About Headhunters

Headhunters are essentially job recruiters. More specifically, they are recruiters that fill high-level corporate jobs such as executive and management positions. Through a variety of means, it is the job of a headhunter to seek out viable candidates for an open position. In many cases, the headhunter must convince a prospective employee (who was not actively searching for a new position) to leave a current place of employment and accept a new position elsewhere.

Function

Headhunters are paid for their services by the client who is seeking to fill an open position. Ostensibly, the headhunter's duties will result in the discovery of top-tier candidates that would otherwise be unaware of or uninitiated to apply for the position. Headhunters are typically paid on a retainer or contingency basis. Retainer structure payment results in payment prior to the completion of the candidate search. Contingency contracts require the headhunter's candidate to be hired prior to payment.

Potential

Headhunters can earn a tidy sum for each candidate they match with their clients. Regardless of pay structure, the recruiter can typically expect to receive compensation that is between 25 and 33 percent of the new employee's first year of salary. This percentage often includes any applicable signing bonuses and estimated commissions.

Considerations

Successful headhunters require a large database of contacts to weed through and find viable applicants for any given position. This requires constant networking. Other sources for finding job applicants include advertising and trade association directories. Clients typically supply headhunters with a list of required skills and experience that the candidates must match exactly in order to warrant contacting.

Identification

Headhunters often work for recruiting agencies, but sometimes are self-employed. Either way, the headhunter must form strong, long-lasting relationships with clients to ensure a steady stream of income. Many companies work exclusively with a particular agency for years or even decades. Others take advantage of numerous headhunters to maximize their pool of job applicants.

Expert Insight

The majority of headhunters specialize by industry, region or both. For example, an agency may have a recruiter especially devoted to seeking out advertising executives, another for IT professionals and another for medical professions.