How Do Headhunters Find Candidates?

Candidates always ask us, “How did you find me?” So we created a two minute video to answer the question. We link to the video in all our email outreach messages. You can watch it below, but of course that only describes how the candidate research process works here at Staffing Advisors. Other search firms work differently.

From watching our video you can see that we cast a wide net in our approach, methodically working through business databases like Hoover’s, working through LinkedIn profiles, and checking out conferences to look for people who demonstrate expertise in certain areas. Most retained search firms have a dedicated candidate research team capable of doing this kind of candidate sourcing.

But in your job search, you also need to be aware of search firms who take a different approach. Some search firms rely on job board advertising to find candidates. Some firms comb through the resume databases from career sites like Monster, Careerbuilder and Indeed. Some firms rely on networking with people they already know, and call or send emails out to their networks inviting people to recommend candidates for searches.

So if you want to be considered for new opportunities, what should you do? Well, if you are openly and actively searching, go ahead and post your resume to the job board databases, and definitely apply to job postings from search firms. Even if you don’t see an active search matching your profile, you can often send a resume to search firms, simply  asking them to include you in their database. Almost every search firm will first look for candidates within their own candidate database. 

If you are searching more confidentially, you should work on becoming more visible, particularly online.  Watch our video series on how to update your LinkedIn profile to increase your career visibility. But don’t stop at LinkedIn, here is another video on how to increase your online visibility.

No one strategy will make you visible to every search firm, and search firms vary widely in their approach to recruiting, but if you increase your ability to be found, you will always hear about more job opportunities. 

Should You Work With a Contingency or a Retained Search Firm?

Job seekers are always curious about how search firms work. Who pays the fees? What are the differences between a contingency recruiter vs a retained search firm? Which is best for the job seeker?

First things first. You can pay a career counselor to help you write your resume, or to help you plan your search, but no search firm should ever charge you. Ever.

OK, now let’s move on.

Search firms charge their fees to employers. The real difference is when they charge and how much they charge.

Retained versus contingent search is simply a choice of business models.  Neither model is inherently better for you as the job seeker. Neither model is inherently more professional or more ethical. Neither business model means that the recruiter is better informed about the job, or more knowledgeable about your profession.

But there are very real differences in your experience as a candidate.

If a search firm works on a retained basis, they are essentially paid by the employer to research and find great candidates – and it is presumed that any candidates uncovered from that research are “owned” by the employer until they are removed from consideration.  The entire candidate pool “belongs” to whoever paid for the research.  The retainer firm wants the employer to hire the most qualified, compelling candidate from any source – either in the pool found by the search firm, or drawn from an employee referral.  It’s all the same to them. (This is the model Staffing Advisors uses).

In a contingency basis, the search firm takes on the risk and expense of developing relationships with lots of candidates (which is why they often specialize in just one functional area).  They did the work and took the risk, so essentially, they ”own” the candidate pool.   To ensure they get a return on their candidate research investment, they must present those great candidates to lots of employers.  The employer committed nothing, and therefore has no right to the pool of candidates, so the search firm is wise to present the best people to multiple employers.  This is why some employers feel their interests are better represented by a retained search firm and some job seekers feel like they are better represented by a contingency search firm.

The contingency search firm wants ANY employer to make a compelling  job offer to their candidate, while the retained firm wants the employer to make an offer to ANY compelling candidate, regardless of source. The contingency firm gets paid only after a candidate accepts a job offer. The retained firm earns their fee by conducting the search process and is usually paid the majority of their fees within 60 days of starting the search. And to add complexity, some search firms use a blend of the two approaches.

Search fees vary widely, but can be as low as 10-15% of the placed candidate’s annual salary all the way up to 33% of annual salary, but again this entire fee is paid by the employer, not the candidate. (Some retained search firms have a minimum retainer fee of $75,000).

So how can you tell if you are dealing with a contingency vs. a retained search firm?

It can be difficult and company websites do not always reveal it. But there are clues, and you can always ask the recruiter who contacts you. If it is not a confidential search, we always disclose the name of our client early in the recruiting process. We are not worried about a candidate applying directly to our client–we have an agreement to be paid either way, so our clients simply forward any resumes or internal candidates to us. If a firm publicly discloses their client’s name early in the recruiting process, it is often (but not always) a retained search firm.

