Yes it's fairly common and make sense if you think about recruiters as people who use knowledge as a form of arbitrage. Just like a real estate agent, part of

Yes it's fairly common and make sense if you think about recruiters as people who use knowledge as a form of arbitrage. Just like a real estate agent, part of what a recruiter brings to the table is their knowledge of what ever corner of the market they specialize in. Most of the high end recruiters specialize in a particular industry and therefore know it really well. In tech the particulars are around pay, salary, options etc. In finance its based around how bonuses are paid out. That makes their job easier as they know what they'll have to pay to pull someone out of a company. They'll also know when an employee's acquisition bonus is fully earned so they know when to start calling on people.