Candidate Services

Who Is A Headhunter?
(And what’s the difference between, a Recruiter, Staffing Manager and Headhunter?)

Corporate Recruiters are the people who work in a company’s HR department. They recruit only for their own company and are paid a salary. They are the ones that neither accept or respond to candidate phone calls, as they are understaffed and overwhelmed.

Staffing/Temp Agencies are employers themselves. They recruit and hire people, then assign these individuals to client companies. You go to work at the client company every day. The client pays the staffing/temp agency a fee from which the agency pays you, the worker, a salary and benefits. If you want to be employed directly by the company where you show up for work every day, then staffing/temp agencies are not for you.

Headhunters are independent. They are not the employees of any particular employer. They do not hire you. They will not find you a job. Their business is filling positions for their client companies.

While headhunters need good candidates to place, they are not usually interested in unsolicited calls from job hunters. Good headhunters target specific people they want to recruit, and they go after them. They will come to you if you are on their target list. That’s what they’re paid to do: to hunt and find the right candidates, not to filter candidates who come to them. (Contrast this to most corporate recruiters, who wait for applicants to respond to job ads.)

Contingency Headhunters are the standard. They operate like hired guns; the client pays for results. They are paid ONLY when they actually fill a position. They often times compete with other firms who are trying to fill the same jobs, unless they are in the unique position of “owning” a client. Contingency fees are ALWAYS paid by the client and the very best headhunters work on contingency. It keeps them hungry, sharp and industry keen.

Retained Headhunters are paid a fee whether they fill a position or not. Let me repeat that- retained headhunters are paid a fee whether they fill a position or not. The goal, of course, is to fill the job. But they will also interview and consider candidates that their client company introduces to them. It doesn’t matter whether the candidate comes from a company referral or even an actual internal candidate. How can that be?- because the retained headhunter gets paid regardless. Their recruitment process tends to be more formal and structured than that of contingency headhunters, because they have been paid upfront, therefore, they must appear as though they are earning their keep. An obvious result of this kind of “dog and pony show” is that the search may go for months and months and months.

So Let’s Recap- First and foremost, Corporate Recruiters nor Staffing Managers are Headhunters. (As a matter of fact, neither are Career Coaches or Career Marketers- no matter what they spin and tell you- all the while requiring payment from you!)

Secondly, it behooves you to ask up front if the job in question is retained or contingency. If it is retained then you know that the firm may not be truly motivated to place you. Also, they probably will not have the time to give you personalized attention. They simply need to fill their promised quota of candidate presentations in order to demonstrate they are earning their money. (Now you know why retained searches are rare and are usually done at the high-end executive level.)

Finally, when dealing with Contingency Headhunters, what matters most is who the headhunter is. Forget about the firm, how big or small they are, and where they are located. What matters is how good they are at their work and how motivated they are to work with you. So make sure you interview them while they are interviewing you- ask about their background, their last placement, the thing they love most and like least about their job, etc.

Remember- a true Headhunter’s job is not to find you a job. It is to fill their client’s position. But if they find you and the fit is there, the good ones will do everything in their consultative power to make certain both you and your potential new employer live happily ever after.