5 Secrets Your Contingent Recruiter Doesn’t Want You to Know

What if I could tell you there is a way where you can get your recruiter to spend over six times more time on your job search? Interested…

Contingency recruitment and executive search are two different methods of recruiting candidates for job openings.

Contingency recruitment involves multiple recruitment agencies competing to fill a position, with the agency being paid a fee only if their candidate is hired. The focus is on quickly finding qualified candidates for a job opening.

Executive search, on the other hand, is a more targeted and comprehensive approach where a specialised firm is hired to identify and recruit top-level executives, or senior skilled appointments for an organisation. The executive search firm is usually paid a retainer fee and will conduct a thorough search process that involves direct sourcing, extensive research, and candidate assessment to find the best candidate for the position. The focus is on finding the right fit, rather than just filling a job opening.

Now don’t get me wrong, this is not a post to bash any other recruiter, or recruitment process. I have worked in Recruitment for more than 20 years and for some of that time I worked as a (I think quite successful) contingent recruiter.

This is how I started my career and I helped a great deal of customers, candidates and clients for many many years and many of the people I placed are still in those same roles today and have been promoted many times over.

However, the reality is that the nature of contingency recruitment is you have to play the numbers. Frankly it is like being asked to do your job with one arm tied behind your back. This is why so many recruiters get a bad reputation, or why so many individuals who start a career in recruitment leave the industry.

The reason for this is that the average success rate for a contingent recruiter is 20%. As a contingent recruiter, (also known as no placement, no fee), you have to accept that at least four out of every five roles will fail to materialise in a successful placement and as contingency recruiters are paid on success only, will fail to help them achieve their monetary targets and fail to earn them any commission.

Executive Search can be seen as a more expensive option, but actually it can be a very similar fee, or I would argue much more value for money (see below), it is just a different way for you to pay for the service.

So what are the 5 secrets your contingent recruiter doesn’t want you to know?

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