Types of Recruiters

Traditionally recruiters have been defined in two broad camps.  The retained recruiter, who is just that, “retained,” to find an employee which was one group and the other was the “contingency group” that received their compensation only if they were responsible for causing a candidate to be hired.  There is, however, a broad range of even contingency firms that you need to be aware of so that you can decide if they can actually help you find a job.

Understanding the various types of recruiters is important, so that you can seek out proper help.

What Recruiter Professionals Do for You

What you should expect and how you should deal with a “recruiter” totally depends on your understanding of the kind of recruiter that you’re dealing with.  When you know the kind of recruiter that you were dealing with and his or her relationship to the employer, you will know how to manage your own expectations.

In general, here is what recruiters can do for you:

  • Provide access and knowledge of opportunities with the firm’s before they are “broadcast” to the world.
  • For the most part, (we will see in the exceptions to this below) we have a much more in-depth knowledge about an opportunity than an individual could gain on his own.
  • We will “coach” you and sell you and your attributes, as well as sell around your shortcomings, better than you can for yourself.
  • Because a recruiter knows how you compare with your competition for positions, they can provide for you the advantage. They know their market.
  • We will help you “manage” the process of interviewing and negotiating. Because a recruiter deals with this process daily, we know how to do it better than an individual even if they change jobs often.
  • We are going to help a candidate maximize their compensation possibilities. Most of the time the recruiter is compensated based on the salary package the candidate receives.  It is in their best interest to help you reach your compensation potential.
  • We can provide you more job interview opportunities quicker than you can do for yourself. Most people don’t deal with the job opportunities, career moves etc. on a daily basis.  A recruiter does.
  • The help of a recruiter implies most top professionals do not want their job search to be “floating around” the Internet or anywhere else for that matter.
  • A recruiter, many times, has an intimate but objective view of the hiring company, the hiring authorities and the “politics” of the specific hiring process.
  • We are comfortable with all of the steps in the process of getting hired.
  • We know what to do when things “go wrong” in the hiring process.

Recruiters help job seekers by providing advice and connections to employers.

What this all means to you is simply this: a recruiter most likely can assist you with job placement but, it takes a team. Candidates need to manage their expectations of what a recruiter can do for them, and help the job search process. There are many types of recruiters and each one has their own specialties. You should be able to identify which type of recruiter is best for your particular situation, and then be proactive with the recruiter in the job search process.