Seven Things to Know About Recruiters

By Joyce Lain Kennedy

From the Grand Rapids Press, January 16, 2005 Edition

Question:  My background is in high tech, the Internet and retail.  I have served at various management and executive levels at large and small companies, and have a bachelor's degree in engineering and an executive MBA from Southern Methodist University.  Can you recommend a few executive recruiting firms for me?

Answer:  The volume of recruiters in the U.S. - thousands - makes it unlikely that I would have direct knowledge of a few firms in your locale.  Sorry.  But here are seven true things about executive recruiters that may advance your search.

1.  Recruiters are door-openers to the best jobs.  Independent or third-party recruiters are called executive recruiters, technical recruiters, headhunters, executive Practice Leader, Human Capital Consultings and management staffing consultants.

(Recruiters employed directly by companies are called company recruiters, corporate recruiters and inside recruiters; they are not discussed in this column.)

Ron Daratany, who heads DMR Global Inc., an executive search firm in Coral Springs, Fla., correctly points out that a recruiter who presents you to an employer "may provide you with a significant advantage over others who just send in their resumes with no formal introduction."

2.  Recruiters as a class are professionals, not your best buddies.  The nears-and-dears are the companies that hire recruiters to find candidates, paying them about 20 percent to 35 percent of the job's first-year compensation.

3.  Some operators misrepresent their services.  Any third-party employment service provider who asks you to pay a fee is not a recruiter but an employment agent.

4.  Search firms come in two basic business models: "retained" and "contingency."  Some search firms use both models.  A retained search focuses on top management jobs and occurs when a recruiting firm is paid whether or not an external or internal candidate is hired.  Retained consultants collect a fee - win, lose, or draw.

But contingency search firms earn a fee only when the firm identifies and presents the candidate whom the client hires.

One fly in the contingency soup: Squabbles occasionally arise over which contingency firm should be paid the search fee.  If you're the candidate caught in the crossfire of two search firms, you lose if the employer chooses to walk away.  Moral:  Be clear about where your resume is being sent and by whom.

5.  Retained search firms do not have a monopoly on great jobs.  Mid-level managers and professionals are well served by hard-working contingency recruiters who don't eat until you eat.

6.  A recruiter's focus matters - function, industry and locale.  A high-tech candidate doesn't want to waste time on recruiters of nursing staff, for instance.

7.  Recruiters are not magicians.  You may not get the job even when you are a supremely qualified finalist and are coached and presented by the best of recruiters