Working With Recruiters 101
An honest conversation between a mid-level UXer and a tech recruiter.
Christine Hi! I am Christine Cunniff and I am a double-career-changer and mid-level UX designer. In my tech career, I have been a QA Engineer, iOS Developer, and UX generalist. I have worked in agency, startup, and in-house environments and I have worked with internal and external recruiters at a few different points in my career.
Jamie: Hey there, I’m Jamie Calabria, currently in People Operations for a Philly-based start-up, but once a “Full Desk Agency Recruiter” which means I ‘owned’ candidates as well as a book of business that I fueled through outreach to hiring managers. I’ve been both the external and now the internal recruiter for tech companies which, I think, allows me a unique perspective into the hiring world.
Why are we writing this piece?
CC: I get a lot of questions from UX and tech newbies about working with recruiters — what should I know? Will this help get my foot in the door? What shouldn’t I say? Is it worth it? etc. It can be a really opaque/intimidating dynamic to approach for people new to tech! It can also either be a great experience, or a stressful nightmare (but don’t be scared!). For a while now, I’ve been wanting to share my experience and advice in one logical place. As any good UXer would do, I wanted to check my own assumptions about recruiters and stay open to learning about the other side, beyond the veil. I bumped into Jamie in a local Slack group and thought “how awesome would it be to be able to shed a little light on both sides of the experience!”.
JC: I spent a lot of time in spaces (Linkedin & Slack Groups most commonly) where recruiters get blasted for bad industry practices. I believe that like most things in the job world, a relationship with a recruiter is transactional and the more folks understand going into the transaction, the better off they will be at the end of it. When Christine pitched this idea to me after a conversation in a Slack thread about poor recruiting practices I was floored! Having an opportunity to get both sides of the story will hopefully help other folks going into the job market.
How does the recruiter-candidate-company process work?
JC: The recruiter-candidate-company interaction is a bit more like a circle than a pipeline and at any given point in time a single piece of information to a recruiter can fuel the rest of the cycle. Example: External recruiter is pitching a company to a QA Engineer who is interviewing at X company already, they mentioned to the recruiter who they are interviewing with at that company, and the recruiter later uses that info to reach out to the hiring manager at X to say “I heard you have an open role, here’s how I can help”. The hope is that the QA Eng will take the job the recruiter pitches and turn down X company thus the recruiter can say to the hiring manager “too damn bad you missed out on this QA guy, I know 5 more just like him”, picks up that job & the cycle goes on.
A good recruiter, once a hiring manager agrees to work with them, takes a detailed job order and learns the ins and outs of what they do, and then pitches back candidates that they know off the top of their heads who could be a good fit for the role. They reach out to the candidate later and say ‘they like you, interview on Monday”. Once you do the interview, a recruiter will negotiate your offer (and remember for a full-time role they want you to make as much money as possible) and once you’ve started and worked for 30 to 90 days they get a 25% payout based on your 1st-year salary.
There are usually some bumps in the road but that’s the idea. I spent most of my time cold calling managers in the hopes they had jobs open so it’s not always as smooth as described lol.
CC: Oh wow, that’s so interesting! This was my layman’s understanding coming into this conversation: a company hires an external firm or firms to handle the dirty work of finding candidates that might fit. Recruiters reach out to candidates they think might have a chance of fitting into a role for over-the-phone or in-person interviews and grill you on your past experience, your skills, what you’re looking for, and salary (the topic of salary is a can of worms and we’ll get to that later!). Sometimes they’ll tell you about the companies they work with, sometimes they won’t. But they basically negotiate your end of the contract to get you into a role.
Are recruiting agencies a good resource for “junior” designers?
CC: This is absolutely the question I get asked most by tech newbies, hands down. Two things: First — I put “junior” in quotes for a reason — never ever call yourself a “junior designer”. Hard stop. Don’t do it. You are selling yourself and your skills short! I am going to write a whole separate piece about this because it’s hella important. Just, don’t. Secondly, and to sort of answer the question — maybe! It depends on what you’re looking for, the quality of the recruiting agency, and the relationship you’re able to make with the individual recruiter. In my experience, working with a recruiter can help you get your foot in the door at a company.
