Working With Recruiters: How Agencies Operate And What You Should Know

When looking for a job, sometimes the only way to get into a company is through a recruiter. Gone are the days when you could just send your resume directly to HR. Many organizations have outsourced HR functions, and now, to be considered, you need to deal with placement firms. Alternatively, by working with agencies, you broaden your reach since a single agency can present you to multiple companies, simplifying your task. This holds true for full-time and contract work.

How do recruiting companies work? There are two kinds – those that work with full-time employees and those that work with contractors. Sometimes there is an overlap, where an agency handles both. In the case of full-time employment, a recruiting company will get paid a percentage of the hire’s salary, after they help the client fill the vacancy. In this case, the higher the salary, the more they get paid. There is no money out of pocket for the candidate, and the entire agency-employer relationship is completely transparent. In the case of a contract, an agency serves as an intermediary. They receive a certain hourly rate from the client (bill rate) and pay the contractor the negotiated rate (pay rate). The difference between the bill rate and the pay rate is what the agency keeps. Part of it goes to pay for operating expenses.  What’s left is profit. Depending on the size of the company and how they do business, a profit margin can vary substantially.

There are a few rules of the trade that are unspoken, but should be mentioned. Whether a full-time or a contract, a candidate’s resume can be submitted to a specific client by one agency only. Clients do not want to deal with the hassle of which agency sent the resume first, and so, in case of double submits, it is the candidate who suffers – his or her resume will simply be thrown out. A candidate is free to work with several agencies, just like an agency is free to work with multiple candidates. The same company (the employer) can use services of multiple agencies as well. As such, you will often come across a web posting that looks identical and yet shows up under different company names. This is your clue that these are agencies and not the end client.

When working with recruiters there are a few things to keep in mind – good and bad (these observations are based on years of experience. There are exceptions).

1. They are not your personal agents. Recruiters get paid for placing people. Therefore, they are less interested in making everyone happy (you in particular), and more in making the sale. As such, they will try and push the job on you, if they think you are qualified, whether the job truly interests you or not. On the flip side, if they do not have anything that matches your skill set, they will not spend the time trying to shop you around. Usually, they have enough candidates to worry about. So, once again, they are not looking after your best interests.

2. Recruiters do not like to work with people who are just starting down a career path (or who are thinking about a career change). Looking back to the previous item, they are out to make a sale. Someone with no experience brings nothing to the table to be sold. As such, there is very little, if any, interest.

3. There are many shops that use the “used car salesman” approach. They will try to bully you into accepting the job that is not a great fit. They will oversell the company, diminish the length of the commute, play down the lack of benefits and other things. Some outfits will send your resume to the client company without prior discussing it with you. This approach is called “spray and pray” (hoping that one of the resumes they sent will “stick”).

4. Recruiting companies usually focus on specific industries. Therefore, when working with an agency, pick the ones that operate in your field. Otherwise, you are just wasting your time.

Now, working with recruiters puts certain responsibility on you as well.

1. It is your responsibility to choose wisely. You have an option of doing your research, talking to others and determining which recruiting companies work well and which don’t.

2. You must track where your resume was sent – at all times. You are responsible to finding out who the end client is before your resume is sent. An agency – any agency – must disclose this information to you. And you should validate it against the list of companies you maintain, to ensure your resume is not submitted twice. In addition to knowing the company, you should, at a bare minimum, track other things such as position ID, hiring manager’s name (or initials), department, and a job description.

3. Be sure to respond to recruiter’s emails and phone calls. They will be contacting you if something comes up – be it feedback from the client or information about a new vacancy. It is common courtesy, if anything. And it will help you get the job sooner, which is what you want in the long run.

4. Recruiters are not necessarily looking entirely after your interests, but they have the right to know certain things about you. So, in discussing your work experience, be honest. They need to know the reasons for employment gaps – they will be, in turn, explaining these to their clients. They need to know about your salary history and salary expectations. They need to know about any potential issues that may come up in background checks (if you are applying to the sector that is notorious for checking candidate’s past).

5. If, for any reason, you are not happy with the specific agency, you are free to leave them, but be sure to provide them with feedback before you do.

Working with recruiter is a relationship that can lead to your future employment (after all, this is your goal, right?), treat it with professionalism, courtesy and respect. It takes time to build, and, if successful, it will not be a one-shot deal.