It's not quite as incorrect as you might think. The recruiter has a much greater incentive to close the deal than to get you a higher salary. Think about it t

It's not quite as incorrect as you might think. The recruiter has a much greater incentive to close the deal than to get you a higher salary. Think about it this way - the recruiter gets paid a percentage of your salary when both sides reach agreement. Let's go with the 6 month figure here. So the company offers 100K and the programmer wants 110K. The recruiter stands to get 5k more. Sure, that's nice, but not if it means way more work, along with a risk of the deal falling apart! Here's a recruiter's dream placement: 1) recruiter get a resume 2) recruiter does quick hygiene check 3) recruiter forwards contact info to client 4) developer interviews well and accepts offer 5) recruiter collect commission A recruiter would much rather collect a quick 50K check for very little work than spend a lot of time haggling and potentially watching the whole deal fall apart. Most brokers are mainly interested in getting both sides to agree to a deal, because then they get paid. This is a very important thing to keep in mind when dealing with brokers!