How to Assess Agency Recruiters (*Headhunters)

The profession of agency recruitment and staffing is still relatively obscure and misunderstood by the general public.

Due to the lack of knowledge and insight into this insular industry, candidates and even recruiters themselves (both on the agency side and internal) do not know and/or agree on how recruitment is actually run in the real world.

This leads to loads of terrible advice being perpetuated by those who are not in the know by people who THINK they know!

Frankly, unless you're a headhunter (and a great one at that), you will never truly understand what is TRUTH versus FICTION.

Which is why I wrote this article.

I will share with you exactly, from a top headhunter's perspective, of how to assess agency recruiters*.

*Agency Recruiters are recruiters who work at THIRD-PARTY, EXTERNAL, RECRUITMENT AGENCIES. They don't represent a single client like HR and internal/corporate recruiters do. This is critical terminology to know.

FYI - By nature, you don't have to interview internal recruiters because whether or NOT you like them, they are your only point of contact for that specific employer, if you choose to use them directly instead of working with headhunters to explore that same firm.

(It's better to go through headhunters instead of going directly to firms via internal recruiters, but that's a whole other topic that we're not going to dive into today)

However, agency recruiters exist in the millions, so now you have the freedom of choice:

You can CHOOSE who to give your candidacy to or not.

Multiple agency recruiters service an overlapping book of clients. You can pick WHICH person you want to leverage to represent you.

WARNING: it makes a HUMUNGOUS difference who you use because not every headhunter has the same level of success rate and service offering.

Now, most candidates don't understand even up to this point.

They think solely in terms of jobs available. They operate on a first-come-first-serve mentality instead of diligently thinking about WHICH recruitment firm (therefore which specific headhunter) they'll use to represent them.

This is HUGE mistake considering NOT ALL HEADHUNTERS ARE CREATED EQUAL.

This is why there are so many terrible recruiter stories out there!

Most recruiters are absolute garbage (as high as 80% are relatively ineffectual and won't become serious players in our field due to the high failure rates in our line of work).

These low-level performers are not serious about their job, they've already got one foot out the door, they can't even do the job right to be fair, etc. They ruin our industry's reputation.

This is called req-driven (job requisition) recruitment.

Many recruiters are out to fill a req!

They don't give a shit what happens to the candidate as long as they can submit the candidate to the req.

As for candidate service? Candidate care? Coaching, services, and support? You'll be lucky if you ever hear from them again. Many of my competitors, then and now, choose to run their business like this.

Top headhunters, on the other hand, play the game VERY differently.

They work with a candidate-FIRST approach, the opposite of a req-driven mentality. These headhunters will align with the candidate well in advance of a career move and rep them out to the market, in a reverse engineered way.

Instead, many top headhunters rep top candidates to approach the market versus prioritizing reqs and clients. Since most niche markets are more candidate-driven, this is actually a superior approach where game recognizes game and there's a bit of filtering and natural order of things that headhunters contribute to.

If you're a candidate, think about it:

Would you rather be a submittal to a job for a generalist recruiter or would you rather work with a headhunter as your dedicated agent to the outside market, in an ideal world?

Most candidates would prefer the latter - they don't want to just be a submit - they'd rather take control of the market and reverse engineer the damn thing.

So that begs the question: how do you know if you're talking to a top headhunter who will help you do this?

In other words, how can you assess agency recruiters (headhunters) so that you find the people best equipped to serve your needs?

Well, in my view, there are 6 main characteristics of agency recruiters to be concerned about if you're a candidate (or client for that matter).

The 6 points you should consider when assessing agency recruiters (headhunters) include:

1. Market knowledge

This one is brainlessly obvious. If your recruiter is a generalist who represents every single job req under the sun, run far, far away to a land far, far away from said recruiter.

This person is COMPLETELY req-driven because they don't even have a specialism - the reddest of all flags. Top headhunters are HIGHLY specialized; they've only survived and thrived by becoming market niche leaders!

They have a wealth of knowledge in their noggins that can make or break your career. These people are wiser than any career coach or mentor because they dominate their specialist space and are pros when it comes to specific career tracks.

