Meet the New Headhunter | What Price Employement
Created | Updated Nov 21, 2005
Looking for a new job can be a strange and difficult task for anyone. There are interviews to attend (provided one is fortunate enough to get this far these days in America, and more specifically, on the East Coast where jobs are few and far between and the competition fierce). Should you by some stroke of fortune or ability find an interview, you do the very best you can, and quite amazingly, against what you thought the odds would be and what the papers have been saying, you as the applicant manage to miraculously stun the crowd so much so that one might even surprise oneself. The pre-interview phone interview may go terrifically well, and with an ease that you have not known before now, and lo~! Then follows the live in person interview with an agency that tells promises they are extremely exclusive and that their firm is “by invitation only.”
More and more of such firms are cropping up on the east coast and present as a sort of exclusive recruiting firm and any eager applicant worth his or her salt is almost inevitably going to be enticed by such an offer and why not? On the surface of it, the proposition strikes one as a good deal and anyone would be a fool not to go, it could be argued. In the very least, the proposition merits a visit to the office and a fair evaluation as you would give any recruiting outfit that telephoned. This is what one does when job-hunting and its simple: you send out resumes and CVs, you pray they will be seen or looked over and hopefully, someone will ring with the news that you have been granted that elusive interview. Here is how it seems to be going for many job applicants at least with some agencies that do not fall into the standard definition of what one would expect from a recruiting agency.
The offices are generally or most often in an impressive and tall, downtown building and are lushly outfitted with leather sofas and chrome and leather chairs. Such fixtures lend an air of legitimacy. The mahogany wood, the gold lettered sign, all seem to speak of an established firm from old money with strong roots in the business community. Given the eagerness of the applicant, it may be all too easy to overlook the boxes and files in the corners that would be the giveaway sign that perhaps the company is not as established as it would like the applicant to believe. The suave and professional phone interview, the impressive office, alI combine to great effect to work on the subconscious mind.
As a general rule, the initial interview may last up to several hours while the candidate and the so-named recruiter discuss serious issues related to the field that the applicant is in. The recruiter is likely well-informed of the needs of the field (these days, it seems to be largely high-tech and bio-technology, two of the largest industries on the east coast and particularly in Boston, Massachusetts, one of the high-tech centers of America. The recruiter is often older than the applicant, well-dressed, kind and well-mannered. In short, the recruiter appears to be an incredibly trustworthy person, perhaps even more so than most other recruiters that the applicant has encountered in the past. This, though not always, may be the first big tip off that this particular agency may not be like other recruiting firms, for we are seeing a different kind of recruiting firm and in this case, it is the applicant who pays to get a job.
The deal will most often come at the end of the long interview process. Written assurances will be brought in along with legal documentation that claims that the company is bound to provide you with a job and that they will provide resume revision services, job and interview coaching twice each week (for one hour each time) until such time as you get the right job – and they promise the applicant that the job will match their skills and be at the managerial or a high level at least since that is the only kind of “executive” that they represent. The salary, in black and white ink, is promised to be close to or within the “six figure range” (U.S. dollars).
What could possibly be wrong with this situation? The catch is that the applicant is then asked to sign a contract promising to pay upfront a three to five thousand dollar fee (depending on the salary of the job expected: an $80,000 a year job will most often mean a three thousand dollar fee. The higher the salary, the greater the fee. The unemployed applicant is expected to pay this fee for the “executive services” that are provided by the recruiting firm.
To be clear, most recruiting firms, which is over 90% of them, do not expect the applicant to pay for their services. In fact, the payment for the job placement is almost always paid for by the hiring company at the time of employment and generally after a period of time to be sure that the applicant “works out” – that is, stays at the company, is a good employee. This is most often known as “the three month trial period.”
To expect an unemployed applicant to pay a fee of thousands of dollars seems unrealistic. For one, the applicant is unemployed and has, if they had savings, most likely had to use those savings to live on in the time that they have been unemployed, and while the “guarantee” of employment is greatly tempting if you do happen to have the money, no matter what the papers say, more often that not the agency does not deliver on the job end.
Yes, they may provide resume revision (which generally costs about one hundred to three hundred dollars professionally, not several thousand). Job coaching is interview skills, which most likely the applicant already knows (especially if they are at the executive level, then it follows that the applicant has interviewed successfully many times in the past, but delivering on the actual promise of a six-figure job, while it may happen for some applicants and perhaps there are even “for pay” firms that do deliver, by and large most recruiters and professionals agree that this is a scam.
Talk to any of the best financial services Vice Presidents or biotech Managers at the hiring level and they’ll tell you that they have never hired anyone through such a process and that the employees they have hired, either came through friends or job boards or recruiters hired by the company to find outstanding employees. In a recent interview, one of Boston’s most prestigious financial services highly placed executives noted that he had never hired anyone through this method and found the whole process “entirely suspect” and said outright that this was a “scam.”
