What’s in it for the recruiter? Breaking down misconceptions.
Have you ever wondered what is incentivizing the recruiter you’re working with?
There are multiple recruiting categories and while every one of us is trying to match a person to a job, there are certainly different incentives for each type of recruiter and different levels of time and attention we can give to any one individual. One thing that separates Juno from other search firms, we like to tell it like it is for you to truly know what you’re getting into. With that in mind, let’s leave it all on the table. In this guide I will go through each type of recruiter, explain who is paying that recruiter, and describe the biggest benefit of working with each type. (Spoiler alert: you should work with all of them because it expands the network you will have your resume exposed to.)
There are a variety of titles in recruiting; you'll need to ask the recruiter who reaches out to you some questions to figure out which one of these buckets they fall into because, unfortunately, there isn’t some centralized authority dictating what titles are used at what firms. “Executive Recruiter” at one place could mean retained, C-Suite searches only while elsewhere, it could simply mean someone who recruits professionals at all levels on a “contingent” basis, but more on that below.
Contingent Search Recruiter
This type of recruiter works for a recruiting firm, which could be a massive, multi-billion dollar, global company or maybe a boutique that specializes in knowing your local market. Their job is twofold: sales and recruiting (we call it “full-desk”). This means on one hand they are responsible for calling businesses with job postings, identifying hiring managers, and attempting to form relationships with those managers to win their business. On the other hand, they are responsible for identifying talent in the marketplace and forming a relationship with YOU, the candidate, with the ultimate goal of bringing YOU and the CLIENT together when your background matches the client’s needs and your job requirements.
This recruiter is compensated in 2 ways:
They receive a base salary from their firm.
They receive a FEE from the CLIENT, usually to the tune of 25% of the candidate’s base salary. (Note: this fee does NOT come out of your salary; rather, it is just the metric that sets the amount of the fee.)
Benefits of Contingent Search Recruiters for jobseekers:
This is a free service for candidates. These recruiters can give you insights into the local market, share jobs that might be confidential and thus not posted on a job board, give you resume or LinkedIn advice, help perform mock interviews, prep you for interview questions they know the client will ask, and they are highly invested in moving processes along quickly because they want to close the position and get their commission. If they have a strong relationship with a hiring manager, it will get you past the application process and land your resume right in the inbox of the decision maker, with the weight of the recruiter’s reputation behind it.
Potential downside of Contingent Search Recruiters for jobseekers:
These recruiters are usually highly specialized, so make sure you connect with the right person, if you’re an accountant you need to connect with a recruiter who specializes in F&A. There is a flip side to the coin stated in the Benefits as well... these recruiters may be competing against other recruiters and/or an internal recruitment team at the client company. In many cases, they actually do have a relationship with the hiring manager who will hear the recruiters out when they want to present a candidate. But ultimately, it is a 3rd party professional service, so you are one step removed from the company and they may be trying to fight their way into new business without an established relationship with the hiring manager yet.
Internal Talent Acquisition
This person is a member of the company you applied to, full stop. They ultimately report up to someone like a CHRO (likely with some line managers in between) and are compensated like any other operational employee: a base salary and possible annual bonus for adequate performance. They get assigned open jobs as the company grows and partner directly with the hiring managers to facilitate the interview process and present you with an offer before making the hand-off to HR for onboarding and Day One.
Benefits of Internal Talent Acquisition for jobseekers:
They directly represent the company/role you applied to and if they respond to your application or message you on LinkedIn, you know that your resume will reach a hiring manager and be considered for next steps. Their motivation is to represent the best interests of the company and identify the most qualified candidates.
Potential downside of Internal Talent Acquisition for jobseekers:
While they might give a pointer or two on your resume or provide feedback if you get rejected at a certain stage of the interview process, or maybe even help you connect with someone else, Internal Talent Acquisition employees typically are not really going to be able to help you with your job search, as they represent the COMPANY and the best interests of the company. Essentially, the 1:1 coaching you can receive from an agency recruiter won’t happen here.
