About Recruiters, Part One

By Randy Wooden, Director, Professional Center by Goodwill Industries of Northwest North Carolina

Job hunters may wonder about recruiters. Today, in the first of a series, we will explore some common industry terms.

A recruiter conducts the initial interview. They may or may not be the person posting the job online.

An internal or in-house recruiter works to fill openings with their employer. Companies with a high volume of positions to fill often employ one or more people whose sole job is recruiting. Companies with fewer openings typically employ a human resources generalist who recruits and performs other facets of human resources.

External recruiters or staffing/executive search professionals fill positions with a number of client companies. Staffing firms typically fill openings at the hourly level, and executive search firms recruit talent at the salaried and senior management levels.

Searches may be conducted on a retained or contingency basis. Retained searches involve an employer hiring a single firm to recruit for a position, typically at the executive level. The hiring company pays part of the placement fee in advance with the remainder paid when the position is filled or at other milestones. With contingency searches, the employer engages several firms to present candidates with only the firm which presented the hired candidate getting paid.

Job hunters are not responsible for paying recruiting fees.