A start-up Web Design Firm needed to hire a UX Designer for their rapidly expanding portfolio. After being reasonably impressed by an array of recruiters, they "authorized" one of the recruiter’s named Tom to find a talented programmer to add to their team. Tom is a solid citizen who does his best to perform well for his clients. With the job specifications fresh in hand, Tom quickly prepares his plan and begins scouring an array of tech job sites and crafts a few boolean searches and narrowed the search to a few dozen resumes. Within hours, Tom begins making phone calls to interview the candidates to see if they possess the right skills for the Design Firm. After several days of recruiting calls, reference checks and further interviews to vet the candidates, Tom narrows his search down to the top three candidates that he thinks best embody all the attributes that the new company needs in a UX Designer. In fact, everything seemed to be moving along rather nicely.

The problem is that a few days prior, that same start-up company openly discussed the need with a different recruiter who happened to call in one day, unsolicited. Once recruiter #2 hung up the phone, he quickly ran a similar search online and downloaded a handful of resumes that he thought would fit the company's needs. He then proceeded to email these resumes directly to the Design Firm’s executive. By the time Recruiter Tom got the chance to present his top three candidates to the executive, the executive had to inform Tom that he had already received the same resumes from another recruiter. You guessed it, it was recruiter #2 who beat Tom to the punch. Guess which recruiter got paid?

You're a recruiter, so you already know the answer. The guy who deserved it the least got paid and Tom got Jack-Squat. These are the Rules of Engagement in the contingency world. The first recruiter who sends a resume in wins! So what is the logical outcome from such an incident?  The obvious reality is that if Tom wants to feed his family, he’d better quit vetting candidates and instead be the fastest trigger. Tom cannot afford to do what is in his client's best interests or he loses. It is pretty simple. That isn't to say that you can't still make money flinging resumes. "Quick Draw" recruiters do it all day long and can make a decent living. 

If technology hasn't caused you to re-think your value proposition as a recruiter, then you are being marginalized. You just don't know it yet.