Job Recruiters....

If no one has been looking for a job recently or ever, you might not know much about job recruiters (aka headhunters). Well, if you don't know I've been looking for a job now for a few months, if not longer, and I've called on these headhunters and been called by these headhunters to get in their "network" of candidates.

This is how it works. Hiring Company: Most companies have HR departments that are responsible for facilitating the hiring of new employees. Since most companies are usually not in "full" hiring mode, they don't have huge HR departments because they can use their money in other ways rather than on large HR departments who have a lot of downtime in between hiring spikes. Due to the smaller HR departments, most companies will acquire the services of a recruiting firm (Robert Half, Winter Wyman, etc.) to supplement the HR departments. The HR departments along with the hiring managers will usually work along side each other with the recruiting firm. Most of the recruiting firms are hired without an up-front fee. These firms are usually paid on a percentage basis based on the amount of salary the hiring company is going to pay the new employee. For example: The hiring company is going to pay the new hire $100K. The recruiting firm will get 20% ($20K) as payment from the hiring company for finding a person to fill the position. Most recruiting firms have higher percentages - more in the high 20's. Most individual recruiters at these firms will then get commission from the $20K payout; although there are some recruiting firms whose recruiters are salaried not commissioned.

Companies I've worked for sometimes have multiple recruiting firms working for them in order to obtain the best coverage of qualified candidates.

Potential New Hire (me): For the candidate who is looking for a job, working with a headhunter can be a good thing or a bad thing. First off, they don't work for you. They work for the companies who are going to pay them. Now, the recruiters do have a vested interest in presenting the best candidates to the company. So if you're a good fit for the job and you present well then you're sort of a team; they're counting on you to interview well so they're candidate can get the job and they get paid and the candidate gets a new job. However, if you don't exactly fit what the company is looking for - there is nothing keeping them from not presenting you to the company in lieu of another person who is better qualified in their opinion. For the candidate this might not be so good. It's possible the employer is open to more than what's what the job description says - meaning an employee states they desire a CPA. Ok, if the recruiter is worth his salt, he or she is going to ask "why?", because there are many very qualified candidates for the job who don't have CPA's and candidates who have CPA's who aren't qualified to do the actual work. Some recruiters don't ask that question leaving qualified candidates hung out to dry by not presenting their resumes.

There are ones I've worked well with in the past and who have been good to me (to my limited knowledge), and there have been some who I wouldn't work with again. In my opinion, the ones who are good are the ones who are unbiased, objective and those who match not only qualifications but personality. Also, recruiters who aren't just looking for the "payday." It's totally understandable that recruiters want to get paid. However, if a recruiter is just throwing resumes at an employer without regard for the right fit then it's more than likely going to frustrate the employer and waste their time (no employer likes that). Also, from the candidates standpoint, it's a waste of his or her time to go on interviews that have little or no chance of materializing.

So, may be I've left something out (probably the recruiter side of it) but you get the gyst....pretty boring stuff I'm sure. But.....