There are many types of recruiters. While they do similiar things–source, interview, fill job positions and close candidates for their clients or employers–there are subtle nuances between the various types of recruiters. I’m going to explain the difference between 6 types of recruiters in this post. If you are a recruiter, what type of recruiter are you?
Headhunter
- Headhunters are typically the most aggressive of types of recruiters.
- They are known for sourcing and pulling talent from big companies.
- Their job is to find talent (that could be hidden away behind the walls of a guarded company), engage them, and then introduce them to a new company. Not an easy task.
- The best headhunters will source the best passive talent from the competitors and then begin the recruitment dance with them.
- A good headhunter has incredible networking, cold-calling, and negotiation skills and goes above and beyond to get a candidate.
- Relationship building is very important to them. They are skilled at the art of persuasion and understand their recruiting niche inside and out.
Executive Search Recruiter
- These types of recruiters specialize in higher positions in a company such as VP’s or CEO’s or other C level executives.
- They have cultivated relationships with executives for decades to get retained business. You will never get this business from cold-calling
- Executive search recruiters will charge a retainer fee, meaning they get paid a portion upfront, and then again after a placement is made.
- They will typcially use some of the retainer to advertise in journals, newspapers and magazines which executives read.
- They are very specialized and are often ex-executives with an established network of contacts.
- Most executive recruiters are backed up by a sourcing and recruitment team.
Agency Recruiter: Junior & Senior
- Also known as headhunters, they place for a variety of positions.
- Agency recruiters have access to specialized technology and have a big network of contacts and resources.
- Many agencies hire people right out of school or with little experience since they are easier to train, and don’t need to be untrained if they have experience doing things a different way.
- They must have a sense of urgency in finding candidates. Often 70% of their compensation is based on candidates they place.
- Most successful agency recruiters are adaptable and will speak with candidates on weekends and in the evenings.
- Great agency recruiters in 2012 are social media gurus. LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Kout, Google+ are a big part of their daily routine
- Boolean Search expertise is prerequisite to any long term success.
Corporate Recruiter
- A corporate recruiter is usually part of an HR team, but can be found in other areas of an organization as well.
- They are full time employees in charge of hiring for a particular company.
- They have a strong understanding of the company culture or group they support within the company they work at.
- Many corporate recruiters were once agency recruiters
- They do a lot of the HR and administrative tasks which typically involves multiple levels of screening, skills testing and interviews and can slow down recruitment, but holds job candidates to a very high standard.
- Sometimes corporate recruiters hire agencies and staffing companies to help if a project arises that requires additional or unique resources.
Contract Recruiter
- Similar to a corporate recruiter, contract recruiters find candidates, qualify them, and coordinate the hiring process.
- These people work on-site at a company, but they are not a full time employee of a company, rather they work on a contract basis.
- Must be able to be work on a large volume of varied recruitments.
- Contract recruiters are usually a temporary solution when there is a sudden need for staffing. They are usually brought on when a project needs to be filled quickly. Sometimes, if they are lucky, they are brought on for multiple projects, and get more than one contract with the same company.
Specialized Recruiter (IT, Marketing, Accounting etc.)
- A specialized recruiter is a type of recruiter that focuses on one type of industry vertical or profession such as marketing, or finance etc. At Stafflink, we specialize in IT recruiting, for example.
- Specialized recruiters that focus on one type of vertical are experts in that one area and their database is made up of a very specific set of talent.
- Since they are so specialized, niche recruiters will have better access to resources a client or employer may need, right at their finger tips.
- These types of recruiters rely on building strong relationships with both clients and candidates. In many cases, candidates come to them after being referred by a friend that used their services before.
- Great specialized tecruiters in 2012 are social media gurus. LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Kout, Google+ are a big part of their daily routine.
- Boolean Search expertise is prerequisite to any long term success as a specialized recruiter.
No matter what their title, a good recruiter can save a company time and money by finding the right candidates, with the right skill set, quickly, and at the right price. If you are thinking about hiring a recruiter, you may want to read How To Choose An IT Staffing Company.
Have you worked with any type of recruiter before? What was your experience?
[...] acquaintance of mine in the recruitment industry recently wrote a post entitled What Type Of Recruiter Are You? Great article for anyone working with recruiters to get a sense of the type of recruiter you are [...]