Comment by Todd Kmiec on December 21, 2011 at 2:30pm

Great points John.  It was your post that inspired the thought.  I should have linked it in the post here, but was on the road and didn't have access.  I think the industry is really strong right now.  All of the strongest players are the ones who survived.  That said, if some were more nimble as you suggest, they may have made it through and it has to be really tough to come back after the downturn.  New people coming in can learn from the experience we all had over the last few years.

Comment by Paul Alfred on December 21, 2011 at 4:42pm

Good post Todd ... @John I think the market is changing rapidly and requires different skills ... If I had a Child I would raise them to study hard and look at Engineering, Medicine, Law ... And, or other professions - where economic ups and downs don't really impact these professions ...  Recruiters who have been in the game for a long time - need that other business skill.  Some folks are not cut out to be in business or can cope with the ups and downs of business and market demands .. I am not talking about recruiters who work with a base salary I am talking about folks who get paid on commission ...  Just don't see myself saying ... "Son I want you to pursue a career in Recruiting ..."  It might be a little contradictory as the business has been good to me ...  But look at it:

a) Medicine

b) Law

c) Software Engineering

d) Recruiting

Please tick the appropriate box ...  I don't even need to Ask the question first ... I am probably going to get attacked by fellow recruiters on the board ... But let's have it out ...

Comment by bill josephson on December 22, 2011 at 11:03am

I'm a 31 year recruiter--self-employed the last 21 years.  For the past 10 years there's been jobs shrinkage in the corporate sector--except for a few years my business has been way off since February 2001.

 

I'm going to be contradictory based on my personal recruiting experience.  Going forward the permanent jobs climate in Corporate America, IMO, is never coming back.  What companies will hire for perms will be superstar performers (God) or strong versatile performers able to do more than one thing well.  Only people hired perm will be those who can perform the work of more than one person.  Otherwise, contractors will be hired until they can locate "God" or the job gets offshore outsourced to a cheap Indian, Chinese, Philippino, etc....  The key is to find a niche in a shrunk market.

 

Our cost of business is too high due to taxes, regulations, and mandates in the US and too low overseas plus business' future revenue stream is the growing middle classes overseas, not the mature expensive USA.  Healthcare is probably our last good permanent sector--I expect that to be destroyed with Obamacare.

Bottom line with recruiting for me at present?  I'm a bounty hunter.  And I'm asked by my long time clients to often help them fill fatally flawed jobs.  It's like being introduced to 45 year old never married women and immediately asking yourself, "what's wrong with her?"  Low salary, unreasonable skillsets, relocations, unwieldy hiring/interview process, lack of urgency, unbeknown internal candidates, and HR just wanting to give their managers "candidate coverage" among many other issues increases work time while decreasing success chances.

Bottom line is I've seen "survival mode" for coming on 11 years.  I see no return to big billing years.  If the job is fillable, I rarely get that assignment--no reason to give it to me.  I see the need for recruiters in the US for US jobs decreasing.  Those who place internationally or contractors--will likely be the last people standing over the next 5 or so years, IMO

Comment by Todd Kmiec on December 22, 2011 at 11:24am

Bill, interesting take and certainly valid since you have a lot more years than I do in the business.  I came in in '02, so I did not have the experience of the period before.  Regardless of that it is easy to see that the business changed in a big way right before I came into it and you validate that.  I'm not on the same page as you with the outlook over the long haul, but that is probably in large part due to my experience being limited to the period it is.  It is a tough business and a different business than it used to be, but I see strong need for what we do and don't see that changing.

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