JC: So yes and no. As Christine noted, “junior” is in the eye of the beholder but for recruiters, folks with less than 2 years of experience are hard to place and get a fee. Not because they don’t want to but because companies don’t want to pay out the nose for someone they can get for 65k on their first tech job. However, if you are able to bring a strong portfolio or body of personal work and can speak with grace about the projects you’ve worked on or have some unique item in your tech stack, it might be enough to convince them to pitch you. Otherwise, proceed with caution, and remember once they have your info, they will cold-call you and email you occasionally to gather info or pitch jobs, which has its own ups and downs.
So again, be cautious, I suggest using them as practice for actual interviews or asking them about local companies and industry info but don’t discuss your interview activity, and if you currently work with a company be careful what you divulge about your team.
What are some of the key differences between working with an agency recruiter versus an internal recruiter?
CC: An internal recruiter is an employee of the company itself. For me, working with an internal recruiter feels like more of a “sure thing”. Like, the recruiter is closer to the company so you’re closer to the company. You can get really rich information about the company culture, the team you’re working with, and the role. In my experience, they tend to have more direct technical knowledge than an external recruiter, but I’m sure that can vary from company to company.
JC: High-level differences between internal and external are often transparency. I guarantee unless you ask you won’t know what other candidates are interviewing with you from an internal recruiter because they are focused on the brand and making you feel special in case they want to hire you. They also have a very specific brief for the candidate they want to fill so it’s harder for them to get behind someone who doesn’t fit that.
External recruiters are usually pretty transparent and can act as a consultant to you during your process. If another candidate went before you, they’ll tell you, and if they’re good at what they do they’ll have detailed prep information about the questions asked so you can know in advance. They want you to ace it, and if you don’t they’ll be open about why and give curt feedback. To this they also don’t always follow the brief for the role. They might suggest you for a role even if you have ⅗ requirements — not to screw you ove,r but because there’s something in your background (previous industry or the school you went to) that would interest the hiring manager.
How might the handling of salary be different between an internal recruiter and an external recruiter?
JC: The same idea of transparency with salary. An internal recruiter has a salary band and they probably aren’t asking for more than that because their boss is HR or finance and they have tight purse strings. Plus they get no commission off your hire, just a pat on the back. I know, there are a lot of ‘don’t tell external recruiters your salary’ warnings out there, but you can tell them what you’re worth, even if it’s not what you’re making currently, and they’ll do their best to get it for you. They aren’t working with HR, they work with the hiring manager 9 times out of 10 and if the hiring manager likes you they’ll fight for more and more money to offer you.
CC: LOL, I am absolutely one of those people giving the “don’t tell external recruiters your salary!” warnings. But I think you said it well, Jamie — you can tell them what you’re worth. It’s best to go into calls about jobs with a number in mind that you feel confident about and comfortable with. BUT that number does not need to be based on your past or current salary.
What is the difference between being hired on a contract versus taking a full-time role?
CC: When you are hired for a contract role, you are agreeing to work in a specific role for a specific amount of time. Contracts are usually written to last 6 or 12 months, but they can be shorter or longer. Contract roles are usually negotiated through an external recruiter. Technically, you become an employee of the recruiting firm, not the company itself. For example, I took a 6-month contract-to-hire role with Elsevier through TEKsystems (a recruiting agency). I was considered an employee of TEKsystems — they cut my checks, provided my benefits, and maintained my working relationship with my manager at Comcast. After my 6-months was up, Elsevier had 3 options: they could end my contract and part ways with me, extend my contract and keep me on as a TEKsystems employee, or turn me into a full-time hire. I love the stability of an in-house role, so I was pumped when they told me they’d be transitioning my role to full-time! In becoming a full-time employee, I was able to get better pay, full benefits, and access to employee resources.
When you work on a contract there is a lot more money negotiation involved between you, the recruiter, and the company when you’re a contractor, so it’s not always clear how much money you should or could be making, and what benefits you might have access too. Help me shed some light on this, Jamie!
JC: Contracts are a great way to get your foot in the door for a big company like Elsevier or Comcast. Often, they exclusively hold those roles for recruiters, or when they use recruiters, they only give them CT roles.
CC: CT is “contract” and CTH is “contract-to-hire”?
JC: Yup. If you’re open to contracting, absolutely use a recruiter to get a CT gig. Recruiters get CT roles 1 of 2 ways but they are both handled relatively the same way in terms of money and negotiation.
