Apply through recruiter or direct?

Sometimes I see jobs listed by a recruiter (or multiple recruiters) and the company directly. What are people's thoughts on applying directly to the company vs through the recruiter?

My thought was that you might get more money going direct since there is no recruiter getting a cut. On the other hand a recruiter has an interest in getting someone placed so might push your resume/skills/profile more, where applying directly they might just spend a minute looking at a resume and make up their mind. But I am guessing there's probably other stuff to consider.

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Comments

yoba222

I worked at a company like that once. I worked for the direct company. Slightly better pay and benefits than the recruiter companies. In my case, the direct company was too overwhelmed and not competent enough to hire their employees by themselves. Which translated to them generally being too overwhelmed and not competent enough to manage their employees too. I think it's a bad sign.

I remember asking advice to one of the hiring managers of the direct company in how I might deliver an acquaintance's resume who I considered to be a good candidate for the job. Who should I forward the resume to? The direct company? Recruiter company A? Company B? He told me to forward to all three, knowing the resume might get lost in the bureaucratic process.

paul78

I can't offer any concrete suggestions but I can provide you some insight from a hiring manager perspective. Although - your mileage may vary as I work in the US and the talent acquisition practices may vary in Australia.

When I worked for a smaller company and I had a lot of positions to fill quickly and I lacked talent acquisition support, I generally preferred to use recruiters. They tend to do a good job screening candidates. Oddly - for entry-level and extremely high-level specialized positions (like data scientist) - because of the volume of unqualified direct applicants, I used just ignore direct direct applicants.

However, when I worked for a company with dedicated talent acquisition - I generally preferred to screen direct applicants first because the cost of hiring was lower.

I think that since you mentioned that the same job was being sourced through multiple contingent recruiters - chances are that the company is trying to fill the position in a hurry - so it could go either way.

Good luck.

beads

Its a coin flip for each possible candidacy. Thing is there is no way of knowing unless you already know someone on the inside who can guide your preference one way or another. Much of it depends on how ambitious the internal recruiter is or isn't

Good luck!

- b/eads