I am posting this to help non recruiters appreciate and understand the
different forms of recruiting and their individual strengths and weaknesses.
Also, for recruiters who have had a singular track, perhaps they could consider
switching it up if they feel their strengths are better utilized in a different
version of what they are already doing. I've been all of these and still
learning. :)
The Junior Agency Recruiter
The Senior Agency Recruiter
*The "real" Headhunter
The Corporate Recruiter
The Executive Search Headhunter
Specialized Recruiter (IT, Finance, Accounting, etc.)
Contract Recruiters -Recruiter, Headhunter or Staffing Specialist. A recruiter’s primary
objective is to meet the needs of his customer and introduce qualified candidates
to close open positions. His/her customer can be a Manager, Director,
Executive, Owner or other decision maker of a company with a job opening. The
bottom line is to find the perfect candidate who has the appropriate skills,
years of experience, education, and personality traits that are needed to get
the job done and fit into the corporate culture.
There is a world of difference between your average recruiter and
headhunter, the agency side of the business and the corporate side. Let’s be
honest we all have our strengths and weaknesses no matter what we do. Let's
clarify any misconceptions about what "recruiters" actually are and
what we do.
Agency Recruiters - can also be called "Headhunters" if they actually go out and
proactively hunt for talent rather then passively screen job applicants from
postings. If what you do is troll job boards and/or wait for responses to
postings, then you're at the start of a career that should evolve eventually
out of that very rudimentary version of recruiting.
Now a days the two terms (recruiter and headhunter) are interchangeable but
it's really not in my book (we'll get to that later). The strengths of a good
agency or staffing firm recruiter is that they are quick/responsive, have
access to specialized technology (ATS), resources, networks of contacts, and
are prompt with follow up. The reason the client comes to us is that we
specialize in identifying, qualifying, screening, and submitting highly
qualified candidates for their needs in a relatively short period of time. We
add value when we save time and energy for the client while submitting someone
they didn't know existed that excites them. A good agency recruiter is highly
service oriented and make the client feel as if he is the center of the
recruiter’s universe. Eventually, a really great recruiter should build up a
knowledge base and resources in a niche to not need the job boards. If you're
not niche than you're always starting from zero.
Junior Agency Recruiters -Most agencies (especially the big ones), like to hire people with like 1-2
years of sales experience or straight out of college. They do this because what
you learn in a sales environment is similar to how you need to perform in
recruiting. Also, if you have too much experience, it becomes challenging to
unteach you bad habits and retrain you into the way that they want you to
perform (the recruiting agency). A college degree and 2 years of experience is
ideal. Also, they don't have to pay you very much. The down side: Exactly what
you get, a junior 2 year out of college grad who really doesn't know anything
about the business world yet or the positions he's recruiting for. No wonder so
many candidates get turned off by recruiters. Imagine the disparity in the
quality of the conversation if on one end of the conversation is someone just
fresh out of college and on the other end is an Oracle 10g RAC DBA or a
Director of Finance and Accounting.
***My opinion --- THIS is where a lot of bad recruiters are today. The real problem is in
training. It's not the college grad's fault that he/she just got out of school.
As a matter of fact they are eager to learn and jump in the work force head on.
A lot of companies do a very poor job in training their people which is a huge
disservice to their clients, to the candidates, and ultimately to these poor
recruiters who pick up really bad habits they have a hard time shaking later in
their careers. The most important thing I find other then discipline and
persistence is that recruiters need to truly appreciate and understand their
role as a 'service provider'. Being "service oriented" has become a
lost calling.
Headhunter - The term "Headhunter" is used to describe the most aggressive, specialized form of recruiter.
This, to me, is playing at the highest levels of our field. It breaks all the
rules yet preserves the essence by truly distilling all the knowledge of a good
process and relationship building into something new and intangible. This is a
high level of performance that requires resourcefulness and tact as well as
pursuasiveness and an understanding of the niche industry one is recruiting in.
To me, being
called a "headhunter" is a privilege you have to earn.
