Agency recruitment and in-house recruitment can seem a world apart.
Forget men are from Mars; women are from Venus – agency and in-house recruiters are really from different planets. Indeed, the people who succeed in each role tend to be very different…
But are the roles that distinct? And what are the differences anyway? Is the grass greener? And most importantly… have you chosen the right side, or would you benefit from a career move? We hope to answer a few of these questions for you.
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In-House vs. Agency
In-house recruiters need a team to help them. They delegate work to the right people to get the job done. In-house recruiters also have special skills like search engine optimization (SEO), screening, copywriting, applicant engagement, and more. These skills are costly.
Recruitment agencies advertise jobs, do CV filtering, and better handle the overall hiring process by identifying each element that needs to be done. Handling recruitment internally leaves a wide gap in the area of reach. You’re only able to get the word out so far, alone.
Recruitment agencies can reach vastly larger areas. In addition, they already have a talent pool waiting to hear back from them about available positions. Agencies are also often unbiased middlemen. They can reach out to employees at other companies that might be a better fit for yours.
Recruiting in-house can be difficult when your company needs to fill a niche role. You don’t have a talent pool ready to pull from. Agencies do. They’re better able to find a hard-to-fill position with a strong, dedicated candidate.
Agency Recruitment: The Pros & Cons
One of the best things about agency recruitment is the potential for reward. There’s massive earning potential if you’re good. We’re talking potential for six-figure earnings here, and age or rank have no bearing. Agency recruitment is a true meritocracy: only your results count.
Each placement directly correlates to your paycheck, and there’s nothing like knowing your hard work is directly acknowledged and financially rewarded.
The culture of agency recruitment also tends to be very fast-paced and tight-knit. The pressure of a career in sales creates camaraderie, and many recruiters thrive on that. It’s an outward-facing, client-focused, high-pressure role, and that really suits some people.
Basic salaries tend to be low, on the other hand. Earning potential is potentially very low if you’re not successful. And that success does hinge on factors other than your ability.
Call it bad luck, call it the recruitment gods, call it a difficult market – whatever you call it, be aware that your earnings could suddenly plummet (if they get off the ground) due to factors mostly outside of your control.
The camaraderie, on the one hand, you have competitiveness on the other. Agency recruitment can be cutthroat, and not everyone wants or enjoys that. There’s little job security either.
When only results count, a few bad months and you could well be shown the door. Plus, there are the cowboys. Agency recruitment generally has its share of BIG personalities. That might not be an environment or culture you thrive in (although let it be said that it greatly depends on the agency you work with).
The Low Down
Agency recruiters are bullish, arrogant, salesy, and only care about the “deal,”… or the stereotype runs. In reality, good agency recruiters don’t fit this mold.
There is some truth to it, though, I suppose. Agency recruitment tends to be more sales-aligned than in-house recruitment, which does attract a specific type of personality.
‘Salesy’ recruiters are perhaps more drawn to agency recruitment than in-house, but it’s not fair to paint the whole bunch with the same brush. And it’s certainly not fair to suggest that those are the only recruiters who are successful agency-side.
Agency recruitment is more of a dog-eat-dog world. Basic salaries tend to be very low, and a commission-driven environment does cultivate a certain bullishnes