Their fee is typically a percentage of the first year's salary for the role their candidate fills. I've seen them request up to 30%, but in my experience they s

Their fee is typically a percentage of the first year's salary for the role their candidate fills. I've seen them request up to 30%, but in my experience they settle for 10-15% depending on the situation. For a skilled recruiter, this can accrue pretty quickly; at the rate of one role filled per month, they're bringing in equivalent to an average engineer's salary. Of course I'm ignoring overheads there, and if they're working for a recruitment firm they'll be personally receiving commission rather than an individual fee. But my experience in the UK was that there were a few powerful and well-connected independent recruiters who had most of the good candidates and interesting companies on their books - I imagine it could add up pretty quickly!