Going Into the Recruiting Business? Be Ready For A Wild Ride!

Executive Search is a dynamic and exciting profession. Do you have stamina, confidence, and that burning desire to be in charge? Are you a leader? Do you like calling the shots? Are you decisive? Ready to command the income you deserve? The beauty of a recruiting business is you can design your firm to fit your personality and strengths. The choices can be overwhelming because there're so many options. Don’t let that stop you…dive in headfirst and your path will become clear.

Here’s my prescription to be successful from the start. 1. Get recruiter training. You must understand all the steps in the placement process before you begin. You don’t want your car mechanic or your dentist to wonder what their next step should be; the recruiting business is the same. You’re the conductor of this symphony so you must understand what part everyone plays, beginning with your role. Your number one responsibility is to make placements. Sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised how many recruiters get befuddled and confused by events.

2. Recruiting is a sales position. You’ll help company clients and candidates. Your impact on people’s lives can be enormous, even profound. I was recruited years ago and the experience was wonderful. My salary took a leap and I loved my new responsibilities. Don’t under estimate your influence and don’t abuse your power. The ability to ask questions and listen will serve you well as you execute your recruiting responsibilities.

3. In the placement process there are more twists and turns than an espionage mystery flick. People are full of surprises. It helps to be quick thinking, and nimble minded. Your job is to ‘tell it like it is’. You're a diplomat and master of framing news in a sensitive, yet poignant manner. Don’t manipulate. People will trust you and you’ll make more money. Don’t be tempted to take short cuts. Do your job right every time.

When you understand the recruitment process, and are armed with top-notch recruiting tools, you can decide if your business is a lone eagle operation or on it’s way to offices in 50 states or 50 countries.

Finally, exposure to how other recruiters work is helpful in finding your own style. When I started recruiting I had a few years experience in the corporate world and had owned a business in the Chicago area investigating casualty claims for big insurance companies. I was used to asking questions and finding facts. I met a Big Biller Recruiter who had owned a large recruiting firm and was winding down his career. My mentor charged me $5000. to train and coach me. He told me if I followed his instructions I’d make a placement within 6 weeks. I made one my first week and never looked back.


I added tips to my notes for years. Now I coach people who want to be Headhunters. Getting a placement quickly does wonders for one’s self-confidence. Success breeds success.

The recruiting process is not difficult or mysterious. Recruiting is not complicated even though there are multiple steps. Execution of each phase takes practice. Most often practice takes place during real life situations and can be uncomfortable. No one likes making mistakes. Once learned the recruiting business is never ever dull. Like playing an instrument there are always new things to learn and great satisfaction in performing your art.


To expedite your success you may wish to work with a recruiting coach. Having an expert at your side during your first few placements can help you avoid the pitfalls of  each phase. In recruiting there are decisions to make hourly. A coach keeps you on task and provides continual insight into how to make productive choices. You'll feel more confident without second-guessing your ability or the process. Within weeks you'll have a placement and your fee should cover the coaching fee and give you a profit. The ROI of a recruiting coach will last as long as your career.

In the recruiting business there are no income limits. If you’re methodical, creative, enjoy working with people, have a good work ethic, and are not afraid to work on commission, then the recruiting business may be your road to success!

by Kimberly Schenk, Author, Headhunter (20 yrs) and Recruitment Coach

"Top Recruiter Secrets" eBook

Become a Top Recruiter!  Get step by step recruiter training designed to help you make more placements and become a top Recruiter from day 1. Recruiting Coach options available.


12/3/12 FYI - I was unable to login to this account for a few years! I've shut down my other blogs. All new articles can be found at the http://TopRecruiterSecrets.com site. Love to hear all your opinions and about your recruiting experiences!

Kimberly Schenk
email: support@toprecruitersecrets.com

(Don't forget to check out current articles from 2013!)

Recruiting Training to Get to the Top!

In order to be a top Executive Recruiter it's crucial to get sound, proven training. Recruiters must learn the process. Next they must follow and trust that process. Successful Recruiters all use a method and make hour by hour decisions based on the question, “What will help me make a placement this week?”

High level recruiting is an art. Top Recruiters focus on those tasks that will place a good (or great) candidate in front of an employer who has a desperate need to fill a position. If the Recruiter has qualified the employer client and the candidate, the odds of an offer being extended increase dramatically. Top Recruiters have prepped both the decision maker client and candidate, to ensure the interview goes well.

Don't waste precious time tossing resumes at an employer. In my opinion, that's the weakest strategy recruiters use. It's not even recruiting, in my opinion. Any employer could have an administrative assistant sort through a stack of resumes and pull out a few they like. People are not pieces of paper. Decision makers who need a position filled love to work with a professional who saves them time and provides exactly the kind of candidate they want; they want their Recruiter to do all the work except interview. By the way, once you've proven yourself to a client, interviews often turn into a 'stamp of approval', because the trust is so strong.