At this level, the recruiter becomes a "headhunter" by going
beyond merely the processes and transcending training. A true headhunter is
imaginative and resourceful in locating top talent and introducing them to a
fitting job opening. They thoughtfully engage in meaningful business
conversations and about realities in life that play significantly into decisions
about job opportunities. Sometimes headhunters get a bad rap because they are
seen as evil deceitful sleezy types who bypass the receptionist at all costs
even resorting to lies and suave to get to a candidate or hiring manager at a
highly guarded company. The headhunter might pull away top talent which makes
this company resent them for doing so. What people fail to realize is that there is another side to this coin. If that employee was treated fairly in the first place and paid what he deserved, he wouldn't have had a
reason to leave. Obviously, the recruiter was working for a company that could
offer something that the former employee wanted and felt he deserved but was
not given. It's a win for the recruiter's client and hopefully a lesson for the
company that lost that prized employee and obviously a win for the employee who
found something better. This recruiter has had great training, practices best
in class procedures and knows them but is beyond them.
As mentioned before, companies can either loathe or highly value
"Headhunters" because what they do is a tremendously valuable service
and extremely hard diligent work. They have to ferret out top talent, identify
them, engage them in conversation and introduce a top performer from one organization
and put him into another one which values and needs his skills. Does that sound
easy to you? Maybe you should try it and find out for yourself. :P
A headhunter is a master of networking and cold calling with exceptional
interpersonal skills and expert interpreter of body language, and other nuances
of communication. He is a serious negotiator and truly a solutions provider.
Asside from that he is methodical, organized, MUST manage his time well, and be
very tenacious and have thick skin.
Corporate Recruiter - The strengths are in HR process, documentation and balancing a broad
range of needs. The corporate recruiter has a specialized group/corporate
culture that he supports. Over time he gets to really understand the nooks and
crannies of his company culture. He also has to balance reporting, process
enforcement, and mostly administrative tasks which slow recruitment but uphold
a more controlled environment and process. The corporate recruiter sometimes
uses agencies / staffing firms (mentioned above) to supplement his own efforts
when the need arises. This is a different kind of role although the end goal
is the same. Corporate recruiters of course need to ultimately make hires and
close open positions.
Contract Recruiter - The contract
recruiter is a temporary solution to execute often a sudden high level of
demand. It's a great solution for companies often times because they want
someone in-house to not only make hires but manage the process (much the same
as the corporate recruiter), except that they usually only need his/her
services for a limited duration. Also, a contract recruiter should be able to
execute at a much higher level since his/her bread and butter is made in short
spurts. I often like contract recruiters to sprinters where as corporate recruiters
are marathon runners.
Technical or Specialized Recruiters - The niche recruiter is focused on a specific area of a profession. He might
be an IT recruiter or perhaps a specialist within IT for dot.net developers or
java developers or maybe BI technology. He might be a specialist within an
industry vertical such as the internet or game space. Why someone decides to
specialize is similar to any other field. Take Doctors, Lawyers, novelists,
etc. Why does Stephen King write horror / thriller type books? Because he wants
to. Why do some Doctors only want to do ankle and knee surgeries? The benefit
of specializing is branding yourself as an expert in that field. Over time you
will become exceedingly expert in that specific field. Think about it. If you
had a heart attack would you want someone who has only done heart surgeries for
the past 15 years or a generalist who has done 2 heart surgeries, 10 arm
surgeries, 7 leg surgeries, and other stuff for the past 15 years? Enough said.
Executive Search Recruiters - These recruiters specialize in finding leadership members such as VP or
C level executives such as CEO of corporations. Often they are retained (which
means they get paid a fee up front for a dedicated effort and often at the back
end as well when an actual hire is finally made). Since the time and energy put
into searching individuals at this level is very specialized and demanding the
fees make sense. These recruiters specialize in high level searches and often
are former executives themselves with established networks.
Look, recruiters
are just people who serve needs. It's a service. It's a job. It's very
intensive, time consuming, and laborous (often working around the clock late
into the midnight hours and early mornings to catch people on the East Coast).
It's a thankless job at times since really everyone just wants results but
hey....someone has to do it.
