This past fall, I spoke with two recruiters from Korn Ferry International, Karen Rubenstrunk and Bob Blumenthal.  Karen worked for Meta Group for 10 years prior to joining “the Korn” (as employees refer to the firm): She led Meta’s coaching and advisory service for CIOs.  Bob joined Korn Ferry in 2005 from Heidrick & Struggles. 

I asked Karen and Bob for their perspectives on how CIOs can build constructive relationships with recruiters.  Their advice--at times amusing--is candid, practical and absolutely worth reading—all 1600 words of it!  I finally had a chance to edit the Q&A I did with them back in September.  I hope you enjoy it.  Please feel free to use the feedback mechanism to let me know what you think of it and if you have additional questions you’d like me to pose to recruiters in the future.    

CIO: How does the recruiting industry work?  Does the recruiter represent the company that’s looking to fill a particular position or does the recruiter represent the CIO who’s looking for a job?

Bob: Candidates often think we work for them, but ultimately, a company hires us to fill a position. Our fee comes from the company, therefore we are retained by the company [to conduct a search for a particular position].  Having said that, most recruiters in our business consider the candidate to be a very precious resource. We recognize that individuals have value to us as a potential candidate for a current or future search, and as a potential source of information on other potential candidates for a search. A smart recruiter will recognize that the candidate is in fact very important even though they don’t pay us a fee. 

How are you guys compensated? Do you get a percent of your placement’s salary or signing bonus?

Bob: All of the above.  We are paid a percentage of the first year’s compensation or estimated first year’s compensation because sometimes the candidate will be paid a base salary and expected bonus, and we don’t know for sure if they’re going to get more or less.

How do you find candidates for searches you’re working on?

Bob: Major recruiting firms like ours have gigantic databases that contain a lot of information on people. We’ve gotten that by having a thousand people in offices around the world talking to people and recording information on their backgrounds and their interests. When we take on a search, even though we have this gigantic database of potential candidates, there are always people we know in our personal networks that we tend to call. Those are our go-to people.