Should I Use a Recruiter?
If you have been following Job Guy or any other credible career resource, you know that 75% to 80% of jobs are filled through the hidden job market. This often happens when candidates are introduced when the need to hire has been established but the process to fill the job has not yet begun. Most career changers have gotten jobs through the hidden job market because they have convinced a hiring manager that they can produce the desired results despite a non-traditional background.
Recruiters are not usually the best way to tap into hidden opportunities.
We have established that identifying the need to hire is Step One for companies in the hiring process.
Finding the right candidates is Step Two. With a few exceptions, internal and external recruiters (headhunters) are brought in at Step Two, not Step One. Job seekers who land jobs through the hidden job market may never even encounter a recruiter or may do so as a formality after the decision has been made.
Recruiters prefer the most obvious candidates
Don’t get me wrong, recruiters play a major role connecting job seekers with jobs. But because they are normally paid to find candidates whose backgrounds match qualifications, it is less risky for them to refer the square pegs over the merely rectangular ones. The more gaps there are between the resume and the job posting, the less a recruiter is likely to be interested.
Internal (in house) recruiters are Plan A for most employers
Internal recruiters work exclusively for the company doing the hiring. While they are typically employees, some companies do hire freelancers or third parties to augment their internal teams. Because internal recruiters work only on openings for their own employer, we will cover this base in future blogs and newsletters.
Headhunters hunt for heads, not the other way around
Statistics on how often companies use outside agencies are not typically publicized, but the source of hire reports I have seen suggest that between 3% and 5% of positions are filled through external recruiters. Because search firms are paid by employers and not job seekers the likelihood of an outside agency finding an opportunity for a job seeker is slim
That said, 3% to 5% is not 0%! Well rounded job search should involve connecting with headhunters who focus on your area of expertise. You want to be easy to find should they land an engagement to fill a job that would be a good match for your skills. And while it is no longer common, some may pitch you to a prospective client to land a contract with that employer.
Some things to watch out for
Most headhunters are highly ethical. But a couple of my job seeker clients have been burned because they failed to make sure that they knew to whom their candidacy was being submitted and how.
The most vivid example was when a client of mine reached out to his headhunter friend to get his foot in the door for an upcoming role for which he was perfectly qualified. The recruiter didn’t have a relationship with the employer but submitted the resume anyway. Because my client was a perfect fit, the headhunter got called right away. But the headhunter refused to make the introduction if the company didn’t pay him a five-figure fee. The company said no and, because the recruiter was now the submitter of record, my client was disqualified from applying for six months.
Had my client asked for my advice on this, we could have avoided this by making sure we were clear on the terms of engagement with this particular contact before authorizing him as a broker. Moral of the story: no matter what kind of recruiter you use, make sure you nail down the terms of engagement.
All headhunters are not the same
It may surprise some to learn that there are many ways that a company can use outside recruiters. These are the four most common:
1. Retained recruiters tend to work with executives or senior managers with specialized skills that make it challenging for employers to identify qualified candidates. They are paid upfront and are typically the only channel that an employer will use to fill the opportunity. These types of recruiters will often partner with their employer clients to develop job descriptions, create employer marketing materials, source and vet candidates, organize the interview schedule, and, in some cases, make the job offer.
Because retained firms are paid in advance, their cost is already hard wired into the employer’s cost structure. So, no matter how you get your foot in the door, you will probably have to go back through the retained search partner to earn the offer in the end.
Top tier executives should make a point of being known by those major retained search firms that work in your area of specialty. Many of the good ones make strong networking partners as well.
2. Contingency recruiters are paid only when they successfully place a candidate. They often work with multiple employers simultaneously and may compete with companies’ internal staffing teams to find candidates. It is also quite possible for multiple contingency firms to compete against each other to earn their commission (typically 20% to 30% of the candidate’s annual salary).
It is estimated that about 80% of search firms are contingent. Many of the larger ones employ two teams; one that specializes in earning contracts from employers and the other to build an inventory of candidates for existing and future openings.
Many job seekers I have spoken to have gotten quite frustrated by getting contacted for jobs they don’t want or because they felt ghosted after the initial contact. This dynamic often occurs because much of the recruiter outreach is about building an inventory of bench strength for job postings yet to come.
I advise my clients not to leverage contingent recruiters if they have any other way of getting their credentials into human hands within the hiring company. A candidate who get in the door directly will always be more attractive than would a similarly qualified competitor who carries an additional 20% to 30% surcharge.
3. Temporary placement agencies service companies looking for help for a finite period of time or that prefer to take prospective employees on a test drive before committing to hiring them as permanent.
Most contract/temp firms focus on specialty areas like finance, IT, law, nursing, or administration. They normally will offer the job seeker/contractor an hourly rate and then bill the client company for that rate plus a markup. Some temporary placement firms even offer benefits.
Many temporary placement agencies allow client companies to convert a contract employee to permanent. These conversion arrangements normally involve some combination of the fees gained through marking up the hourly rate on the temporary component while charging a conversion fee that could be a percentage of projected annual salary.
4. Outplacement consultants work with job seekers and displaced workers to help them land great new jobs. While career consultants are not recruiters at all, I would be letting my marketing effort down bigtime if I didn’t find a way to let you know that Job Guy is here to work for you…not the employers.
Hopefully this blog answered some questions for you. I felt self-conscious writing it because I have equivocated everywhere. But the reality is that recruiting firms and their client companies have become very creative regarding how they team up and what they want to publicize about their terms of engagement.
The most important takeaway here is that, while you should probably work with recruiters in your search, you shouldn’t put all your eggs in this basket. Recruiters’ primary obligation is to the employers who pay them. If you fit one of their clients’ needs, it works great! Otherwise, there is not much they can do.
