Unpacking 'The Recruiter'

“From east of the East-est to west of the West-est we’ve searched the whole world just to bring you the best-est.”

-       Dr. Seuss, Happy Birthday to You

Companies will usually post positions on Job Boards, and then if they struggle to find the right candidates, or if it is taking too long, then they might turn to a paid recruiter.  For some positions (often higher level or in unfamiliar geographies) they will go straight to hiring a headhunter. Sometimes this may depend on the health of the economy and/or the unemployment levels. If the hiring environment is more challenging or speed is a priority, then getting a professional sooner may be worth the money.

Recruiter.  Headhunter.  Talent Acquisition. Executive Search. There are many different titles for these professionals.  They are an integral part of the job search landscape.  However, make no mistake that this is a business for these folks.  They are at work and get paid to place people in roles by the hiring companies.  This doesn’t mean they are solely in the camp of the company, but it also means that they aren’t necessarily completely in your camp either.

These professionals typically get paid a percentage of the annual salary for the person/position that they are placing.  There can be variations, but usually it is approximately 20-30% of the hired persons annual pay, excluding bonuses.  The recruiter is incentivized to get the highest salary for the person that gets hired, but they are even more incentivized to fill the position and move on to the next one. 

The number of roles that they place each year will vary greatly.  If you are placing high level CEOs, then you might only place 5-8 roles per year.  If you are placing lower-level positions that don’t have the same salary levels then they will need to place more, but it won’t likely be more than 12-20.  The point of this is that the recruiters will be involved with a fairly limited number of searches each year.  Therefore, if you are counting on recruiters to finalize your search, you will likely need to network more broadly than you might initially think.

There are two primary types of searches with recruiters…retained and contingent.

1)         Retained: this type of search means that the recruiter has been selected and hired by the company to fill a specific position. They will get paid some money during the process and then the final installment of the money is paid once the person hired.  This means they are going to be very focused on filling this specific role and creating quality candidates for the company.  This also means that no other recruiter will likely get a shot at filling this position.  So, you need to find this specific recruiter or they need to find you.  These types of roles often will also carry a guarantee by the recruiter with them.  The guarantee is that if the person that they place in the role doesn’t work out in the first 12 months, they will usually work for free (or a deeply discounted rate) to re-fill that role.

2)         Contingent: this type of search means that the company is willing to pay a recruiter their fees, but they are not signing up one specific recruiter.  The fee for this placement might be slightly lower, but typically it doesn’t carry any guarantees with it.  This creates an interesting ‘jump ball’ kind of situation.  Any recruiter with a good candidate has a shot, but there could also be a number of candidates and none of the recruiters are solely focused on this one role. The positive is that this increases your odds of having a contact that might get wind of the search that is underway, but you both may need to work together to convince the hiring company to give you a shot.

Many of the recruiters will establish a specific focus in a geography, an industry and/or a type of position.  It’s a good idea to start to categorize them by these types of focus areas when you talk to them.  Some focus on CFO positions, others on water treatment, others on B2B sales roles, etc.  The recruiters are always in a sales type of mode, so they can connect with prospective companies that would hire them and also build up their rolodex of people that they may be able to place at some point in the future.

Long ago, the recruiter’s effectiveness was often determined by the depth of their rolodex (list of contacts) and their network in the local area. Lots of lunches, social functions, phone calls and work to build their personal data base.  There is a portion of that which still exists today and why you want to reach out to the recruiters to network and they will likely want to do the same with you.  Relationships are still significant.

The internet and job web sites (like Linked In) have started to erode the importance of the recruiter’s rolodex.  By using the correct criteria and paying for an upgraded user level on LinkedIn, a new recruiter can be quickly effective at pulling together a list of possible candidates.  However, the world is a big place, there are many terms you can search, and that list starts to become quite large.  The limitation of time and the concern for their reputation (on who they suggest to the client) will ultimately lead recruiters to lean into people they know first and then dig deeper.

Connecting with recruiters can be accomplished a few ways.  The easiest way is to always respond to any recruiters that reach out and at least have a quick conversation.  You can increase the odds of this happening by indicating that you are open to opportunities on Linked In.  You can communicate this in both a ‘hidden’ way (that is visible only to recruiters) and you can also do it in an open way for the whole world to see.  Another good method is to network with people you know and ask them for suggestions.  A third option is to dig into some industry social groups or associations.  Many of the recruiters will join and socialize in these associations to connect with the right people for future searches…and expand their network.

A final note, you should be aware that some companies do enough hiring that they bring an internal company recruiter on to their staff.  You can do some quick math and by doing more than 4-5 searches each year, a company can probably pay for this type of position.  You could argue that they won’t have the same network or focus that other ‘free agent’ recruiters might, but a deeper understanding of the company and with time and research they can be fairly effective.  They will also invest time and effort to build their network with industry contacts, so you should be as engaged with these types of recruiters as with any other.

Recruiters are a big part of the job transition market. This is a resource that you should understand, connect with and try to work.  Be aware that this is NOT the only path to a new job, and you should keep working your personal network, job boards and every other angle that is available to you.