ATLANTA, GA - At EcommerceRecruiter.com, we specialize in contingency-based ecommerce searches, meaning we only get paid when we close a deal. Typically, we don't do retained work. Nor do most recruiters.
Recruiting's fiercely competitive: InfoUSA's rentable list of executive search firms contains 7,686 records. That number's not gospel, but it should give you an idea of how many players there are. And there are zero barriers to entry. All you need to be a recruiter is five fingers, a phone, and the gift of gab.
Most recruiters are generalists.
I'm not being uncharitable when I say that most contingency recruiters are generalists, and they tend to follow the money into the hottest industries. Sometimes it's logistics. Sometimes it's finance. Or information technology. It could be anything. Whatever the economy dictates.
Today, Indeed.com lists 16,905 ecommerce jobs -- versus 217,000 accounting jobs. Accounting, btw, has been around since the 1600s. Ecommerce has been around since 1995. Ecommerce is a very hot field, and it will only get hotter as the forces of mobile, local search, social media, and international trade combine.
Naturally, contingency recruiters are absolutely flooding into the ecommerce space.
But here's the thing: An ecommerce recruiter needs two things to appeal to the best candidates: Ecommerce expertise, and a great flow of ecommerce jobs. The best recruiters do a great job of aggregating both the SUPPLY and DEMAND of talent. We make a market. It's simple, but not easy. It takes excellent candidates to attract world-class clients, and vice versa. It's a chicken-and-egg deal.
Against this backdrop, it's safe to say that "one off" recruiters are usually desperate to close whatever deal they're working on, and asking a one-off recruiter if you should take the job is like asking a barber if you need a haircut. Seriously. They usually have only one ecommerce search and whatever candidates they can scare up on LinkedIn. Again, I'm not being uncharitable. This "specialist-versus-generalist" dynamic is common in all service industries. Look it up.
By contrast, EcommerceRecruiter.com was contacted by [many] dozens of companies in 2010 and we took slightly more than half of the deals that were presented to us. And our candidate database contains +45,000 resumes, most with cell phone numbers. Ecommerce is all we do.
Why am I telling you this?
Because if you're a candidate and I'm repping you on a deal, I absolutely do not care (from a personal, financial standpoint) whether or not you accept my client's offer of employment. Sure, I care a lot on behalf of my client. After all, it's my job to help them land the talent they want.
But if you don't take the job, I've usually got at least one very good backup candidate to show my client ... and several other job opportunities to show you. Most of the time, I'll close my client's search regardless of whether you take the job. And very often, I'll place you in another job. So, I'm indifferent.
But that doesn't mean you should be.
A while back, a candidate of mine got an offer from a client. It was a great offer by a great company for a great candidate; and one that the candidate haggled over, too. For a week! The client jumped through hoops to get this guy. The money, the role, and the title were all sweetened to land this candidate. The client bent over backwards, and in the end the candidate decided that "the role really wasn't for him."
Negotiations that last longer than a few days usually don't end well.
I wasn't mad. I'll close the search soon. But it sure was unfair to my client. The whole candidacy was like a big budget movie with a plot that went nowhere.
Candidates, please don't do this!
Sharply define what it is you want in your next career opportunity and be prepared to pounce when it's offered to you. It's okay to window shop with the recruiter. And it's alright to tire-kick with client phone screens. But for heaven's sake, don't be so wishy-washy about your career that you drag a client through several rounds of in-person interviews at their expense. At a minimum, this is a lousy way to allocate your valuable vacation days.
Certainly, I'll provide you with as much career counseling as I can, but remember that I'm not going to try to convince you to take the job. Ever. If you think a potential job is not going to be right for you, it's always best to bail early in the process.
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