This is a topic that I am writing about that has been on my mind recently beacuase of a letter....Dear John and the response letter titled....Dear Katie.   I am sure you all have read it.  If not, please read them both.  It is a great conversation and I think it really makes you think about what type of recruiter that you want to be.  

I am going to start with 2 types of Agency or 3rd Party Recruiters.   Not sure what to call them, so I am going to call them Recruiter A and Recruiter B.

Recruiter A is a a recruiter they want to be your friend, your BFF.  This recruiter takes you too lunch or out for drinks because they want a  lot of reqs to work on.   This recruiter values the quanity of reqs and quanity of resumes that they can find for you.   The recruiter will call once a week because your manager tells you that you have to have a certain number of calls every week so you put it on your calander to reach out to the Client every week.   You have never done any business with the client, but you think that if you call them enough that when the time comes, you are the first person they think of.   Believe it or not, this strategy does work.   There are a lot of companies that work on this model.   I used to work for them.   You get the call to work on a req and you "push" 10 resumes on the manager because you screened them and they have the key words.   After all, one of them has to be a good fit.   Again, not a bad thing, it works.  

Recruiter B is a recruiter that wants to be your partner.   They want to learn about your business.  This recruiter will take you out to lunch or drinks, but it is about building the relationship and partnership.   Recruiter B wants to learn about the culture and what type of candidate will fit in.   They rarely ask for a req beacuase they know what your company is doing.  They know what is on your website and if they find someone that fits the position AND the culture, they will call you to discuss the candidate and how they will fit in your position.   They may even call about a candidate that isn't related to a position that you have open, but they know you, your company, your managers, and your culture and know that you may want to see this candidate.  They aren't looking to work on 10-15 reqs for you.    They are looking for the best fit for your company.  

I am sure there are types C, D, E, etc.......As a former Agency Recruiter, Corporate Recruiter, and now RPO recruiter, I have worked for and with all types.  All of them have their success stories , positives, negatives, etc.

I think that if you really take a good look at yourself, you might fit into one of these categories.  You may fit into a combination of the two.   You ultimately decide what type of recruiter you want to be and how it is going to make you achieve your goals and be successful.   Neither one is better than the other.  They just have different strategies to complete their objectives.

Please feel free to disagree/agree with me or add comments.  Do you think these are accurate?  Are there other types of recruiters?