No kidding. I've been hired through third party recruiters twice, and both times were fantastic. I am just guessing, but I got the distinct impression that both were doing better and were better compensated working independently (one owned his own business, the other was highly placed) than if they were recruiters for a large company.
OTOH, my experience with same-company recruiters was that they merely existed to act as a simple filter and PR person. They didn't invest anything in me (the candidate) nor really examine if I was a good fit before I got passed further on up the chain.
Now that I really think about it, the quoted advice is pretty much a mirror opposite to my experience.
Exactly. An excellent recruiter will build up a pool of candidates and clients who want to work with them, and will start their own agency where the compensation is usually a multiple of what they'd get in-house.
In-house recruiters tend to be one of:
* HR professionals who do some recruitment as part of their job
* A surprising number of people who end up taking on some recruitment responsibilities as part of their secretarial or admin work, and then end up doing it full-time
* Agency recruiters who didn't enjoy or could cut it being agency recruiters
I know a small number of excellent internal recruiters, but they're really the exception not the rule.
OTOH, my experience with same-company recruiters was that they merely existed to act as a simple filter and PR person. They didn't invest anything in me (the candidate) nor really examine if I was a good fit before I got passed further on up the chain.
Now that I really think about it, the quoted advice is pretty much a mirror opposite to my experience.