A high level Recruiter controls and manages the entire placement process. They never stand on the sidelines wringing their hands, wishing their employer client would look at the three or four resumes they have supplied. Recruiters who focus on resumes, give away their power and their success. Frankly, they are asking their client to do too much of the work!

Hiring new people is a necessary evil to many hiring managers. If they are understaffed, these managers may have more crisis to handle. They may procrastinate, postponing time consuming interviews. When a company client works with a smart, effective Recruiter, that Recruiter chooses two potential hires (possible three), presents those candidates in a desirable light, makes sure the interview takes place, debriefs both parties, and ensures one of the candidates gets hired.

Top level Recruiters make hiring effortless and easy for their clients. That's why their clients continue to use them and that's why these clients are willing to pay the big bucks for an Executive Recruiter's service. It doesn't matter if you're a Contract Recruiter, Contingency Fee Recruiter (Headhunter), in-house Corporate Recruiter, or part-time Mom Recruiter; if you want to make more placements, have more credibility, more fun, and make more money, learn the recruiting process and implement that process every day.

We train recruiters. Visit us at "Top Recruiter Secrets"

Recruiting and the Recession: Opportunity Abounds!

Recruiters, there's no need to panic just because the 'Experts' are talking gloom and doom recession chat. Yes, many people have lost their jobs in the past year. I think the estimate is about 2,000,000 jobs lost. Yes, the economy is shifting and adjusting. It's happened before and will happen again. This could be the best time to increase the number of clients you have and the number of candidates in your pool.

Whenever there are more people applying for the same job the truth is it becomes harder for employers to sift through their stacks of resumes for the best people. This is a great opportunity to expand your services! Maybe the times call for you adjust your fees or do a BOGO half price! Be creative. Talk with your customers. What's happening with them? Good employees are still the key to their survival.

Plant some ideas. If they are swamped with resumes and need three key people, negotiate your fee in a semi-contract-recruiter manner. Tell your client you'll come to them, sort through resumes, screen, and conduct the initial interviews providing them with quality candidates they need only interview and hire!
Maybe the fee for one to two weeks and 3 – 4 hires is $2,000. a week ($50. per hour) plus a bonus of $500. for each hire. You get cashflow and they get a fantastic value.

You've already proven your value to existing clients and by recognizing their 'cash crunch' issues or whatever their issue is, they still get valuable services their company desperately needs and you plow through the recession ready to emerge stronger and better.

It's okay to be creative and think in terms of helping your customers stay in business. They'll appreciate your flexibility and ability to still solve their problems.

Explore other industries and small businesses that are growing. You already know the process, all you need are the key words used in that industry to expand your business base. This is one of the things that makes recruiting such a great industry.

Use this time to tap into hundreds, maybe thousands of new candidates. Exceptional candidates are always bankable. Stock up on contacts and be sure to get two to five names of others from your new contacts.

Keep active. Analysis/paralysis is always an income killer. Turn off the news and stay on the phone. Don't join in any doom and gloom talk. Keep offering your services. It's human nature that the weak attitudes and weak thinkers in the recruiting profession will likely do themselves in by their own inactivity and, “what's the use?” mentality. Again, this is good news for you!

Day by day, week by week, keep putting one foot in front of the other doing all your regular recruiting duties and ask yourself everyday, “What can I offer my clients that will help them today?” Stay open and flexible and the money will continue to flow. When the “Experts” declare the recession is over, odds are you'll have to start thinking of hiring a buch of new recruiters yourself to keep up with your new business!

We train Recruiters. visit us at "Top Recruiter Secrets"

Executive Recruitment - Learn How To Recruit The Best Candidates!

Executive Recruiters excel at finding the best candidate for a position vs. the most available one. A good Recruiter should not blanket their client with resumes. No. They should earn their fee by taking that stack of resumes and doing their job. Their job is to find the candidate who best fits their clients' culture and has the required skill sets.

Far too many people in the industry call themselves Recruiters but lack the specific skill sets that distinguish the real pros. The remarkable thing is any HR department, or person who finds themselves saddled with recruiting responsibilities can gain those skill sets and strategies with training.

If you find yourself with a stack of resumes, my advice is pick out a few of the promising ones (don't read the entire stack – it's a time waster) and then pick up the phone. Resumes are a primitive tool, in my opinion, and no substitute for a conversation. The guy with the best resume may come across as completely offensive.

If you don't know what questions to ask to qualify a candidate quickly, you'll spend countless hours running in circles. There's nothing worse than finding an excellent candidate who would never consider the position you have to offer! How do you avoid this unfortunate, egg on your face, situation? By getting the basic training all Recruiters need.

There is an ebb and flow, or natural rhythm to the recruiting process. It's not hard if you know what to ask and when to ask the right questions.

