This means having up to date solid, well written profiles on all the major business networks.

If you are actively job seeking you may wish to work with specific secretarial employment agencies and post your CV on appropriate jobs boards.

2. Secretarial Recruitment agencies will use keywords to match you with secretarial vacancies. This means writing your CV with searches in mind. What is your target secretarial job? What keywords does that entail?

3. It is always in a secretarial employment agencies best interest for you to get a job. This is in your favour so work it to your advantage to make secretarial recruitment agencies to work hard for you.

4. You can ask a secretarial recruitment agencies to present you directly for secretarial jobs if you are having problems getting any resolution or feedback from HR.

5. Secretarial Recruitment agencies will use an MPC or most placeable Candidate to open doors to new business. This means a versatile, good all round, solid secretarial jobs Candidate that they can use to market business and introduce into several different secretarial companies at once. Make it easy for secretarial employment agencies by offering to be anonymously marketed to open doors. This will get your CV in front of lots of people, and good MPCs are more likely to get placed.

6. Secretarial recruitment agencies are paid by the Client. They have the Clients interests first and not yours! EVER....

Secretarial employment agencies pre-interview you without you knowing. That friendly little chat as they are presenting an opportunity is when they are measuring you up in line with secretarial jobs. They also judge you personally too, so beware of spilling the beans and being too honest.

7. Secretarial employment agencies makes their money from introductions. So don't try to force the Company name out of them without good reason/buy in/commitment, you are getting their back up, there is a certain amount of trust involved. You should respect their professional position as an introductory agent. If they do not follow these procedures they cannot make any money.

8. Secretarial employment agencies always have a very close relationship with the hiring company, for example, they may even have to sign NDA (non disclosure or secrecy agreements) because they get to know company plans, secrets, competition, issues and strategies. There are times when secretarial recruitment agencies are even treated as an extended part of the team during the hiring phase. So every super honest comment you tell your recruiter can go directly back to the hiring manager, as a pure unedited raw, sound bite.

Secretarial employment agencies make decisions for the hiring company.

Not everyone realises this but most Candidates are declined by the Recruitment agency before they are even presented. So getting past them is your first hurdle. Secretarial recruitment agencies have the power to decline a Candidate even in the later stages of the a hire. Often if they learn damaging information about you during the process it is best to decline a candidate than look bad to their Client. Their Client will normally trust their judgement too.

9. They measure how keen you are for secretarial vacancies.

You may think its enough to be enthusiastic directly to the Client, but the Recruiters job is also to tell the Client how enthusiastic you are for the secretarial job. So you need to keep them sweet too.

10. They will judge and report back your professionalism to the Client.

Speaking as an experienced secretarial recruiter, I have had Candidates put me on hold while they finish painting the bedroom before now. I have had e-mails from Candidates that include hundreds of spelling mistakes. Needless to say they never got an interview for a secretarial job with me!

11. A recruiter can tell a motivated secretarial jobs applicant a mile off.

They do recruitment, all day every day. They know people who are paying lip service to a secretarial job application walking the walk and they know the ones who are truly committed.

12. It is a secretarial recruitment agencies job to measure buying signs for a secretarial job.

13. Secretarial recruitment agencies will only ever work as hard as you.

Recruiters prefer an easy life – that means working with highly motivated Candidates first and foremost.

14. Lesser recruiters will submit your CV for a role and you will never know.

Beware of unprofessional standards amongst recruiters. Go for specialist secretarial recruitment agencies or from a recommendation for a colleague who is a secretary.

15. Lesser recruiters will try to fit a square peg into a round hole by shoe horning you into a secretarial job you don't suit just to make up numbers. Don't allow them to, it's a time killer and dilutes your professionalism.

16. Lesser recruiters advertise dummy jobs to generate high calibre CVs and industry contacts. It's dishonest, and reflects badly. If a job sounds made up you can normally tell. Really generic secretarial job descriptions and round numbers for the salary scales etc. If you have reason to doubt a role exists call in for more information before you send your resume.

17. Secretarial Recruitment agencies know the employment market inside and out and can advise you.

They are normally very reluctant to do so, cos they don't get paid for it, but by getting a good relationship with them you can get hold of inside info.

18. Most secretarial recruiters are lazy

Even if they see a mediocre CV they will probably not tell you or give you constructive feedback, it takes time and again they don't get paid for it. That means troubleshooting your CV is down to you alone.