Headhunter vs Recruiter: Look Similar, But They Are Actually Not!

Time flies and it is about the year end of 2022. Have you ticked all your resolutions this year, especially your career resolutions??

You must have through both great and unfortunate stories — and with all these things, have a thought of pursuing an even better opportunity in a bigger company or maybe switching your career??

Changing career path is not an easy job, you will maybe start scrolling your LinkedIn, talk to your connections and of course in this phase, you will have to talk to more recruiters… or maybe a headhunter consultant.?

They both look for capable human resources to fill the positions they are in charge of. So, are headhunters and internal recruiters the same?

No, they are not.?

There are still lots of people thinking headhunter and recruiters are synonyms when they are actually not.?

Headhunter is an individual or a company who provides recruiting services for and under other companies independently.?

Simply to say, imagine you are a company. In order to grow your business, you need brilliant talents with some requirements. At this point, you can use headhunter’s service to recruit them on your behalf.?

Headhunters have great data and resources of talented candidates, and they will help your company find your most suitable talent to grow your company faster, while you can still focus on managing your corporate strategy.

Headhunters are also called as executive recruiters, as they often look for executives to fulfil their clients’ needs.?

Still cannot find the difference? Let’s find out!

They both working in the human resources industry, but they are two different occupations:

• Their relationship with the hiring company

Headhunters recruit talents under the agency that other company assigns to look for the talent. Meanwhile, recruiters work on their own company’s behalf to fill the position they need. As an internal agent, recruiters have very wide knowledge about the position, including the company culture.?

• Positions they are working on

Recruiters are more flexible of any potential candidates and position—along with the company’s needs, including the finance department, IT, from staff until executives levels.?

While the headhunters usually focus on skilled and plenty-experienced talents for executive positions.

Surely, looking for a job is not easy. But looking for qualified candidates is also a thing. And, this is why headhunters’ services are so important to fulfil companies’ demand for talent from their competitors.?

• Role

Not only recruiting, most headhunters can be your career coach as well. Headhunters focus on getting their candidates a promising career opportunity with greater benefits. Along with that, headhunters will give their best to help the candidates preparing their interviews.

Headhunters certainly know kind of users will do the interview with the candidates better? They know better what kind of answers and attitude the users like the most. Of course, it will benefit candidates more to prepare for their interviews.?

On the other hand, recruiters only focus on the candidates screening to the offering phase without coaching their candidates.?

• Different Recruiting Flow

Usually, headhunters contact the potential candidates directly, from being an eagle eye to screen the matching candidates — until keep doing the follow up on the candidates until they accept the offer.

Adequate negotiation skills are a must for the headhunters to make the candidates put interest in working for the company. But as well, they cannot look too pushy.?

In contrast, it is the candidate who must seize the opportunity first if he wants to fill the position being opened by the recruiter.?

Do you have any experience with recruiters or any headhunters??