Things you didn’t know about your medical sales recruiter
Many experienced and entry level job seekers will engage with a medical sales recruiter in their search for a job in medical sales. This process can be frustrating, with the candidate feeling he/she has no real control of the proceedings.
In my latest series, I will discuss many aspects of the medical sales recruiting business, gained during my many years in that industry. It is rather obvious that most medical sales representatives do not understand the recruiting business. My hope is that this series will enlighten these individuals, so that they may better interact with medical sales recruiters in the future.
TOPIC #1 - THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF RECRUITERS
There are two main categories of medical recruiters. The first category, retained recruiting, refers to recruiters who are retained by a medical company to find a key employee for a high profile position within that company. These recruiters are paid a substantial professional retainer, plus all expenses including travel, to identify, screen, and interview individuals throughout the nation for a critical position. In general, retained searches are limited to filling senior executive positions such as CEO or CFO. In some cases, VP positions are also filled through retained searches. The recruiter agrees to work to fill these positions as long as it takes until the right candidate is found and hired. In a retained search, the recruiter is compensated by the company whether they hire a candidate or not.
The second category of recruiting, which applies to almost all medical sales and sales management positions, is contingency recruiting. In this type of recruiting, companies engage the services of one or more recruiters to identify and screen potential hires. These recruiters are paid nothing by the companies to conduct these searches. The recruiters carefully evaluate and screen potential candidates, and select a small group of them to be interviewed by the hiring company. If the company actually hires a candidate provided by a contingency recruiter, they agree to pay a pre-negotiated placement fee to that recruiter. In other words, contingency recruiters make nothing until one of their candidates is hired.
NEXT: “NINETY PERCENT OF RECRUITERS LEAVE THE INDUSTRY IN THE FIRST YEAR”
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What most people do not know/understand about recruiters is that we do not find people jobs, “we find people for companies.” Whether it is retained or contingency search our goal is to deliver what the customer/client needs. We get hundreds of resumes, calls, and requests daily from candidates that need and want help. I know it is frustrating when they don’t receive a response but sometimes it is impossible to respond to everyone. That being said, recruiters should speak to, network with, and stay in touch with top performers in there niche. Along with tenure in the business as mentioned in your most recent blog, that is what sets a good recruiter apart from the ones that don’t make it.