What to expect when you bring OPUS into your life
Although no statistics support this fact, it is incontrovertible. There comes a time in every food scientist’s career when he or she takes stock of the status quo and calls an industry-specific placement consultant.
Whether you’re an employer seeking staff to augment your division, or you’re a scientist seeking a better opportunity, your first call should be to OPUS International.
Regardless of the reason that impels you to call OPUS, you can be assured that we are true placement professionals dedicated to furthering your career in the food industry. We respect the fact that your company and your position are precious.
Talking the talk
Before we get down to business, let’s make sure we’re speaking the same language. An “employer” or “client” is a company or individual who purchases recruiting services; a “candidate” is a person who expresses interest in making a career move. An executive recruiter will answer to “placement consultant” and even “headhunter,” but please restrain the impulse to call us “body snatchers.”
OPUS, like all professional recruiters, is an agent of, and is remunerated by, our client companies. Candidates never pay us a fee, as they might to an “employment agency.”
The recruiter-employer relationship can be either a “contingency” or a “retained” association. In the first instance, we work for our client without compensation until a candidate has been offered – and has accepted – a position. In a retained association, the client contracts and pays us to conduct a search, whether or not our candidate is hired as a result of that search.
Walking the walk
Following is a brief view of what you can expect when you invite OPUS to be your partner in the advancement of your Food Science career.
First, whether you are a client or a candidate, you are assured of complete confidentiality if that is what you want. Sometimes employers conducting a sensitive search ask us not to reveal their identity in a first contact with potential candidates. However, the company name is a major asset when we talk to candidates about opportunities, and it should be revealed as soon as possible.
If you’re a candidate, whether recruited or coming in from the cold, you have every right to expect confidentiality from the outset. OPUS International will never, ever broadcast a résumé, nor even mention a candidate’s availability to an employer, without the candidate’s knowledge and consent. (From a practical standpoint alone, why spend time arousing Company X’s interest in you if you have no desire to work there?)
Your best safeguard, when you decide to become a candidate, is to limit your contacts with recruiters — ideally to OPUS and, perhaps, one other. Have a phone or in-person conversation with each recruiter you’re considering. Form a “partnership” only with those with whom you have genuine rapport.
Clients and candidates alike have the right to expect diligence, responsiveness, and efficiency from OPUS and all other recruiters. Some explanation, however, is in order. Whenever OPUS agrees to conduct a search for a client, we begin to work immediately. But any search is going to take a certain amount of time. After all, we pride ourselves on finding exactly the right person for the job.
Candidates, too, must realize that it takes a certain amount of time to receive feedback from company hiring managers. Certainly, we do everything possible to ensure a quick response.
Whether you’re a candidate or a client, we’d love to hear from you!