College Grads - How to Size Up Headhunters

Just as in any professional field, the recruitment industry has it's ups and downs. Some recruiters are fantastic at what they do while other, to put it bluntly, are not. Variations in the quality of companies and the people that work for them are standard, regardless of the industry. However, recruiters have the added responsibility of being able to affect someone else's career. Especially when dealing with recent college graduates who are just beginning their professional lives, recruiters have an enormous amount of influence and should tread carefully in the decision making process.

A poor recruiter will pressure a student into taking a job that holds little interest for them, simply for the sake of making a placement and receiving a payment. When this is done, it leaves the students open to job jumping, thereby lowering their value on the open market significantly.

When asked by a new client as to what we look for in a candidate, the first thing I tell them is "someone with employment stability." Regardless of whether a company is going through a recruiter or hiring on their own, nobody wants an employee who has bounced from job to job. This is basic risk management as it takes time and money to properly train an employee. If they leave, you are not left with much. With this being said, here are some reasons as to why recent college graduates should avoid working with recruiters.

1. Unless it is a large retained contract, there is no money in recruiting recent college graduates. Since headhunters get paid on a percentage basis, 25% of $30,000 is not very much. It may sound like a lot, however, with the expenses and time it takes to recruit college graduates, it amounts to almost nothing. As a recruiter, you are going to have to make a lot of quick and dirty placements in order to make any money.

2. Too many firms endorse resume writers, resume exposure and career coaches. This is not needed for recent college graduates as part of what they paid for with their education was career counseling via a career services center.

3. Why can't they find the talent their clients are seeking elsewhere? Do their clients not know that colleges exist? Why doesn't the client just go to the school themselves? Seemingly, most colleges use career posting systems where you can reach out to multiple schools at once.

After all, people don't refer to recruiters as "headhunters" for no reason. As a client, I would be weary of using a recruiter whom I paid $7,500 to just post it on college career sites.

4. Recruiters often lure in college graduates with inflated projections of how much money they can make at commission based jobs. Many companies looking to hire entry level candidates en masse try to get away with not paying a base salary and having their employees work solely of commission. This is robbery, and a waste of a hard earned college education. Do not work with recruiters who are willing to partner with these types of companies.

5. As a recent college grad, you should pay careful attention to the direction you want to go in with your career. You will have plenty of opportunities to make money, so don't get sucked in by the prospect of a few extra thousand dollars a year. It is better to take a temporary position to pay your bills while you intern at a company you truly love and start to work your way up the ladder.