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Do recruiters/headhunters generally advertise lower salaries?

steppinthrax

Diamond Member
I live in the Baltimore County area. I've submited my resume to various companies/organizations. I tried using various headhunters as well that staff postisions around the baltimore area. I currently make X, I want at least 30K + X for my next salary. I find these recruiters indicate to me that they have to make alittle off the top and can't offer salaries. I had one head-hunter that called me and explained this to me and said these high salaries were in the DC/VA area and kind of "talked down" my resume over the phone with me in defense for the salary that I wanted !!!!
 
Unless 30K is 5% of your salary good luck getting it. If your goal is to get 30K richer I would try moving up 7-10K over the course of several job jumps.
 
they offer less flexibility because they are paying the head hunters a commission....as for lower salary, that could be possible.
 
The recruiting firm I worked for took $2/hour off the top. When the company decided they wanted me full time, my boss told me I got my $2 raise because of this (they were already paying the firm this amount, so they just transferred it to me).

It was still classified as a salary though.
 
The recruiter has a salary # from the client. The recruiter gets that amount regardless if they find a candidate to take $100,000 or $50,000. The less they get you to take, the more money they make. Your post is unclear. What do you mean they won't offer you a salary? They won't give you what you want, or they won't offer you a number?
 
Between the position I have now and my last position was a 20K jump. I'm not in the entry level area. A 7 - 10K jump is shorting yourself.

"I have about 4 years IT experience and just recently received my Masters. My resume is in the 4 page range. I heard for mid-level you should have really only 2-pages? I also heard that those “one-page” rules are kind of outdated and really anything will work? "

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2092841&highlight=

"I'm the youngest in the IT group of 10 or so. I've been here about a year. Have been told by older and more senior workers that others feel either jealous, threatened by my knowledge/ability for my age etc...."

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2059463&highlight=

so OP has been in IT for 4 years, with last job being held for 18 months and 2.5 years of IT experience prior, with a masters.

For some reason I think a 30k jump after 18 months from your last job is being optimistic, but hey good luck.
 
eh recruiters get a cut of your salary (not paid from you, paid from the company that hired them), so them advertising lower salaries makes no sense.
 

You provided some useful information on the OP. Thanks.

I was able to obtain a $21k increase with 2.5 years experience when I applied with a competitor. Their first offer was only a $1.5k increase, so I declined. A month later they called back to offer my request for the $21k increase. I was already trained in the business skills they needed on top of the required technical skills. They had to train me more in the business area but they knew I could be trained.

It is known that it takes a minimum of 18-20% raise to convince a skilled person happy in their position to jump to a competitor.

That kind of pay increase to a non-competing company would be difficult to obtain.
 
My original question was about how salaries offered by recruiters are different from "not going through them". My theory is they are paid on somewhat of a commission based system; therefore it would be advantageous for the potential candidate to take the lowest possible salary. Which will result in a bigger payout for the recruiter as well as annual salary for the recuriting agency accepting the contract. However, since this thread has became "let’s bash the OP because In my career I've never asked for that much." I've already had 2 offers within that range. One (which I’m accepting) is 35K + X within the D.C. area.

So thank you all for the input 🙂
 
My original question was about how salaries offered by recruiters are different from "not going through them". My theory is they are paid on somewhat of a commission based system; therefore it would be advantageous for the potential candidate to take the lowest possible salary. Which will result in a bigger payout for the recruiter as well as annual salary for the recuriting agency accepting the contract. However, since this thread has became "let’s bash the OP because In my career I've never asked for that much." I've already had 2 offers within that range. One (which I’m accepting) is 35K + X within the D.C. area.

So thank you all for the input 🙂

there would be less bashing if you didn't post 3847593475389579 work related questions. For someone seeking +30k you sure have a fuckload of questions.
 
The recruiting firm I worked for took $2/hour off the top. When the company decided they wanted me full time, my boss told me I got my $2 raise because of this (they were already paying the firm this amount, so they just transferred it to me).

It was still classified as a salary though.

You were lied to, recruiting companies make a hell of a lot more than $2 per hour on their hourly contracts.
 
Between the position I have now and my last position was a 20K jump. I'm not in the entry level area. A 7 - 10K jump is shorting yourself.

you must have been extremely shorted in the beginning to be able to grab a 20K jump.

That is not something that will happen again unless you have very specialized skills, coming from a delibeately low slot adn a cost of living is required.

Max I ever picked up was $18K due to working at a low salary because of the type of work and ability to work from home. At the time, I had 20yrs under my belt.

$13K jump when left the service to DOD work.
 
You were lied to, recruiting companies make a hell of a lot more than $2 per hour on their hourly contracts.

Well, it was a salary contract, not hourly, and I think it might be a percentage. In my case it just worked out to about $2. I was only making like 20k at this job, so about $10/hour, so they were essentially taking 20% of my pay initially.
 
They were also putting in 5-8% of your salary into the IRS/SS pot.

Those recruiters/agencies have overhead people that they need to pay out of your rake.
 
you must have been extremely shorted in the beginning to be able to grab a 20K jump.

That is not something that will happen again unless you have very specialized skills, coming from a delibeately low slot adn a cost of living is required.

Max I ever picked up was $18K due to working at a low salary because of the type of work and ability to work from home. At the time, I had 20yrs under my belt.

$13K jump when left the service to DOD work.

Actually I'm sitting in the 6-figure range right now, and it was a 30K jump.
 
The recruiter has a salary # from the client. The recruiter gets that amount regardless if they find a candidate to take $100,000 or $50,000. The less they get you to take, the more money they make. Your post is unclear. What do you mean they won't offer you a salary? They won't give you what you want, or they won't offer you a number?

That's not always true. I was able to negotiate a higher salary than the client wanted to pay because they were having trouble finding qualified people to fill the role. They hired me on at the salary I asked for. This was negotiated before I even came in for the first interview.
 
the contract company we use makes 24%

for example

we pay them 24$/h
person makes 18$/h

Uhh, that's 33% (6/18 is .33) and low for take for the industry. Congrats OP for going for it and getting paid what you're worth. This lesson will yield great rewards throughout your entire career.
 
"I have about 4 years IT experience and just recently received my Masters. My resume is in the 4 page range. I heard for mid-level you should have really only 2-pages? I also heard that those “one-page” rules are kind of outdated and really anything will work? "

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2092841&highlight=

"I'm the youngest in the IT group of 10 or so. I've been here about a year. Have been told by older and more senior workers that others feel either jealous, threatened by my knowledge/ability for my age etc...."

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2059463&highlight=

so OP has been in IT for 4 years, with last job being held for 18 months and 2.5 years of IT experience prior, with a masters.

For some reason I think a 30k jump after 18 months from your last job is being optimistic, but hey good luck.

If he's only making $40k now, it's possible but yeah, too funny. That little experience, he's not even at a senior or lead level.
 
Uhh, that's 33% (6/18 is .33) and low for take for the industry. Congrats OP for going for it and getting paid what you're worth. This lesson will yield great rewards throughout your entire career.

lol your right, i actually think its really 24%, i just cant think sometimes
 
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