Staffing Manager
This recruiter is working predominantly on temporary or contract roles. They will contact you about a position with a particular duration at one of their established clients, but you will actually be employed by the RECRUITING FIRM and on their payroll. In some cases, the client will ask to “convert” the candidate to hire you permanently onto their team and put you on their internal payroll and benefits. This all depends on the company and your performance. Typically, it will be something like 6 months of work here, then the Staffing Manager will tell you “Hey I know XYZ Company ends next month, but I already have another position lined up for you, at the same pay rate, at ABC Company.” So the better you perform, the more likely the Staffing Manager is keeping you on their shortlist and will loudly sing your praises to whatever client they have to help next, ensuring you have a new gig lined up. Staffing Managers are paid by recruiting firms and receive commission based on how many people they have out “billing,” meaning how many people they placed into positions at clients.
Benefits of Staffing Managers for jobseekers:
Staffing Managers work primarily with flexible, contract positions, have lots of variety in roles and industries, and provide all the same coaching and advice as the Contingent Search Recruiter. This person will keep jobs lined up for you if you like taking contracts and working at different places.
Potential downside of Staffing Managers for jobseekers:
While flexible, the roles Staffing Managers typically fill are temporary positions. So if you are not the contracting type, you’ll want to ask questions like, “Does this role have the potential to go permanent?” or work with the Contingent Search Recruiter instead.
Retained Search Recruiter
Retained search is a service where a recruiting agency partners with a client to identify a candidate for a leadership level role, certainly C-Suite/Partner level, perhaps VP level as well. It is usually highly confidential and treated with orders of magnitude, more research and vetting than lower-level roles, as this person is going to be placed into a position like CFO, where they will have fiscal responsibilities and decision-making authority for the company, answerable only to the Board of Directors, for instance. The company pays the recruiting firm up front in regularly scheduled installments on an agreed upon basis and the recruiting firm shares regular status updates and candidates for the position, only collecting the final fee when the candidate is placed.
Benefits of Retained Search Recruiters for jobseekers:
If you’re an Executive level leader then always take this call. They’re working on something you probably don’t know about yet, and might be the only person with access to the interview process, so it is always worth finding out what it is about for your own market knowledge, whether you end up wanting the job or not.
Potential downside of Retained Search Recruiters for jobseekers:
Not a resource for anyone in early/middle career as you’re typically not qualified for what they’re working on in the short-term.
RPO Recruiter
“RPO” stands for “recruitment process outsourcing” and it is a type of business process outsourcing that enables a company to bring on additional recruiting support when they have a high volume of positions or lack a fully built out internal recruitment team. This type of recruiter acts as a representative of the client company and manages the recruiting process from end-to-end for whatever positions they are assigned. RPO recruiters can be thought of precisely the same way as the aforementioned Internal Talent Acquisition person; they do not make commission and simply want to identify the precise background and experience of a candidate that the company needs.
Benefits of RPO Recruiters for jobseekers:
RPO Recruiters directly represent the company and work with hiring managers on specific roles. They are objective arbiters trying to interview all qualified candidates as quickly as possible. However, should you not be a fit for a role at their assigned company, depending on the RPO firm and client contract, the recruiter may be able to connect you with their colleagues back at their recruiting firm to support your job search elsewhere.
Potential downside of RPO Recruiters for jobseekers:
While they might gladly refer you to another recruiter or internal person at another company, ultimately, they are not representing YOU as your personal job search guru. An RPO Recruiter’s job is to represent their client’s best interests.
At Juno, we employ each type of recruiter I mentioned above, primarily focusing on Contingent, Retained, and RPO search. I, myself, fall into the category of an RPO recruiter, working directly with my client as an experienced talent partner with their internal TA team.
I hope this clears up any confusion you may have about the world of recruiting and our incentives for placing candidates. If you have any questions about the above info I’ve shared, feel free to reach out - I’d love to chat: jseidl@junosearchpartners.com.
Meet the Author
Jeff Seidl
Senior Talent Consultant, Talent Solutions
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