One thing new Recruiters fail to understand (another time killer) is how to talk with the hiring manager (decision maker) for a full understanding of what will make that manager say, “Yes, make that candidate an offer!” It's the Recruiter's responsibility to clarify the short list of requirements before they talk with the first candidate. This is an important step.

Matching great candidates with good employers is easy when one understands and follows the recruiting process. Outsiders often look at what Recruiters do and think, “Piece of cake! I can do that.” It's true, they probably can do the job. What is also true is they will be efficient and effective only after they learn the process and master the key skills needed to do the job well.

Executive Recruitment is a high paying, fascinating, rewarding profession once one takes the time to approach the position as a professional. Get training before you make your first call or agree to your first assignment and success will shower your efforts with an array of rewards.

We train Recruiters! For more information visit "Top Recruiter Secrets"
(Don't forget to check out current articles from 2013!)

Recruiter Training - Is The Recruiting Industry Saturated?

Recently someone asked me if the recruiting industry was saturated with Recruiters or was there just so much turnover because the job was so difficult? His question was prompted by the numerous recruiter training programs now available on line.

My answer: No the recruiting industry is not saturated! In fact did you know there was an average turnover rate of 23.6% for American companies in 2006, per the US Dept. of Labor Statistics? That's a staggering number that shows a great need for Recruiters! The US Government estimates the recruiting industry will grow by at least 50% by 2014. Corporate estimates put the number closer to 70%. There is lots of room for professionals looking to make a career change into recruiting.

There is too much unnecessary turnover in our industry because training still lags behind the demand for good recruiters. If you're a new Recruiter and you're thrown into a position without training (it's done everyday of the week!) your chances of succeeding are limited. On the surface recruiting looks easy. It's not! Recruiting is about process and if you don't know the process and how to execute that process you're likely to watch deal after deal slip away. Ugh!

The answer is simple. If you're a Recruiter get some training! And once you start applying what you've learned you'll be discerning about what additional training you need. Ongoing education will help your income grow and keep growing. A contingency fee Recruiter can easily earn $60,000 - $120,000 a year. With some good organization and thoughtful assistance those numbers can double in a twinkle.

In-house Recruiters who have full cycle recruiting skills earn $65,000. - $95,000. I know in-house Recruiters who make $120,000. Good contract Recruiters make anywhere from $22. per hour to $65. per hour, depending on the industry.

My point is recruiting is a specialized skill. It's an art that uses a process. A Recruiter with good judgment, common sense, good communication and people skills and a desire to help clients, has no limits. Recruiting is a fun and challenging profession when one is armed with the necessary skills. We don't go to the dentist thinking this professional is going to 'wing it' when it comes to our treatment! Once you demonstrate to your clients you know what you're doing as a Recruiter you'll have to do less marketing because your loyal clients will depend on your services and come back again and again.

We train Recruiters. visit us at "Top Recruiter Secrets"

Nyme - You asked, 'how do you get so many job orders?'

The details on how one gets job orders are in my ebook, "Top Recruiter Secrets". But the key, in my opinion is talking directly with the decision makers who have the authority to make the hiring decision. If there's an HR dept between you, the Recruiter and the decision maker, that tends to slow things down and even kill deals.

The second key to getting job orders is to gain the interest of the decision maker within the first minute of your phone call because that's about all you'll have to establish the initial rapport and see if there is a reason for the conversation to continue. (Again details are covered in the training manual) Obviously different industries and organizations have their own unique ways of doing business. Regardless, once you've chosen an industry your success will rely on your ability to talk with the people who really want to see empty positions filled! They lose money (and have multiple other problems) everyday the position remains open.

Example: A key partner in a law firm is busy for sure, but they will talk with a Recruiter who can solve their problem (fill a need). Let's say that law firm is looking for a new partner...what they typically want is a 'Rainmaker'. Someone who can bring a book of business or a few key clients into the firm so the existing attorneys can do what attorneys do. The HR person in that firm generally won't have the authority to approve your fee (a hefty 5 figure fee) or the insights the managing partner will have about recruiting a key person. If it turns out the managing partner does not want or need a partner at the time of your call, you've still made a valuable contact. If that firm happens to need some paralegals or a specific type of attorney,you'll be referred to whoever is handling that hire. You'll be able to call that person with a little clout."Bob Brown asked me to call you about your open litigation attorney requisition...tell me..." and off you go.

Recruiting is about process not personality. Get the training you need to feel confident your process is helping you make placements. We don't want our auto mechanic, or our doctor, or our dentist to 'wing it'! We want to know that the professionals we use in our life know the correct process to follow to fix our problems! It's the same with recruiting. Our clients want to trust that we know how to solve their problems...and when we demonstrate our ability they return again and again!

visit: http://www.toprecruitersecrets to view all we have to offer.
Kimberly Schenk