IN-PERSON INTERVIEWS

When meeting with a recruiter face-to-face, dress neatly and conservatively. Make eye contact with people when they speak to you. In past, women were to be treated differently in workplace. This changed when etiquette expert Leticia Baldridge published her rules on business etiquette, saying that women and men should be treated same way in work place. For example, a man and a woman should shake hands same way a man and a man or a woman and a woman would. When shaking hands, offer yours at 90 degree angle with floor and don't hold just fingers or crush other person's hand with your grip. Some men may wait for a woman to extend her hand, so women interacting with a male interviewer should offer their hand first.

In course of your interviews, you may be introduced to various people in an employer's organization. You should always stand up when being introduced to someone. Even if you are too far away to shake hands, it is considered proper etiquette to stand for introductions.

CONVERSATION ETIQUETTE

When you first meet an interviewer or other people in an employer's organization, they may want to start having a casual conversation with you. The goal of small talk is to find things in common and to create a bond. It's not that important to be witty - asking questions and being a good listener is fine. You can also be prepared to share a little about yourself such as sports/athletic activities you're interested in, pets, hobbies, as this can help other person feel more comfortable opening up about themselves.

Watch out: politics and religion can be dangerous topics, especially if not handled diplomatically. If interviewer brings them up, it's fine to make comments about subject being discussed but be careful not to make categorical statements or express a very strong point of view. Under no circumstances should sex or violence be discussed because they can be very upsetting and make you come across as someone with bad judgment. Likewise, never use profanity with a potential employer/recruiter, even if you're having a jovial conversation as people often perceive those who use profanity as being less intelligent.

Imagine communication qualities of a good leader: stick to your convictions as diplomatically as possible; address conflict in a situation-related rather than person-related way.

Don't Be a Pest

While it's important to stay in touch, you also don't want to become a pest. If you haven't heard anything from one of High Probability recruiters as described above for a couple weeks, go ahead and shoot them an email to let them know you're still on market. In long-term though, you don't want job searching to be only reason you're in touch with a recruiter. Try to find out (in a phone conversation or in person) what some of their interests are. This gives you an opportunity to have something else to mention when you email them. For example, if you find out person is fanatical about college basketball, you can email them if there was a great game on TV night before.

Another way to keep up a relationship with a recruiter is to offer to be helpful to them. Networking expert Harvey MacKay has talked about how a friend of his, a former coach of Notre-Dame football team, would always end conversations by asking sincerely if there was anything he could do to be helpful. In a recruiters case, they may have hard to fill positions that you could help them with by asking your friends if they know anyone who could be a good fit. If you demonstrate your willingness to help them, they will be much more open to maintaining a relationship with you, even if they do have a hefty workload and work schedule.