitment firms for an executive search.

Such companies would normally use several recruitment firms at once. When the firms have narrowed down the selection, the company HR director will review the recommendations of the firm and make a shortlist. When you wind up in that shortlist, that's when things get interesting. Companies will either fly you in for an interview, all expense paid, of course, or if they have regional headquarters where you’re at, they will ask you to report to someone there, or they can arrange for a video-conference to interview you. Make no mistake about it, if they want you, they have both the money and the technology to see if you are really what they truly need or want.

If you’re looking for a staff position or non-core position such as  administrative assistants, office assistants and other similar positions, company managers won’t be too concerned about your qualifications but of your ability to perform well enough to suit their needs.  However, you will be up against many individuals who are already in the New York area, and searching for jobs in a tough economy.

A very important factor that determines how you might be recruited is your current location. Obviously, recruiting someone from abroad is much more expensive than sourcing your workforce locally. New York city is home to many fine institutions, such as NYU, Columbia, Fordham, and St. John's, all producing high amounts of qualified workers. Rutger's University and Princeton in New Jersey also have many graduates hoping to work in New York.  If you are coming from one of these schools, you have a better chance of finding a job in the city.  But just because you are not feeding from one of these schools doesn't mean you have no change.  Holding all things equal, if the choice boils down to two candidates and one of them is already physically in New York, employers would go for someone already in the city. Employers often cover much, if not all expenses related or incidental to recruitment and hiring of their employees, and that being the case, companies save a whole lot of money if the candidate is already in New York.

Many job seekers go on foot from building to building, floor to floor, office to office and hand their resumes to the receptionist at each place of business they can get into. Others scour the internet and the papers for email addresses or fax numbers and send out their resumes and CVs electronically. We wouldn’t recommend that you do this, however. As it very time and resource consuming and it isn’t nearly as effective as utilizing the tools that we provide on this website.  In fact, many office buildings have front desks which can be a challenge to get past, and seeing an individual with the power to hire is slim to none.

If You’re Outside of New York City, Should You Come to New York to Look for a Job?

Whether or not it’s wise to come to New York City as a tourist or visitor to actively look for a job here is a question many people ask. Visiting New York, especially from overseas or the west coast, is not an inexpensive trip.  This is especially true for people who desperately need jobs. With the economy being weak, there is no assurance that you’ll get hired when you’re here, even if you are actively looking. While many have found success with their efforts and their investments (and gambles) have paid off, there are equally many who have failed and have gone back to their home states and countries jobless and buried in debt because of the job-hunting trip they took.

The best way, therefore, is to go halfway. What does that mean? Well, be willing to spend for a trip prior to getting hired but do so after you have previously lined up several job interviews from your current location. Again, there is no guarantee that you will be hired if you visit. However if you do, your chances of getting hired are definitely better than those who are not physically present. First, you will be in a better position to report to interviews. But to minimize your wait time and your related costs and expenses, float your CV/Resume before you fly in. Many companies actually do an initial phone interview. When you get replies, you can arrange for an interview at a future date and you can then fly in to report to your interviews and intensify your search efforts. That way, you won’t be starting from square one when you set foot in New York.