beware of IT recruiters

A few days ago I was contacted by a recruiter about a position in my area, we talked for a few minutes and eventually he asked me what were my salary expectations, I told him anything from $14 upwards to which he responded that the position pays $16 per hour, I told him cool and sent him my resume etc. A few hours later, I got a call from a different recruiter about the same position and was offered to be recommended for the job at a rate at $20 per hour. I called the first recruiter after that and let him know I was just recommended for $20 per hour, he stated that he had the option to offer more. I just hung up on him, he has been blowing up my phone since.

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Comments

pramin

There are so many ways to look at what just happened to you but at the end of the day; next time you may want to give a set number for what you are looking for in terms of pay and not a "range".

Iristheangel

Agreed with pramin. When you leave it open-ended like that, the recruiter is going to give you over what you said but not as much as they could give you. In the end, the recruiter is there to make money, not necessarily pay you top dollar.

That being said, not all recruiters are bad. You just need to understand how to handle them and get through the ones that are full of BS.

Techguru365

so, if a job pays $20 per hour and I am offered $16 by the recruiter, does he get the remaining 4? how does that work? I am fairly new to the game, and that's why I am more comfortable giving range than to set a price and have them say I am too expensive

Iristheangel

Most of the time they get a bigger commission if they can pay you less. That's why they don't just pay you the max that they can. It's in their best interest to pocket that money

Techguru365

Ok, all this time I thought it was a case of the company saying; We got this Job, the requirements are X, The pay rate is Y, find us someone to fill that role.

paul78

It depends - if it's an internal recruiter, that could be the case. And if that's the case, the recruiter is incentivized to find good candidates at best rate for the company. An external recruiter is incentivized by finding candidates that their client will hire at a higher rate because external recruiters are compensated usually as a percentage of the annual salary. But a recruiter looking for talent on their bench for outsourcing will seek candidates with lower rates so they they can increase their margins.

Different types of recruiters have different motivating factors, you are always better off if you understand who the recruiter is representing. However, under all cases, the recruiter is NOT representing you

markulous

Some recruiters are dirty. I'm not sure this is the best example of that, but regardless they aren't on your side.

LionelTeo

IT Outsourcing - you are hired under the company that hires you, and you work in another company. Recruiter took a portion of your salary, about 1/3
Direct Recruiter - you are hired directly into the company, if the company is crap, the company will try to push down your salary. The more salary they push, the more bonus they get
Indirect Recruiter - you are hired directly into the company, if the recruiter wanted a fat pay check, the recruiter will try to hire you as high as possible so that they can earn more. A percentage of what the company earn is base on your salary.
Direct Recruiter for a really good company - You are hired directly into the company, you asked for XXX salary. They came back and give you even more than what you had asked.

HeliGuy

A recruiter one time called me at my office number. He got an ear-full from me.

jibbajabba

HeliGuy wrote: »

A recruiter one time called me at my office number. He got an ear-full from me.

One guy only did that recently. "Found" me on LinkedIn and instead of connecting / contacting, he used my recent company and came through the switchboard asking "Can you talk" - Just made it quite clear that trying to cold call candidates doesn't really go down well when trying to ring them in their current job role and no, I obviously don't have time to bloody talk !!

Re: Org. question .. Not sure how it works in the US, but here in the UK recruiter get paid based on their annual wage. So if they place you in a 50K role, they usually get a 10-20% fee based on those 50k. If contractor positions however, daily or hourly rate, they get a slice of the rate. So I had it once that I was going after a role with a day rate of £450 .. Only later I heard that the actual rate was £510 so £60 / day went to the recruiter.

gbdavidx

I just had this happen to me and it happens constantly, one of them wanted to sign me in on at 20 an hour for a help desk position. I ALMOST had him submit me as there was a conflict of interest between our two companies and I told him no, then a day later today actually, i get the same exact job letter one for 25 and one for 22 an hr, of course I accept the one for 25 an hour. So i know their both screwing and trying to get the most money.
They don't care who you are bottom line, they just want the monthly client contract

kohr-ah

Iristheangel wrote: »

Agreed with pramin. When you leave it open-ended like that, the recruiter is going to give you over what you said but not as much as they could give you. In the end, the recruiter is there to make money, not necessarily pay you top dollar.

That being said, not all recruiters are bad. You just need to understand how to handle them and get through the ones that are full of BS.

Yup. I learned one way is ask them about things they like about my resume and throw in things that aren't even on my resume. Mostly just because I want to see if they actually looked at my resume.

But I have 3 that i keep in the loop as they are good recruiters that yes are out to work for the companies but wont send it my way if it doesn't match my skills because they actually read my resume.

The Silent Assassin

I have dealt with several recruiters and for the most part they are trying to hit their contact quotas. It's sad that very few companies do direct hires so we as IT professionals have no other choice to deal with them or start our own business. I know this isn't the thread to discuss particular companies but I have tried Robert Half, TekSystems, Yoh, and Sentinel Technologies. My experience is pretty much the same with all of them; apply for a job, get the generic reply and call asking about my current job and ideal job with pay rate and never hear back from them.

BradleyHU

this is why i dont like dealing with 3rd party recruiters. I rather deal with the recruiter(hr person) that work for the direct company...

Daneil3144

Techguru365 wrote: »

A few days ago I was contacted by a recruiter about a position in my area, we talked for a few minutes and eventually he asked me what were my salary expectations, I told him anything from $14 upwards to which he responded that the position pays $16 per hour, I told him cool and sent him my resume etc. A few hours later, I got a call from a different recruiter about the same position and was offered to be recommended for the job at a rate at $20 per hour. I called the first recruiter after that and let him know I was just recommended for $20 per hour, he stated that he had the option to offer more. I just hung up on him, he has been blowing up my phone since.

That's your fault for not negotiating....not the recruiters...

dave330i

Companies want to be profitable. They can achieve this by selling more and reducing cost. It's not a hard concept.

dave330i

BradleyHU wrote: »

this is why i dont like dealing with 3rd party recruiters. I rather deal with the recruiter(hr person) that work for the direct company...

News flash, HR wants to pay you the least amount possible.

Russell77

One thing you have to be aware of is that the $20/hour person may have no intention of paying you that. You have to interview then the company has to let the recruiter know they want you. At this point the recruiter comes back and says they offered something less. They floated the $20 to get you to go with that firm.

Danielm7

The one good thing about recruiters is that I have no problem asking them what the pay is for the position right from first contact, they don't get offended. What I'm being paid now is irrelevant in what the next position should pay.

I only know a few good recruiters that I'll work with, the rest mostly fall into the spammer category.

Dojiscalper

I see this constantly, but figure its just their game and I just tell them what I want to make for the given position.

fmitawaps

I always highside my numbers whenever a recruiter asks my expected pay rate for a job. They say ok or tell me the job pays a lesser amount, then it is up to me.

A few days ago, a recruiter called me for a NOC position, with a rather detailed list of requirements, most of which I didn't have. Then after all this, she says it pays $17 to $19 an hour. I laughed at it and told her how I was making more than that 3 years ago in desktop support with no certifications or real job experience.

Then she got all mad at me, saying I do this every time she calls with a job. Well, if she wouldn't try to lowball me on the rate....