Job Interviews: Recruiters and Their Talking Points

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Imagine this uncomfortable scenario: After accepting and starting a new job, you discover that you're paid 20 percent under market and that instead of climbing what an enthusiastic recruiter called a stairway to the stars, you're on a road to nowhere.

Fiascos like this can happen when you fall hook, line, and sinker for a recruitment pitch that deflects a position's cheapo cash compensation. The pitch distracts you by spotlighting non-monetary aspects of the position — growth opportunity, latest technology, fabulous coworkers, super company — you name it.

Although this chapter shows you how to deal with under-market offers in general, there are a few justifiable exceptions when you will and should seriously consider making cash secondary to opportunity or lifestyle in a job you accept. A few examples:

• You're a new graduate or career changer with scant experience and you need good breaks and helping hands in a nourishing environment.
• You're taking a lower rung on a ladder that positions you to compete for a higher rung.
• You're a parent who needs home time with the kids.

Special concerns aside, most of the time thee and me are zeroed in on the legal tender we want to earn for the rent of our brains and labor, to maximize cold cash and monetary-based employee benefits. We usually begin our pursuit for fair compensation through salary negotiations with recruiters.

Recruiters are employers' personal shoppers, tasked with going into the marketplace and bringing back the best qualified candidates for the thriftiest prices. In this chapter, I list the types of recruiters you're likely to encounter, the siren songs they may sing to snag the best bargains, and the ways you can get the best employment deal for yourself.

Recruiters and Their Talking Points

Recruiters are sales professionals, not your new best friends. This is true when

• The recruiter (a.k.a. headhunter) is an external recruiter (a.k.a. third-party recruiter or independent recruiter).
• An external recruiter is employed as a retained recruiter on an ongoing basis and is paid a set fee — much like a retained lawyer or accountant.
• An external recruiter is employed on a transaction basis as a contingency recruiter and is paid only when a submitted candidate submitted is hired.
• The recruiter is an internal recruiter (a.k.a. company recruiter), who is staffed in a company's human resource department and paid a salary.

All recruiters are engaged by employers to find people for jobs — not jobs for people. And they do it by being superb sales professionals.

Recruiters who deem you qualified for a position pass you up to a hiring decision-maker, often the individual to whom you would report.

How can you tell when you're being recruited with a song-and-dance to divert your attention from a chintzy salary? Look out for yourself by discovering the insider secrets straight ahead.

Tactics meant to sell low offers

When a company gives a recruiter a limited compensation budget to offer candidates, the recruiter's job and livelihood depend upon convincing you, a qualified candidate, to take the "downpay" job offer by pointing out collateral benefits the job may or may not truly offer.