This type of micro-knowledge expertise is critical of candidates to leverage!

This means:

ONLY build relationships with relevant recruiters in your EXACT market/career vertical as an ideal move.

I.e. if you're a lawyer, find specialist headhunters focused in law, not the tech recruiter who happens to have a client looking for a lawyer.

The importance of market fit and recruiter specialism cannot be understated.

2. Assuming your agency recruiter is specialized, the next step is to understand if they understand careers or not!

Something I was always good at was actually CONSULTING my candidates and clients. Not just brainlessly slinging reqs and trying to sell people into shitty decisions that don't actually benefit them.

This is where career coaching comes in!

As a coach, should your candidates do XYZ or should they not? Is this req a fit or is it not? Which companies or career strategies are best for my candidate?

Top headhunters will not just start selling you blindly into reqs! They're actually going to use their brains to think for a minute instead of wasting everyone's valuable time (including their own).

As I always tell people, I do not get paid to arrange interviews. I get paid when I help people move for the right reasons and GET THEM WHAT THEY WANT.

Thus, career coaching capabilities and knowledge could be easily assessed by asking your agency recruiter: "what do you think I should do? What are your thoughts about XYZ?"

Then take a step back and evaluate - do they actually give good career advice? If the answer is "no, they just want to sell me into this req", then you have your answer!

3. Sales & Client Skills

This is where just simply being "nice" and supportive has very little commercial value.

You shouldn't seek this quality in your headhunter alone because they need to have sugar AND spice, a quality which may matter more in this profession.

Top headhunters are sales-oriented people who know how to get people to do stuff. The reason is because at the end of the day, to get the offers and money that candidates want, top headhunters are STRONG negotiators.

They are able to confront clients, hold them accountable, stand up for their candidate, and hold the line when it comes to comp negotiations.

The reason why so many candidates are ultimately disappointed by their recruiters is because their recruiters are weak at communicating, which results in weak offers or surprise endings.

Either they didn't sell you right on managing your own expectations, or they failed at pushing the client to whip out the best offers.

There are different levers top headhunters use to push offers up that lower performing recruiters just don't know how to do! Thus, it's critical you find recruiters who are gutsy, knowledgeable, completely open and capable of pushing clients around.

BEWARE: These people tend to have big personalities and egos - So you can't treat all recruiters the same (read: rudely).

In other words, work with a tough professional who isn't afraid to advocate for you than the opposite, someone who is superficially nice but incapable.

4. Experience

Now this one is a toughie.

I was a top rookie at age 23, an even better biller at 24 (almost doubled my billings), and an absolute machine by year 3 as a 25 year old. It took me a mere 3 years to fully dominate my niche market of regulatory writing, coast to coast, beating out my competition with decades of experience on me.

It's because I worked a lot harder than they did and made myself the ubiquitous recruiter in my space by being the most prevalent headhunter that my network knew of.

That success led my firm to give me the opportunity to pioneer the executive search offering at age 26 because they knew I could succeed servicing this high-end market where most of my customers were double to triple my age.

This isn't to brag. It's to illustrate a simple point:

Top billers are usually strong performers right out of the gate because they have a natural predisposition for success in this profession. Thus, many who land into this career even in their 20s become exceptional performers straight away.

That's why I always counsel candidates NEVER to judge headhunters on AGE of experience. This business is very weird where "years of experience" isn't necessarily a good thing.

For example, a recruiter in their 20s has a lot more desire for money thus they work overtime and are faster at technology and better at customer management (more relatable, relevant, charismatic, what have you), which actually leads them to outbill their competition decades their senior in relatively short order!

Instead of questioning around YEARS of experience, ask questions around DEPTH and POTENTIAL of experience, like:

"Walk me through your most recent placement."

"Share some highlights of your recruitment career/placements thus far."

"What's your recruitment approach?"

"What's your market approach?"

Open questions will force the recruiter's hand to show you who they REALLY are.

If they blubber, stutter, and don't have anything great to add in more detail, or worse yet, get all defensive and mysterious, then you have your answer!

