Many of you are thinking about switching positions this year and may not have worked with a recruiter before. These super friendly people who seem to be interested in helping you with your career have a single motive in mind – getting paid. Now there are many very talented recruiters and staffing firms who help make matches between open positions and skilled professionals. We do not intend to slam the industry, rather to inform job seekers.

Let’s set the stage, here is how it works: The recruiter gets a job order. The recruiter does a bunch of work for free and won’t get paid until they fill the job – with you or someone else. For their effort they will earn a hefty fee – between 20% and 30% of your annual salary. Or, in the situation where you are contracting and getting paid by the staffing firm, they may make even more by inflating your hourly rate.

Some recruiters use these icky tactics so you make the “right” decision and they get paid:

1. Inflate your salary requirement
2. No signed contract
3. Contract-to-hire option
4. Short expiration date on the offer

There are a lot of good recruiters out there – and they are very busy with positions to fill.  As long as you are an informed candidate you’ll likely have a positive experience. For more information on how to navigate your job search visit us here!