Anonymous
Post 03/21/2026 22:53     Subject: Sales vs recruiting as a career?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Long term, sales - preferably in a niche that creates a book of business. Starting off, recruiting at an agency is a fantastic way to learn business acumen and how the world works. More tolerable when expenses are low and you are commission only. Ceiling on recruiting is probably $200K for an individual contributor non-partner. Sales the sky is the limit. Recruited 2008-2016, selling tech since 2016.


The sky is the limit in recruiting, and recruiters can work for themselves pretty easily as there are really no overhead costs. That means you take the whole fee for yourself.


Recruiting doesn't scale beyond a certain point, especially if you are on your own. One can only handle so many reqs at a time. Even at the upper end, pulling 25% of $400K base salaries, you are only doing 1, maybe 2 placements a month - you are making $500K to $1M. Top enterprise sales reps can 2 or 3X that in a good year.
Anonymous
Post 03/21/2026 22:30     Subject: Sales vs recruiting as a career?
Anonymous wrote:Long term, sales - preferably in a niche that creates a book of business. Starting off, recruiting at an agency is a fantastic way to learn business acumen and how the world works. More tolerable when expenses are low and you are commission only. Ceiling on recruiting is probably $200K for an individual contributor non-partner. Sales the sky is the limit. Recruited 2008-2016, selling tech since 2016.


The sky is the limit in recruiting, and recruiters can work for themselves pretty easily as there are really no overhead costs. That means you take the whole fee for yourself.
Anonymous
Post 03/20/2026 22:26     Subject: Sales vs recruiting as a career?
Anonymous wrote:Long term, sales - preferably in a niche that creates a book of business. Starting off, recruiting at an agency is a fantastic way to learn business acumen and how the world works. More tolerable when expenses are low and you are commission only. Ceiling on recruiting is probably $200K for an individual contributor non-partner. Sales the sky is the limit. Recruited 2008-2016, selling tech since 2016.


Sky’s definitely the limit on recruiting if you are in executive search or legal search (those are two areas where I’m aware of the fee structures and what my friends in those fields make).
Anonymous
Post 03/20/2026 19:40     Subject: Sales vs recruiting as a career?
Anonymous wrote:Long term, sales - preferably in a niche that creates a book of business. Starting off, recruiting at an agency is a fantastic way to learn business acumen and how the world works. More tolerable when expenses are low and you are commission only. Ceiling on recruiting is probably $200K for an individual contributor non-partner. Sales the sky is the limit. Recruited 2008-2016, selling tech since 2016.


I thought it's the opposite as there''s no limit to billing in an agency especially a boutique but there's a ceiling to sales at a corporation.
Anonymous
Post 03/20/2026 14:39     Subject: Sales vs recruiting as a career?
Anonymous wrote:Why are these the choices? Do you really like either of them?


For money without drowning myself in banking or Big Law.
Anonymous
Post 03/19/2026 22:24     Subject: Sales vs recruiting as a career?
Long term, sales - preferably in a niche that creates a book of business. Starting off, recruiting at an agency is a fantastic way to learn business acumen and how the world works. More tolerable when expenses are low and you are commission only. Ceiling on recruiting is probably $200K for an individual contributor non-partner. Sales the sky is the limit. Recruited 2008-2016, selling tech since 2016.
Anonymous
Post 03/17/2026 06:09     Subject: Sales vs recruiting as a career?
Why are these the choices? Do you really like either of them?
Anonymous
Post 03/17/2026 06:07     Subject: Sales vs recruiting as a career?
Anonymous wrote:Recruiters are sales grunts who don’t make the cut. No one aspires to be recruiters.


Nobody aspires to sell software either. They both are hard grinds.
Anonymous
Post 03/17/2026 03:20     Subject: Sales vs recruiting as a career?
tech sales still rules the roost.
Recruiters are getting phased out as systems evolve - already more pat transparency, stronger LinkedIn tools for both the employee and the employer. The next evolution is an AI recruiter tapping you bc it knows you’ve been at your company 3 years and it knows you want to move.
Anonymous
Post 03/16/2026 16:07     Subject: Sales vs recruiting as a career?
Depends on what you'll be selling and your age.
Anonymous
Post 03/16/2026 16:07     Subject: Sales vs recruiting as a career?
How old are you?
Anonymous
Post 03/16/2026 14:18     Subject: Sales vs recruiting as a career?
Recruiters are sales grunts who don’t make the cut. No one aspires to be recruiters.
Anonymous
Post 03/16/2026 13:23     Subject: Sales vs recruiting as a career?
I appreciate the value a good recruiter brings but if this is advice to a young person starting his/her career, 100% sales.
Anonymous
Post 03/15/2026 21:38     Subject: Sales vs recruiting as a career?
Definitely sales
Anonymous
Post 03/15/2026 21:37     Subject: Sales vs recruiting as a career?
Specifically b2b software or financial data sales vs recruiting (agency executive level)