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Yes, recruiters have accounts with companies, but in my experience the recruitment fee is a percentage of salary, and the individual recruiter compensation is o

Yes, recruiters have accounts with companies, but in my experience the recruitment fee is a percentage of salary, and the individual recruiter compensation is on a commission model. In short, I personally have no problems in believing that the higher the salary, the higher the payment to both the recruitment company and individual recruiter. However, I think we all know that closing the deal is far more important to the recruiter than negotiating small changes to the salary, so your point stands.

buu700 6y ago
I haven't worked with a recruiter, so this is pure speculation, but it seems to me that a recruiter's greatest incentive would be to close any deal at all as quickly as possible, because they're competing against the alternative of you finding a position on your own first (or otherwise no longer requiring their services). Getting you a high salary is just gravy.
- kamarg 6y ago
  > they're competing against the alternative of you finding a position on your own first (or otherwise no longer requiring their services) Almost every recruiter will constantly ask you if you're interviewing anywhere else or working with any other recruiters. They do this so they can be sure nobody else has the right to represent you to a client but also to gauge how much effort to put into presenting you to any of their clients. If you're not working with a a single recruiter exclusively, you'll often find that the amount of work they put in to get you in front of their clients drops dramatically to the point they no longer return your calls/emails.
- pdpi 6y ago
  It’s more complicated than that. You’re an engineer with a certain degree of experience and the recruiter will have an idea of how much that’s worth when they start the conversation with you, so they know up front how much money they stand to make as a ballpark figure, and how much work is worth putting into getting you an offer. Once they get you to the offer stage, and most of the work is done, they want to close the deal as soon as possible for as much money as possible. They know the band for the position so, if you’re lowballing your ask, they have every incentive to bump that up. On the flip side, if you’re asking for something on the top end of the range, and it looks like a long negotiation, they’re looking to spend a lot of incremental time for not a lot of incremental money, so it’s better to get you to accept an offer - any offer.
- jschwartzi 6y ago
  I have actually had a recruiter negotiate a salary bump on my behalf though.
  - thrwyoilarticle 6y ago
    As in they did it without you asking or they were the go-between during negotiation?

buu700 6y ago

I haven't worked with a recruiter, so this is pure speculation, but it seems to me that a recruiter's greatest incentive would be to close any deal at all as quickly as possible, because they're competing against the alternative of you finding a position on your own first (or otherwise no longer requiring their services). Getting you a high salary is just gravy.

kamarg 6y ago
> they're competing against the alternative of you finding a position on your own first (or otherwise no longer requiring their services) Almost every recruiter will constantly ask you if you're interviewing anywhere else or working with any other recruiters. They do this so they can be sure nobody else has the right to represent you to a client but also to gauge how much effort to put into presenting you to any of their clients. If you're not working with a a single recruiter exclusively, you'll often find that the amount of work they put in to get you in front of their clients drops dramatically to the point they no longer return your calls/emails.
pdpi 6y ago
It’s more complicated than that. You’re an engineer with a certain degree of experience and the recruiter will have an idea of how much that’s worth when they start the conversation with you, so they know up front how much money they stand to make as a ballpark figure, and how much work is worth putting into getting you an offer. Once they get you to the offer stage, and most of the work is done, they want to close the deal as soon as possible for as much money as possible. They know the band for the position so, if you’re lowballing your ask, they have every incentive to bump that up. On the flip side, if you’re asking for something on the top end of the range, and it looks like a long negotiation, they’re looking to spend a lot of incremental time for not a lot of incremental money, so it’s better to get you to accept an offer - any offer.
jschwartzi 6y ago
I have actually had a recruiter negotiate a salary bump on my behalf though.
- thrwyoilarticle 6y ago
  As in they did it without you asking or they were the go-between during negotiation?