The first is the same way they get most of the jobs they work, by selling their service, and the second is through these job boards where they get basic details of the role and anyone from any agency can submit a candidate. When those jobs show up it is like that moment when a hockey puck is dropped in the ice and the whole team jumps for it, so you have about an hour to shoot your shot. I have placed people in both situations but you’re far less likely, as a recruiter, to place someone in the job board position because you have no connection with the hiring process or the hiring manager, just an “active” or “in consideration” alert on a job requisition once you submit someone (Upenn, Amerigas, and other big government-y and institutions use this method).
In either case, the recruiter will get a number (bill rate) that the hiring company is willing to pay per hour. Then the recruiter will consider what percentage (burden+profit) of that the recruitment company will take when they are paid by the hiring company (this is pretty standard). Then they offer you a much smaller hourly rate (pay rate) to be a W2 employee for the recruitment company working at the hiring company. Being W2 is awesome because you don’t have to worry about 1099 independent contractor taxes, they offer health care, and when it comes time to negotiate a longer CT or flip you full time, they’ll do that work for you because you are their cash cow and they make money off of every hour you work. Recruiters have CT quotas because CT’ers make them bank. The downside is this is really that you’ll get less money per hour than you would directly as a CT’er for the company but your taxes would be higher.
When it comes to CT always ask 2 things:
- “How did you pick up this contract role?”
- “You’re offering me a pay rate of 50/hr, what is the bill rate for this role?”
I really want to work at [some company] — should I apply through a recruiter AND apply directly?
JC: So often if you apply for a role at a company directly, you cannot be submitted to a role of that type (i.e. CT or FT) by a recruiter within 6 months of when you applied. You can be submitted for a different role type. Example: You applied FT with Vanguard, a recruiter can submit you for a CT or CTH position. The opposite is not true though, you can be submitted by a recruiter, and assuming you don’t get an interview with the company, you can apply directly. Let’s say you do get interviewed through a recruiter but don’t make very far- things can get a little hairy if you were to apply direct and get a job after being rejected through the recruiter in a 6-month window and the agency can take legal action because they ‘own’ your candidacy based on the legal documents the company signed (I’ve never really seen that happen though).
Let the recruiter submit you to the role if you can and if you don’t hear anything from them go direct.
I’ve heard people in Slack grumbling about experiences with agency recruiters. What are some potential downsides of working with a recruiter?
CC: Oh lordy. I want to believe that agency recruiters get into this line of work because they genuinely want to find the best fit for the candidate and the company. BUT capitalism is real and is crushing us all and potentially causes recruiters to not be their best selves. Ya know, like any of us. Some recruiters can be super pushy and invasive. They might pressure or even mislead candidates who don’t put up firm boundaries to apply for roles that don’t make sense. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a recruiter reach out to me for a role that has absolutely nothing to do with my title, experience, or interests. Why are you asking me if I want to apply for a role as a super senior Android dev in Oklahoma on a 3-month contract when I am clearly a UX designer in Philadelphia? WHY? Because they want to make money off of you so they’ll throw anything and everything at you. There are definitely recruiters out there who see you and treat you as a pawn to meet their quota and make a quick buck. They don’t care about your wants or needs or your career path. In one of my last interviews via a recruiter, I decided that I wasn’t interested in the role because I didn’t want to have to build a UX team from scratch, I wanted to work somewhere with more stability where I could really hone my skills and learn from other seasoned designers. His response was, “Ugh, how much money is it going to take to get you in this role?”. Um, hi, can you hear me? It felt so slimy to be reduced to a dollar sign that way.
This is a scarier tale: I had a friend (let’s call him Aaron) who was working with a notoriously sketchy recruiting agency for a contract role with a big company in town. Aaron went through the final round of interviews with the company and reached out to the recruiter for feedback. What had the company said about his interviews, would they be making an offer? The recruiter, who had up until that point been quick to respond, started ignoring all of Aaron’s calls and emails. A friend at the company reached out to Aaron on LinkedIn and asked: “So are you taking the offer? We’re so excited to have you join the team!” The recruiter had ghosted Aaron because they wouldn’t be making enough money off of the transaction. So gross! Luckily, the company was willing to hire him directly and he got an awesome job.
