The Truth about Headhunters

Both Patrick and Gimbel agreed that that happens, but said only disreputable firms do it. "I can't speak for anybody else," Patrick said, "but if you send a résumé to me, it never sees the light of day" unless the candidate grants permission. He added that the idea of contingency recruiting firms providing clients with candidates who are ill-suited to job openings is illogical: "When a client calls and says 'Don, I need this,' I find exactly that. Otherwise, I won't get paid, and they won't call back."

In fact, according to Gimbel, an aggressive job hunter — one who wants his or her résumé to be widely distributed — has more to gain by calling a contingency firm than a retained firm. "With most retained firms, if they don't find you, they don't find much value in you, because they're just working on the searches they have going at that moment," he said. "Contingency firms can be more aggressive in looking for you because they can get paid by anybody with a job opening." This, though, will be less effective when seeking a high-level position such as CFO, because few of those are available and most are placed with retained firms on an exclusive basis.

Back and Forth

If contingency firms have a defense reflex, it's understandable. Dowd told CFO.com, "One of the things you learn to do in the retained community from a marketing standpoint is look down your nose at the theoretically dirty world of contingency recruiting. What we do is on par with a Booz Allen or a McKinsey or a Deloitte." He added, more gently, that "actually, both are professional services. One is not dirty, it's just different."

But Patrick acknowledged that some contingency recruiters might fit the "dirty world" view. While most are very professional, he said, including some who work out of their homes, "there are also some who are just out there trolling the Internet for companies that are hiring, and trying to find a place for a hot candidate so they can make a fee," he said. "That's unfortunately the image that contingency has."

Some contingency recruiters, such as Paul Salim of Workway, take it personally. With a "small majority" of retained firms, he said, there's "a bit of arrogance. They think they've achieved this excellence that contingent recruiters haven't, which I feel is not the case."

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