A contingency search firm is only paid when a candidate they present is hired. They are essentially in a foot race with the employer (or sometimes even another search firm) to present candidates quickly. Whoever presents the candidate first earns the fee. Some employers engage a contingency search firm, but hope to hire on their own to avoid the fee. For this reason it’s wise for contingency search firms to avoid disclosing their client’s name too early in the recruiting process. There is nothing improper about this, the business model requires it. If a search firm is representing you simultaneously to several clients, you are definitely working with a contingency model firm–a retained search firm should never do this.

I hope this helps. If you have other questions, leave me a comment.

Don’t Just Look For a New Job, Help it Find You

When you are looking for a new job, be sure you also help jobs find their way to you. It’s a simple process. When you make yourself more visible to recruiters, you hear about more opportunities. You don’t need to meet recruiters for coffee, you don’t need to make 100 phone calls, and you don’t need to post your resume on Monster. You simply need to maintain a professional image online.  In less than three minutes, Kelly Dingee will walk you through it step by step.  

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Working with a Search Firm: Interview Etiquette

One of our most popular posts was on “How to Introduce Yourself to a Search Firm.” But what happens when you have already been contacted by a search firm and are going on an interview with one of their clients?

What is the etiquette for working with the search firm? What is expected of you? What can you expect from them?

Some firms may differ, but in general these are the expectations:

• Before the Interview:  The search firm will give you the date, time and location of the interview, and usually parking information and/or the closest metro stop.  The search firm will usually give you the name and title of everyone you are expecting to meet, and how long the interview is expected to last (but of course good interviews often run overtime). Your role: Your job is to research the people and the company, and to write down at least a dozen intelligent questions you would like to ask. (Hint: “Do you have Dental insurance?” is not an intelligent question). To arrive to an interview without preparing questions in advance is a breach of etiquette and for many interviewers, is an automatic strikeout. If you cannot think of what to ask, simply ask your search firm contact for some ideas, or see our post on how to research a company.
• Traveling to the Interview: Be sure you estimate your travel time properly and to bring the phone number for both the search firm, and the person you are meeting with.  Your role: Your role is to leave ample time for traffic and to arrive 10 minutes early. Late is simply unacceptable for a first impression. If you are going to be even one minute late, etiquette requires you to call ahead to the person you are going to meet, and to apologize again when you arrive. An astonishing number of interviews have been ruined by ignoring this simple point of etiquette. If you might be late, don’t hope for the best, just make the call at least ten minutes before your interview time. The benefit is that once you’ve made the call, you can relax. (You can always try calling the search firm as a backup plan, but bear in mind that they will likely be in another meeting and not available on short notice.)
• During the Interview:  Your role is to give crisp, clear, concise answers to most questions.  On a first interview, the hiring manager usually has to cover a lot of ground, so don’t get bogged down in protracted answers in any one area. Practice your answers, so you can keep them to about 3 minutes or less.  (Read more about the STAR method of answering questions here). Your search consultant will be able to brief you on the kinds of topics that will be covered, but they really should not be coaching you on how to answer specific questions.
• After the Interview: Most search firms want to hear from you right after the interview concludes. In my experience, candidates are rarely able to judge how it went, so typically we ask whether you are interested in proceeding to the next step if it is offered, and whether the hiring manager mentioned any next steps. Your role:  contact your search consultant immediately following the interview. Don’t make them call you to get feedback. Hiring managers always want to know your level of interest, and it’s embarrassing to your search consultant when they don’t know where you stand because you did not contact them. (Remember, we have no idea what time your interview actually  ended, so we can’t call you).
• Delicate issues: As the third party in the conversation, your search consultant should be able to address any difficult questions for you. Do you need to see a copy of the company benefits? Do you want to find out what happened to a prior employee in this role? Are you concerned that it seems like the department has a lot of turnover? What kind of salary are they considering?  Your search consultant can look into these issues for you, or suggest how you might diplomatically raise these points with the hiring manager.

How to Introduce Yourself to a Search Firm

Most candidates begin their job search by updating their resume and then looking for a search firm who can help them make some connections.  And most people do a poor job on both of those tasks.   (Seriously.  Read our resume advice.)

