Learn How Recruiters Operate
In many countries, job seeking candidates can use a recruiter, an agency or a headhunter to find vacant jobs for them, to set up interviews or even to be placed in a job. This is generally not the case in Denmark
Most medium sized and large companies in Denmark employ their own recruiters to handle the entire recruitment process – they write job ads, advertise jobs, search for candidates via CV databases and LinkedIn, select candidates for interviews, conduct the interviews and help with onboarding of new employees.
You can find headhunting and recruitment agencies in Denmark. Most of them are hired by companies to help find a good candidate for a vacant job. The company pays the headhunting or recruitment agency to write the job ad, publish the job ad, search for candidates and perhaps provide screening tests - e.g. personality tests, skills assessment tests, and/or cognitive tests. The final interview will be done by the hiring manager of the company.
Jobseekers are not requested to pay for any services as the recruiter will get paid by the company if they fill a position.
Please note! You may find agencies in Denmark that provide services such as job seeking advice, or writing your CV, or similar services which you have to pay for.
Let the recruiters find you
If you want to be noticed by a recruiter or a hiring manager, you might want to take some of these steps:
- When you apply for a job, you can help the recruiter by targeting your CV to the specific requirements of the job, and you can use the cover letter to explain your motivation for the job. In short – the recruiter has a problem, a vacant job, and you have to explain that you are the solution, you can do the job.
- Make yourself visible and create a good profile on LinkedIn. Please remember that you can get some great tips on how to create a searchable and noticeable profile on LinkedIn in our e-learning module: "Using LinkedIn in your Job Search And Professional Network"
- Follow companies on LinkedIn you are interested in and comment on their content or news.
- Connect with persons employed at companies with a similar profile as yourself and ask for advice – e.g. you can state that you are interested in finding a job in Denmark, and that you would like to hear how that person got their current job, or ask if they might have advice that they want to share with you about how they found their job.
- Post interesting and relevant content that other persons can use. If you are a recent graduate, perhaps you can share some of the findings you made from your Master Thesis, a project, an internship or the like.
If you want the recruitment agency or headhunting agency to notice you, you can contact them or register your CV on their website. They will contact you in case you match a job, but if your profile is not within their realm of business, this will be useless for you. Therefore, it is a good idea to investigate which profiles the agency typically look for, so you spend your time and energy on the agencies that are most likely to have jobs that you match.
List of recruitment agencies and headhunters in Denmark (in Danish - new tab)