It is time to change jobs... I have been doing LinkedIn and Indeed along with targeted application submissions on specific company web sites. At my level, there are not a lot of job postings. I think it is time to enlist a professional to help me find the next role.

Does anyone have experience hiring a recruiter in today's job market?

I spent some time online looking for a recruiter and was not impressed with what I found. I work in Financial Services Sales Leadership.

Most recruiters are hired by companies to find candidates. If one is hired, the recruiter receives a commission of something like 20% of their expected salary. The employee pays nothing. That said, recruiter quality varies greatly and a truly good recruiter is extremely helpful. Many are like used car salesmen that try to fit you quickly into whatever positions they have open right then.

Some companies have their own recruiters working as full time employees, so no commission involved with them.

LinkedIn can be good for researching companies, networking with recruiters and people in other companies. If you change your status their to indicate you're job searching, recruiters will likely come to you.

There are many banking and insurance jobs in my area in central Iowa. Feel free to contact me to discuss ideas and options.

You should not be paying for a recruiter, the recruiter should be paid by the company looking to fill the position.

The recruiter is basically hired by the company looking to fill the position and goes out there to network to find the right person to sit. Of course, they do not always try to find the right person. Many times they were just trying to fill the position as quick as possible so they can get paid.

Two of my last three jobs were found for me my recruiters.

LinkedIn is a great resource to connect with recruiters.

quote:

Originally posted by bryan11:

If you change your status their to indicate you're job searching, recruiters will likely come to you.

This with disclaimers... Be prepared for the ‘used car salesman recruiters’ that will see this check mark and send you anything that includes buzzwords that COULD be associated with financial services. These are usually easily identified, not only by the misaligned role but usually their age/experience and degree received. No industry experience or fresh out of college, not going to help you at all and may actually hurt your chances when they can’t sell your experience to the actual job description. I’ve found these usually start with ‘great fit’ roles, just great fit 10 years and $100k ago.

They’ll always want a phone call with you as well and try to hold back details to engage you. Send a full job description and comp/bonus target ranges or I’m not going to entertain a phone call that will potentially turn into a waste of time when you could have passed on the first message when comp isn’t there.

Ask about roles being exclusive searches. If they aren’t actually hired by the company, usually on an exclusive search agreement, they’re essentially just spamming/call the job poster or submitting you via the website. These, again, don’t help you.

If you’re contacted by one you like, work with them on the role they sent but also look at their company site to understand the type of roles they engage on. If it’s mostly temp, entry level, or wide ranges of work functions, they’re not going to be as connected in your industry. Robert Half as an example has lots of experience (at least in the mid-west) associated with finance roles, however if you’re above manager level they have FAR fewer postings.

Lastly, find an executive search firm in industry if you’re looking for Director or above roles. These firms will be sought out by companies and will generally be staffed with recruiters that actually have real industry experience. They’ll have fewer roles but they’ll be the right ones.

As stated, you won’t pay anything to a recruiter they’ll just be paid a fee based on a % of your first year salary. Best of luck in your search!

Yeah, sorry, OP, but unfortunately that's exactly the opposite of how most recruiters work.

And be forewarned, most of them are village idiots on their best day who know jack and shit about what you really do, what all those words on your resume really mean, and best/worst of all they're like those vile skanks in HR, they work for/with the companies and look after their interests, not yours.

Best of luck in your search. Plenty of good advice above.