Such agencies – the You-Pay-Headhunters as one could call them, are not new, but they are making a huge comeback and in most cases, it is not what one would expect Martha Stewart to list as a good thing. Sadly, for the hopeful and trusting applicant, the whole process of dealing with such an agency is enough to make even the most seasoned and experienced person feel foolish and slightly queasy as if you have “rube” written in indelible ink on your forehead, particularly if they turned over any cash money or spoke excitedly with a friend about the deal and were tipped off that in most cases, this is not the real deal.
There are too many people who are literally throwing out three thousand dollars or several thousand euro or more simply and in return, you may get a rewrite of your resume, and it may even be reasonably good, but couldn’t you hire someone to do that for a hundred or a few hundred euro at most? Of course you could. AS for the phantom job, the agency will work with you “until you get a job: but that also means as long as they are around. For all you know, the agency could fold up shop tomorrow and then where would you be? Out three thousand and that’s that. They’ll promise you the moon; it’s a bit akin to offering to sell The Brooklyn Bridge.
Don’t believe it. Though some of these agencies may be valid (and that is a long shot) most are scams set up almost like a pyramid scheme to help those involved turn a profit as the pyramid builds and builds. The process is not so different from selling a “product” that is essentially a front for an exchange of money. In many cases like this, there is no real “product” just as there never was any real job or those “hundreds of opportunities” that the recruiter promises the applicant they have available at their fingertips. Simple common sense would dictate that if this promise were true, then like most other recruiting firms, they would not be asking the employee for cash up front, but would, like other reputable and established firms, have the company paying the fee as is the usual process. Any other process or procedure should immediately raise a red flag and applicants would be wise to thoroughly check out any company asking for money up front before turning over their money.
Some helpful advice:
1. Ask which companies the firm represents and then telephone those firms Human Resources department and ask if they have ever hired anyone from this firm and more, whether or not they pay for this service (you want to know if they are playing both ends and charging both applicant and employer as this is double-dealing.)
2. Always check with your local Better Business Bureau. If there are outstanding complaints against this firm, then they will be listed, however, many of these firms are not as established as they may seem (or even say they are, despite the mahogany and the leather veneer remember that a veneer is just that – a veneer and a front). They may have been incorporated under a different name and then reformed after several complaints were filed.
3. You are well within your rights to ask for the names of several applicants with whom you can speak i.e., referrals (since they ask you for referrals, you are well within your rights to expect the same in return). Speak to these people, find out how they got their job, if they paid and if so, how they knew or know of the company (recent research demonstrated that although an employee at one such firm had been placed, it was the receptionist’s husband. It makes perfect sense to place the receptionist’s husband as she may then vouch for the firm, but the question is: Did he pay? Do not forget to ask that if you do speak with the receptionist.
4. Look for the firm online. If their Web site looks as if it were just thrown up, then it most likely was. A cheap Web site is often a good tip off. An established firm will have a “deep” site with many layers, much information and very little fine print.
5. Most recruiting firms list the companies they represent. If this company does not provide that list or some of it right there on the site (assuming it has a site), that should also send up a red-flag.
6. If you decide to go with the firm anyway, it is well worth the five hundred dollars or so it would cost to have an attorney look over the contract before you hand over your money. You want to be certain that the contract is iron clad and that they must deliver you a job within a set period of time. If they do not, you want some guarantee that your money will be refunded.
In short, do your homework. If something sounds too good to be true, it most often is. The unemployed are sadly, an easy target. Too many are desperate enough, particularly in this section of America and in these markets, to lay down their cash at the mere promise of a six figure job. It makes sense. If a company really could guarantee such a thing, one would be quite wise to turn over the cash. The problem, it is rare that such a company exists and more often than not, this is not the real deal. If you’ve been through this process and went on the interview, do not feel like a “rube” or that you have been scammed, even if you paid up and they did not deliver. Such agencies are designed to play a smart hand and can be very convincing to even the most seasoned person, but when unemployed, the applicant is at a disadvantage and the company knows it: desperation will make even the smartest person do something that is out of character or that they would not normally do, so go easy on yourself.
There are plenty of legitimate agencies, but again, their fee is paid on the other end by the organizations that hire them to find good employees. These agencies will never ask you for a fee, will help you find a job if they can, and will screen you carefully, including background checks and drug screening in most cases as these days, most corporations require drug screening and thorough background checks for security and productivity purposes.
This is the way to go. Stick with a reputable agency, stick to a daily search, set hours for job hunting online and in the papers and keep at it. Talk to friends, friends of friends and get he work out and toot your own horn a bit, and while you are unemployed, make good use of your time by doing something that you are good at or that will help you when you do get a job (and you will, although it may not feel like it): take a class in what you do, write freelance about your industry if you are a writer; if an artist, arrange a gallery show and work on your art; if you do yoga or some other sport, put your energy and aggression into that and learn to be more nonjudgmental and tolerant because it will only help you when you do land a job, and maybe even take up a practice such as meditation or do some volunteer work in your community at a soup kitchen or a homeless shelter. In short, be of some use and you will be of some use, if you follow.
You will find a way to make it work and you will find work. Just do not fall into the money trap of headhunters who mess with your head and expect to get paid for such a service.
Nobody’s pockets should ever be that deep.