If they give you great examples of what they tangibly achieved, then you know you're talking to a real one worth further relationship-building with.

TIP: You should do your research in advance by word of mouth referencing (ask your colleagues/network what they think) as well as looking at their recs on linkedin. By the time you actually have a conversation, make sure you're treating them with respect as top headhunters have a bit of an ego and you want to be respectful of their expertise/standing in the community to get off on the right foot.

5. Process

Top headhunters have a very specific way of doing things. They will not wing it.

They're usually control freaks with VERY clear agreements with you on what is expected on both ends to maximize the utility and efforts of this partnership. Their time is valuable and they will not spend it willy-nilly - this is a sign of dealing with a top professional.

Tip: Top billers regularly ask for candidates for representation exclusivity, a period of usually 1-4 weeks to work together seamlessly in an effort to get them placed in an aligned manner without outside interference (candidates going behind their backs to apply to jobs directly and/or leverage their competitors).

Don't be surprised if top headhunters have an actual process they want you to adhere to. You should be more scared if a recruiter DOESN'T have a gameplan for you.

6. Services

This is where again, top headhunters differentiate themselves.

My customary offering for candidates have not deviated from the year I started in this biz. Every candidate that chooses to work with me is rewarded with superior services my competitors simply either don't know how to do, or can't do as well as I can.

For example, while other recruiters are busy touting the 32 hour workweek that they're obsessed with ("don't call me after X time, because I'll be resting so you'll have to get at me another time"), I'm oldschool. I'm always available for my candidates because I like my job and I don't mind it.

It genuinely is NO shirt off my back at all to take a call when it makes sense to do so whether I'm in a foreign country, at a vineyard, or chilling at a cafe reading a book. I seriously do not mind picking up a phone and speaking with people that I care about (my candidates and clients WHO MAKE ME RICH).

In addition to being readily and HAPPILY available to chat on short notice to help my customers, I also offer a free resume rewrite for my candidates I'm confident of placing. Now, this service could cost thousands of dollars (and I do charge for it in my separate coaching practice).

For my candidates I'm going to rep as their exclusive headhunter, this service comes to them for free. I put all my effort and expertise to turn it around quickly so they walk away at the minimum with a highly valuable document, no matter what the outcome.

Furthermore, they get career coaching and honest consultation on where they're at, leveraging my unique skillsets and experience in this area.

They give me their full information and I protect their data by keeping my mouth shut as these are highly sensitive conversations that deserve the utmost respect to serve as their confidant, coach, and guide to plan their career moves.

Either way, a recruiter's service should never be solely submitting a resume and working out interview schedules. That's not the high value stuff.

The high value stuff is the coaching and marketing support recruiters provide to help their candidates WIN at the interview game to position them for success to maximize everyone's investment of time and effort.

Of course, having the right recruiter who is capable can help pit hiring managers and companies against each other in a bid for your affection, navigating these highly sensitive situations, while using all the bargaining chips available to push up offers.

This is why top headhunters are so few and far between!

It's simply a difficult role to truly do so well to that level of mastery. Many do not exist for the common candidate because headhunters are selective which markets they'll exist in and serve; this also changes over time as those in our profession also move firms, markets, and positions.

For instance, after 3 years in reg writing, I transitioned to quality briefly at the order of my employer at the time, then hated that, and was wooed to stay at the firm by them giving me executive search to cover which I enjoyed.

When I went out on my own, I chose to recruit for headhunters instead (my true calling and passion) thus setting up DG Recruit , leaving my previous markets behind. Like me, many agency recruiters will shift over time on what they do, changing the recruitment scene along with their moves.

In Conclusion

I hope these 6 tips gave you some insights into how you should assess agency recruiters.

Without a doubt, you should be interviewing them to make sure they're a fit for you as much as they're interviewing you.

As with all things in life, it is a two-way street that requires your active participation within, rather than leave yourself vulnerable.

Dandan is a headhunter, entrepreneur, and real estate investor. Follow her journey on DandanZhu.com .