JC: Woof, that’s wild. Christine you’re right that some of us get into it to help folks. I remember when I joined my agency I was so pumped to be able to help underrepresented folks get jobs in the industry (and I can say proudly every person I placed in that time fit that bill!) However, it wasn’t without pushback and that’s part of the reason I wanted to move to an internal role but that’s another rant about the industry. I think a lot of the conversation here outlines the varying downsides and everyone has a recruitment horror story at this point. Recruiters sometimes make mistakes and sometimes get money hungry and jaded negotiating 200k salaries every day.
One big thing I think I should note in terms of potential downsides is the idea of ‘ghost posts’. Every week, whether we had an open job or not, we had to post 3 or more jobs. Everyone. ~6 recruiters per team, 5 teams per office, that’s like 90 job posts a WEEK. Often none of those were real jobs we were working but rather cool jobs to lure people in or a spin on a job we had that was just outside the walls of the truth. Example: Every UX Designer in Philly has been pitched Vanguard. So rather than make a job post that describes Vanguard in Malvern (which no one would apply to) we’d post about say…a life-saving emergency application company in West Chester to try and pull in folks who are good enough for Vanguard’s standards and in range without making them think they are applying for Vanguard.
Overall, I would be wary of companies with too many job postings in a short span of time. No salesperson is that good.
What should I look for if I’m considering working with a recruiting company?
CC: Ask people in your peer group about their experiences. Keep in mind that there are so many recruiting agencies out there and there can be a lot of employees at one agency. Do your research and trust your gut!
JC: I’d say the same, ask a slack group, survey other people in the industry, and look at their websites. Some companies have exclusive agreements with the company you want to work for and will post their names on their sites. It also shows that they do actually partner with those companies and that they aren’t scared to talk about their ‘secret client’ they want you to work for. Once you’ve found someone you trust, stay connected and really utilize their knowledge as much as you can.
How many resumes does a recruiter see per week and how can I make mine stand out?
JC: It depends, external recruiters probably get less on average than internal recruiters. If I post a job in my current in-house role- I might get 200+ applicants in a weekend. As an agency recruiter, I could post 15 ‘ghost posts’ a week and only get 20 applications total. In general, check out online publications for resume writing, or I recommend hiring someone if you have the means, to help spruce up your resume for an ATS (applicant tracking system) because if you’re applying to a big company your resume will often end up in front of a robot. Alternatively, as someone in-house who reads each resume individually, it’s hard to say what ‘stands out’ when I look at 200+ resumes in a few hours aside from the exact qualifications i need to fill a rec sometimes, so try to pull details from the JD to include in your resume, the right words do stand out.
In general, I recommend: be clear, be direct, and put some personality in it.
What information shouldn’t I share with a recruiter?
CC: I’m always wary about disclosing my desired salary to a recruiter. I never disclose past salary though, and in some states, it’s even illegal for them to even ask about your past salary. Main takeaway: your past salary should never be a factor in your future salary. To prepare for questions around salary, do some research about the average salary for your role, experience, city, and industry. You can find a surprising amount of useful info through quick, simple google searches!
JC: 3 things you should be careful discussing (I’m cautious to say shouldn’t):
- Salary: Like I said earlier: know your worth and give them targets to match. They usually want to be respectful and not lowball you so give them something, but consider for every job you take you should get a standard 10% salary increase. It’s best practice to always ask the salary band before answering your range in both internal or external recruiter calls.
- Names: Do not share your manager’s name. It might be silly, but I was taught a little trick as an external recruiter to get names and details, “oh you work at X Company, you must be on (Made Up Name)’s team then” and when the candidate would say “no I work under Jane Doe” I could then pester your manager after you leave (or sometimes before honestly). Instead, If they get you a job, then you can offer a warm intro to your manager if you feel comfortable letting them backfill your seat, and you can use that as leverage for them to get you a job!
- Interviews: External recruiters will often ask about interview activity early on in the conversation under the guise of wanting to help you. Take caution in disclosing that until you get to near the final stages of your interviews through the recruiter. Once you get to finals you’ll want to disclose so they can help you negotiate and make the right decision if you have multiple offers.
Ending Note
We hope that this piece provides some basic vocabulary, valuable insights, and helpful advice for delving into the wild world of working with recruiters! We understand that job searching is hard but the best thing you can do for yourself is to remember that there are a lot of folks who will help you along the way, use your best judgment and the experience of others to identify the right people to lean on!
