working with a head hunter?

[Anonymous]

I just applied to a job online and a head hunter emailed me back (so I guess the posting was from her and not the actual company hiring). Before I respond to her I wanted to see what I was getting into. This person would just help me get a job right? Use their connections? Then they get paid by the employer right? Any reasons I should not respond back? I have never had this experience before and just wanted to get an understanding of how it works.

[Anonymous]

Remember, the head hunter's client is the prospective employer, not you. I'm not saying you shouldn't work with them, just remember that you are not their priority

[Anonymous]

Headhunters can be horrible, sometimes the jobs are non existent and they just post it to get resumes. Its a crap shoot. but yeh you wont have to pay anything or get into anything you don't want to, the worst they do is royally waste your time. I choose not to work with them because most of them flat out lie about positions available and will interview you and act like thy have something going on when there is nothing on the table

[Anonymous]

Not sure what field you guys are in but headhunters/recruiters should work in your benefit. They should be able to get you interviews in companies you are interested in and help in the negotiation process. I am currently working with one. I made my job requirements/expectations clear and the recruiter sends me job postings that match my criteria.

[Anonymous]

just curious - why would they have fake job postings? what is the benefit of that? they would not get paid if they did not find someone a job right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not sure what field you guys are in but headhunters/recruiters should work in your benefit. They should be able to get you interviews in companies you are interested in and help in the negotiation process. I am currently working with one. I made my job requirements/expectations clear and the recruiter sends me job postings that match my criteria.

What are you paying them? Unless you are paying them they aren't working for your benefit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure what field you guys are in but headhunters/recruiters should work in your benefit. They should be able to get you interviews in companies you are interested in and help in the negotiation process. I am currently working with one. I made my job requirements/expectations clear and the recruiter sends me job postings that match my criteria.

What are you paying them? Unless you are paying them they aren't working for your benefit.

in theory if they help you get a job then it is in your benefit. who cares if the employer is the one paying them or calling the shots, if you tell a recruiter I want to make $x at X type of job and they find it for you then you benefit and so does the employer. no one says you have to stop looking on your own if the recruiter does not find a job for you, so I don't see the harm

[Anonymous]

why do employers use head hunters? they just don't want to take the time to do an initial interview process? I don't see why in this job market a company needs to hire someone external

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:why do employers use head hunters? they just don't want to take the time to do an initial interview process? I don't see why in this job market a company needs to hire someone external

Because talent is sparse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure what field you guys are in but headhunters/recruiters should work in your benefit. They should be able to get you interviews in companies you are interested in and help in the negotiation process. I am currently working with one. I made my job requirements/expectations clear and the recruiter sends me job postings that match my criteria.

What are you paying them? Unless you are paying them they aren't working for your benefit.

in theory if they help you get a job then it is in your benefit. who cares if the employer is the one paying them or calling the shots, if you tell a recruiter I want to make $x at X type of job and they find it for you then you benefit and so does the employer. no one says you have to stop looking on your own if the recruiter does not find a job for you, so I don't see the harm

Agree and also no one says you should accept the job the recruiter has found you if you are not happy with the job description or compensation. The recruiter will line up an interview for you , would not secure the job and guarantee an offer. It is still up to the candidate to go successfully thru the interview process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:just curious - why would they have fake job postings? what is the benefit of that? they would not get paid if they did not find someone a job right?

They do that to gather resumes so when they do have a client, they can say " Oh i have 10 prospective applicants bla bla bla" and that's how they build their portfolio. It is a technique well known that headhunters use. Read about it here http://www.recareered.com/blog/2011/01/28/career-advice-how-to-recognize-fake-job-ads/

In my prior life as a recruiter, my offices were required to have a minimum number of jobs posted each week … even if we didn’t have enough current job orders. This requirement was audited as part of our offices’ performance and reported all the way up to the President of the company.

In addition, even if we had job orders, we were required to post additional ads for “typical” jobs that we often filled … even if there wasn’t an immediate need for that specific job. Part of what drove this requirement was my company’s relationship with CareerBuilder. My prior employer was one of CareerBuilder’s largest advertisers and purchased an unlimited advertising package with them. So our corporate office encouraged (insisted on is a better description) fake job ads to drive a pipeline of candidate resumes to keep our inventory of candidates strong, maximizing their use of an unlimited package.

Yup, it's out there

[Anonymous]

I think headhunters are a waste of time and they are self serving. My company rarely uses them because they don't really know our industry and it is a waste of resources. We have in-house recruiters. I get calls from them all the time and let the calls go into voice mail. They are almost always calling to ask me if I have any need for attorneys (legal headhunters). They say they would like to schedule a meeting but I never phone back because I don't have time to meet with them and I doubt they would have anyone I would want to hire. I would not rely on them to help you get a job.

[Anonymous]

We outsource round 1 and 2 interviews to an executive recruiter. It saves us the time of looking at tons of resumes and cover letters while doing our actual jobs.
In America the hiring manager pays the retained recruiter a big fee if they place the person we hire. In Europe several recruiters go around trying to fill the same slot, thus it is less fit/match and more rush to get tons of people into the interview under their name.
Good recruiters have longstanding relationships with a client and have successfully placed many people there.