Agent questions

[Boo]

Hi,

I'm curious to know what sort of deal agents are employed on ? Presumeably, like most sales people they are on a commission ? What percentage of the take would they typically be on as a commission ? What would a typical agent earn in a year ? Are there different classes of agent, some talking mainly to prospective clients, and others talking mainly to prospective contractors ? How has their position changed over the last, say, 15 years ? Anyone know the skinny on this ?

Genuine question btw, not trying to start a bun fight...

Boo

[SimonMac]

Hi,

I'm curious to know what sort of deal agents are employed on ? Presumeably, like most sales people they are on a commission ? What percentage of the take would they typically be on as a commission ? What would a typical agent earn in a year ? Are there different classes of agent, some talking mainly to prospective clients, and others talking mainly to prospective contractors ? How has their position changed over the last, say, 15 years ? Anyone know the skinny on this ?

Genuine question btw, not trying to start a bun fight...

Boo

The impression I get "account managers" speak to the cleints and maintain the realtionship with them, these seem to be the more clued up people. Newbie recruiters do all the donkey work speaking to prospects/filtering CV's etc.

[northernladuk]

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

-Sun Tzu, The Art of War

[czakky]

From an agent.

Created an account to give you an honest answer, as I don't think this has ever done before!

As a bit of background, I've worked in recruitment for 4 years, for 3 different companies. Geographically, I have only worked in the North (Manchester and Newcastle), and done business in the North of the UK - things may well be very different in London!

In short - every agency has a different commission structure. Typically, the more aggressive, sales style companies have the best commission structures, but also the highest rate of burnout, as they really are not nice to work for - I started my career in one of these, and lasted 18 months. However I was taking home around £4k a month at the point I left; this was made up of about half basic, half commission. I guess the hardest part about these companies is the retarded targets for agents on KPI's, which in my opinion as an agent, are what lead to half of the bad practice and mess around from agencies.

The more account led, pleasant to work for agencies tend to have slightly worse commission structures, or barriers to them. The 2nd company who I worked for were was mainly large account business, and although the job did involve some new business, it was low, so "lead stripping" from candidates was not really needed. The structure here was margin linked - so if I place you at a 20% margin, I gain 20% of the final margin as commission. This leads to a whole new kind of paradox and balancing act - I want to take home as much as I can, but at the same time, I don't want to piss off my client by ripping them off, or my candidate by stealing cash. Was quite fun, and led to some quite interesting chats!

The company I work for now is pretty much 100% accounts, with open book margins, as it dominates a very small part of the market, and I receive 7% flat commission on what I make the company. However, the quality of life here is fantastic, there is no incentive to be dodgy, and not huge pressure to win new business, as there is little to win - its all about customer satisfaction, which is a welcome change!

Honest earnings for agents, ego all to one side? Year one, you'll take home £30k as a min if you have half a brain, which will be a low basic (£18k or so) and some commission. Year two, a lot better, realistically around £50k - £60k, whihc is about half basic, half comms.

To be honest, the agent market is over-saturated with rude boys, call center workers and people who give it a go as they cant figure out what they want to do with their lives, however I have worked with some hands down amazing agents, who do care a lot about clients and candidates.

Any questions at all, please ask; I'm happy to answer! (aside from who I worked for and that kind of Jazz - not my thing to slate employers, old or new, online!)

[raphal]

Any questions at all, please ask;

What's your take on posting fake adverts on jobsites when the market is flat. My agents do that.
As an agency, how do you know a job post from another agency is not a real requirement?

[czakky]

Posting fake jobs just makes you more work than its worth, as you spend your time weaving a web of lies; as well as being morally bankrupt - its not something I do. Truthfully if I have "nothing on", I speak to people I know are free, and then sell them into certain clients (old places I've placed, into hard to fill perm roles, into roles that went dead, into certain clients that always will have a chat with candidates certain skills ect). However, at the moment the market is so busy, if you have nothing on, you are a complete beginner with no network, or you are just plain and simply awful, and should learn how to develop business. It's really not hard.

Easiest way to tell if a job is fake, is through how it is written - if you've seen the exact same advert before, but in a different location, its pretty much going to be fake, same as if it gets posted weekly by the exact same agency in the same location. If its very generic, with a list of skills and a rate, more than half of the time its going to be fake. If its from a certain list of agencies that I'm sure you all know (not going to start this game!), its fake.

However, Jobserve is the best to rely on for non-fake jobs - every job costs an agency £7 - £8, and most of them wont pay to advertise roles that don't exist!

Another big giveaway are the words "has an upcoming role" - this means that they have spoken to a client, who might have a need at some point in the future. More often than not, nothing comes of these, and you just waste time - although I have seen it work.

The biggest giveaway however, is the agent on the end of the line. If they won't tell you who the client is, its a huge giveaway, and it means one of 3 things -

1. There is no client
2. Its a role with multiple agencies working on it, and they're afraid you might tell another agent, who can spec other candidates in instead of you (pretty much all agents will do this, unless they just recruit for 1-2 large accounts and just don't have the time)
3. The client legitimately wants to stay hidden. This is true in 0.1% of cases...I have never seen this!

Best way to test this, is to ask why - if they cant give you a solid answer, its a fake job; just bin the agent off, she/he's not worth your time.

My advice is to find an agent that has a decent amount of time recruiting in your tech space, and stick with them. Just check LinkedIn, every agent has it, and its a good sign if they agent is any good. Only work with people you know can get you work, and half of the issues that you have, are gone. And it might help sort out the agency game a bit, which is always a good thing!

Hope this helps!