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Is headhunter's commission proportional to the offer?

Joined
3/29/08
Messages
77
Points
18
Or headhunter's commission is a fixed number for a certain level of candidates, *regardless* of the details in the final offer?
 
Believe that agents typically get a percentage of the full time rate... of course, that percentage is subject to some variation anyway. They place a senior staff member, and negotiate a high commission, it's beers all 'round.
 
Believe that agents typically get a percentage of the full time rate... of course, that percentage is subject to some variation anyway. They place a senior staff member, and negotiate a high commission, it's beers all 'round.

Thanks for the input!

How about entry-level candidates? Do headhunters get a fixed amount of commission for placing an entry-level candidate? Or their commission also depends on the offer rate?

In other words, is using headhunters a negative thing for negotiating the offer?
 
As Andy says that piece was "opinion"....

The typical case is X% of the fixed part of first year pay, AKA "contingency" recruitment. There is typically a cap.
Then there is "retained" where a fixed fee is negotiated, more senior appointments work like that.

In house recruiters do a large % of entry level recruitment, they do this because they are cheap and the work consists of applying a given set of prejudices about what school you went to, followed by simplistic buzzword matching.


In other words, is using headhunters a negative thing for negotiating the offer?
Usually not, one has to understand the utility function of the 3 different people who might negotiate.

1: In house:
Their job is to put candidates who have been filtered in front of the hiring manager, they don't really do negotiation at all. They get paid for this, not for placing people.

2: You:
If you are dealing directly with the hiring manager then you have to balance risking not getting the job with getting the money.

3: HH:
A HH only gets paid if you get the job, so there is more pestering and for a given job you are one of a small set that he might place, so will try rather harder to get you in, trying to get both sides to move their numbers together.
 
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