But if you think writing your resume is hard, apparently it pales in comparison with finding a good search firm to help you.   For most job seekers, figuring out how to work with a search firm is simply a mystery – a big, high stakes, deeply personal mystery.  

A few months ago, Vickie Elmer from The Washington Post interviewed me for an article on how to introduce yourself to a search firm.  I gave her my best advice, but because the question is so common, I wanted to dig a little deeper and show you other people’s answers to your most common questions.  So here is the list:

• How can I make my resume appealing to a recruiter?
• How can I get a recruiter’s attention?
• What works when working with recruiters?
• How can I work with a recruiter to find a job?
• What should I expect from a search firm? 

Perhaps search firms are (to borrow a phrase from Sir Winston Churchill)  ”a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.”   If so, here is yet another helpful overview on the appropriate role of a headhunter in your job search.

Please leave a comment if we missed something or if you have more questions.

How to Handle Multiple Job Offers

As the Washington economy barrels out of the recession, far more candidates are receiving multiple job offers.  (Yes, I know, this sounds like a wonderful problem to every job seeker who is looking for their FIRST job offer).    But it’s a real problem.  And most people have no idea what to do about it.  So they end up clutching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Here is the crux of the problem.  Timing.  You see all those wonderful job offers almost never come on the same day.  So if you are fortunate enough to be in this situation, how do you handle the first job offer while you find out if the second offer is even going to materialize?

Some people (like Nick Corcodilos) advise you to accept the first offer, and if a second offer comes along, just retract your acceptance.  I’d advise you to read both the original post and the many comments from readers.   He makes a compelling case for doing this.  His readers mostly agree. 

But I disagree.  Strongly. 

Retracting your acceptance will needlessly damage your hard-won professional reputation.  Nick’s readers seem to think of it as “just business” but every hiring manager I know feels lied to, betrayed and is actively hostile to anyone who retracts an acceptance.  And I agree with them. If you do this to one of my clients, we’ll never represent you again.  I can tell you from experience that hiring managers have a very long memory for this particular behavior. 

You see, when you accept a job offer, you set in motion a chain of events.  Your new boss sends rejection letters to everyone else who applied for the job.  They announce it internally.  They pull down the ads and close out the posting.   When you retract, you don’t just burn your bridge with that employer, you burned their bridge to everyone else they were considering.   You made them look bad to their boss.  Don’t, for a second, think that this is not personal.  It is.  You can debate the ethics all day with Nick, but in the meantime, your professional reputation is in tatters and several people feel you lied to them.

There are far better ways to handle the situation.  Like honesty.

You can be upfront with your situation.  You can explain that you are taking your search very seriously – you don’t look for a job very often and you want to explore all your options.  You have a lot of irons in the fire and your search will involve several employers.  If one employer is closing in on an offer quickly, just let them know that you may not be in a position to accept right away.   (Smart employers, and ALL search firms, will ask you about your other interview activity.  They will ask you when you are available to start should an offer be extended.  That is a good time to be candid.)

Once an offer is on the table, you can almost always negotiate for at least a week.  Simply say you want to make a fully informed decision and want to be fair to everyone involved.   But long before an offer is on the table, you can let your other potential employers know that you are in second or third round interviews elsewhere.   If they are serious about you, they will let you know where you stand.  Most small firms will speed up the interview process to accomodate a top candidate.  In my experience, this candor will serve you well about 90% of the time.  In the rare cases where managers get huffy about it, you either have a very inexperienced manager, or someone whose ego needs a reality check.  (And both are good to know before you accept a job with them!)

Bottom line:  when job seekers are candid with us, we can almost always find a way to make the timing work out for everyone involved.

So before you lay flame to your reputation, I urge you to give candor a try.  Next you might want to read this post on how to turn down a job offer.

How to Contact a Recruiter

Looking for a job?  Think recruiters are lined up to help you do that?  Think again.  

There are many misconceptions about how recruiters can help you with your search.  To help dispel a few of the most common myths I recently gave an interview to Vickie Elmer for the Washington Post.   Vickie got it right and shared great perspective for job seekers (and I’m not just saying that because I was one of the people they quoted … but I was glad the quotes were accurate).

Before you offer to buy coffee for a recruiter, or ask a recruiter to give you feedback on your resume, please read her story - you’ll be glad you did.