It's Not For Everyone
Running an independent recruiting business can be incredibly rewarding. Just a few of the (many) perks:
Independence and autonomy
Unlimited earning potential
Creative control
Working how you want, when you want
Above everything, it’s a lifestyle business, meaning the lines between work and play are often blurred. Perfect example, just the other day I was out on the golf course in the middle of a “workday”. In between holes, I checked my email and noticed that not only had I received notification that one of my clients wanted to set up interviews with the candidates I submitted to them, I also had a new job order waiting for me to work on when I got back to the office. BOOM!
While I can go on and on about how making the decision to start my own independent recruiting firm was the best professional decision I’ve ever made, it’s important to also mention a very sobering fact: THIS IS NOT FOR EVERYONE.
“But Scott,” you say, “you just told us how much you love being independent and blurring the lines between work and play!” Yes, that’s true, but there’s also a dark side to all of this, and to pretend it doesn’t exist or try to sugarcoat it would be, at best, disingenuous.
Some hard truths:
We only make money when we make placements.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, as independent recruiters, we don’t get paid to source, screen and submit candidates to clients, we don’t get paid to find clients, we don’t get paid to schedule interviews, and we don’t get paid to negotiate offers. We get paid when offers are MADE and ACCEPTED by the candidates we are recruiting for the clients who have engaged our services. That means that when offers aren’t being made, candidates aren’t being placed, and we earn NOTHING for our efforts.
Job orders don’t get filled
Getting a new job order to work on is incredibly exciting. It means someone is willing to pay you if you can deliver on your promise to find them a great candidate for their open position. Unfortunately, many, if not most of the job orders you work on WON’T be filled by you. Why not? Because there are simply too many factors working against you, including:
A CFO that doesn’t want to spend an additional $25,000 to hire someone
An internal recruiting team that is fighting to keep their jobs and demonstrate their value to the company
A hiring manager who is distracted
Other sources of candidates, including your competitors, referrals from employees, and candidates applying to jobs directly with the company
Candidates receiving multiple offers for positions
Inability to align the client’s wants with the realities of what’s available in the market
“Purple squirrel” syndrome (client wants to hire a candidate that doesn’t exist)
I could go on and on, but I think you get the point.
As an independent recruiter, when job orders aren’t getting filled, you are, for all intents and purposes, UNEMPLOYED. Except that you’re not, because you can’t just go and file for unemployment. You’re left without a payday, no invoices sent out to be paid, no checks in the mail to deposit at the bank. That part of the job SUCKS.
Why am I telling you this? Because it’s the truth, and any headhunter or independent recruiter who tells you otherwise is lying. Then why do this at all?
Because if you work hard, YOU WILL MAKE PLACEMENTS. But a lot of times, you won’t.
So you need to be smart. You need to plan ahead. You need to save money, tuck away a few hundred bucks (or more) every time you make a placement for a rainy day. Because in this line of work, when it rains, it pours. And when it doesn’t? It feels like Death Valley.
Dry. Desolate. Empty. Hopeless.
But you’re a survivor, and you will live to see another day. Eventually, you’ll make another placement, maybe two or three, and suddenly your Quickbooks account will spring back to life.
Nobody in this business is immune to it - I have to remind myself at least a few times a year. You have to take the good with the bad. Or the bad with the good.
It’s part of the game.