#RecruitingLife #PermVsStaffing #RecruiterComparison
Hey fellow recruiters! 👋 I want to dive into the age-old debate: Who has it better – perm recruiters or staffing agency recruiters? 🤔 Especially keen to hear from those of you who have experience in both worlds.
– Would you rather be a recruiter filling exclusively perm roles or juggling staffing agency contracts?
– How does the day-to-day grind differ between the two?
– Which role brings more stress?
– What are the tasks unique to each type of recruiting?
For the purposes of this discussion, let’s assume the job titles are the same – just different types of employment contracts involved.
Let’s share our experiences and insights to help each other out! 🌟 Thank you in advance for your contributions.
Permanent. I get satisfaction in facilitating someone getting the job they want so they can achieve whatever it is they are trying to. For context, I am in a niche market and recruiter blue collar candidates, and I work with a lot of people with barriers to employment. It makes me happy when they get the permanent offer. I’ve had people call me to let me know that they bought a house thanks to the job, and they’re appreciative of my help. I’m not getting rich doing this, but I do love it.
It all depends on what your goals and strengths are. And I think you are under the impression that all staffing is high volume, When it is not. I would bet the majority of my “ Staffing” hires Last longer at the company than most perm hires.
That being said, the difference is this a lot harder for me to convince someone to take the job (I actually need to truly recruit them).
I guess my point is, it’s way too broad of a question to give a straight answer.
But, I guess if you want an answer, staffing is harder but it pays better. Perm is easier but if it doesn’t pay as well. The work life balance It’s completely dependent on the company you work for in the clients you have. In general, perm is better Early in your career. Staffing ends up With the same work life balance later in your career but you make twice as much. Pick your poison. Both are hard.
FYI: My company will do Paramount staffing at the same clients, so I know And have done both sides. But at this point, I don’t touch perm with a 10 foot pole
Staffing is better to build sustainable income and get to higher highs. If you’re really good you cultivate a bench and good relationships with career contractors that you redeploy within your client base. More competition, longer sales cycles (but much faster JO turnaround). That said, if you’re in a volume shop with a major employer like a bank or other large enterprise that uses a VMS, margins are REALLY getting squeezed.
Whereas in perm, you’re only as good as your last placement and it can be very feast or famine. Margins for quality placements are still very high, but the noise coming from offshore RPO’s makes getting job reqs and developing relationships ever more difficult.
So in either scenario, try to determine if you’re doing sales, recruitment, or both, and what the JO pipeline looks like. Check out their margins, volume, and typical bill rates, as well as commission structure. If youre in a 360 desk perm will be fastest to the money, but you’ll want to start selling staffing asap. If split desk and they have plum clients to work, go with staffing and build.
You can always supplement with a perm deal. It’s like staffing pays the rent and perm pays for hookers and blow.
Permanent. I did contract and i struggled with short screening process. 5 questions and resumes are out. Its good for a lot of recruiters who enjoy high volume. But i think if you like deep chats about their experience and really understanding them as a person, it might be tough.
I’m the kind of person who does a deep dive and need at least 30 mins to interview someone and pitch the job properly so my personal preference is perm. Also, perm helped me move in to exec search smoothly. Its almost the same except higher position and retained fees and deeper dive during interviews.
Permanent, but Exec Search.
Really good Exec Search folks can make 600k-1M per year fairly sustainably. These fees are typically 30-33% of the candidates first year based or in some extreme cases, total compensation.
I know of a few firms who place candidates for 150k-200k flat fees.
They may complete 4-10 searches per year.