Anyone here have any good experience?
Recruiters will only talk to you or reply to your emails if you have a shot at getting hired by their client, since they only get paid this way. They won’t give a damn about you if their client doesn’t seem to like you. Don’t expect real support from them. Treat them as just another job posting source.
I have been through this process as both candidate and hiring employer, and here’s what I learned: Some candidates have a misconception about what exactly a recruiter does and who they are working for. The recuiter is just the middle man between the employer (the client), and the candidate (the product) – they do not work for you, the candidate, they are trying to sell you on your behalf out of their own self-interest (although some probably do really enjoy their jobs – I’m not trying to paint them as wicked sales people). The fact is that most clients willing to pay the hefty fees associated with using a recruiter have a very specific candidate in mind (usually top quality with a somewhat unusual background that is not easy to find), so the recruiter only wants to pitch this sort of candidate to their clients, out of respect, and because it maximizes their chances of getting paid. I think this can be a frustrating dynamic for someone young in their career who has made progress but does not have a resume that is “stacked” yet. As I look back at my experience trying to use recruiters to place me in a hedge fund a couple of years ago, I realize that most recruiters are not that creative or helpful, they really just want to a certain type of high probability candidate into a specific role as fast as possible. If you do not fit the cookie cutter background (I don’t), then you are unlikely to get a lot of help from recruiters finding exciting jobs (I had to do it the old fashioned way). I’d be reluctant to try a recruiter again personally, and wouldn’t recommend it at all for someone with less than 5-7 years of experience unless you have a truly exceptional background or especially difficult to find skills (rare language skills, for example). When I was hiring recently, I didn’t want to look at any resumes that didn’t EXACTLY match what I was looking for (it’s easy to get flooded and waste a lot of time), which was like trying to find a needle in a haystack – the recruiter went through a database of something like 10,000 resumes and pulled four for me. Two were a match, and I hired one. It’s not always that specific, but I get the impression that a lot of times it is.
How much do they usually charge from a firm? Ball-park?
usually it’s based on your salary. I’ve heard 2 months of the hired person’s salary.
what’s a rare language skill? i speak a couple of rare languages and nobody cares 
Agreed with bromion…I think a lot of people’s perceptions of recruiters have a lot to do with the mismatch between perceptions and reality. While it’s true that some recruiters flat out suck, it’s no different from any other industry - 50% of the people are below average, and it’s because of those people at the wrong end of the caboose that we have outperformers and overachievers, right? But on the other hand, recruiters have to make a living too…so if they don’t call you back, don’t take it personally; it may just be that you don’t fit the exact specs that they’re looking for.
pupdawg82 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > How much do they usually charge from a firm? > Ball-park? I’ve only used a recruiter once, and it was for a placement in an international market. That said, I think the numbers are fairly similar for the U.S. as well from what I’ve gathered in the past. Two fees: 1) Retainer fee – about 2 months of salary 2) Placement fee – between 25-35% of the candidates salary. In this case, it was for 30% of salary only (no bonus). The retainer fee was 100% applicable to the placement fee, and is refundable if no placement is made. As you can see, this adds up fairly quickly, which is why you would not want to use a recruiter for anything but a difficult to find candidate, as you could easily be paying $30K+ to make the hire. It also demonstrates the necessity of fit – if I am paying $30K to someone to have them help me find a needle in a haystack, I don’t want to do the sorting for them, I want them to give me EXACTLY what I am looking for. If you are a decent candidate with a pretty good background but not exceptional or not highly specialized, it can be difficult to gain traction with recruiters. On the plus side, there are some pretty good job postings up on CFAI job line right now, although I don’t know how competitive they are in terms of number of applications received.