There IS enough room for everyone. I promise!

Over the last few years I have had the opportunity to work with the same hiring manager at one of my clients. He and I have developed a great relationship - one of my favorite things about him is that he still likes me and still gives me reqs even when I am not exactly on my game. I can't begin to tell you how much I appreciate that kind of loyalty and understanding.

Why am I telling you this (besides to make sure everyone knows how great I am, of course!)? I am telling you this because my hiring manager accidently put me in a situation where I got in big, big trouble BECAUSE of how much he likes me.

Now...I don't want to wax all philosophical about how agency and corporate recruiters are all recruiters and there really is no need to be rude to one another, but seriously? In the immortal words of Rodney King, "Can't we all just get along?"

There seems to be a hierarchy in the recruiting world. I have no idea how it got started, but anyone in the industry will tell you it exists. Working from the "bottom" to the "top" it looks like this:

1. Staffing firms that do the whole "work today, paid today" thing with manual laborers.
2. Agencies that do admin and clerical staffing.
3. Technical and professional recruiting firms that do things like IT, Finance, etc.
4. Executive search firms.
5. Internal corporate recruiters.

I must interject that I have been both a corporate AND an agency recruiter. I understand that both have challenges and my intent here really isn't to pick on anyone. Really. I would never pick on anyone. Well...not unless they really deserved it. Anyway - back to challenges:

Agency recruiters deal with a need for speed that most corporate recruiters don't understand. Agency recruiters deal with not always having access to hiring managers and, very often, incomplete job descriptions. Agency recruiters deal with (some) internal recruiters burying their candidates.

Corporate recruiters have to deal with...ummmm...hmmmm...hang on...I'm thinking...

OK - in all seriousness - corporate recruiters who have never worked on the agency side have challenges, but from where I sit the corporate recruiting gig is less stressful for a myriad of reasons. They have access to hiring managers, they work for the company they are recruiting for so they have an edge on culture knowledge, candidates are more likely to call them back, they have more candidates apply directly so they have to do far less actual recruiting.

Maybe that isn't fair and hopefully I don't have a mob of torch-bearing corporate recruiters show up at my door, but once you have been a recruiter in a fast-paced, high-stress agency environment almost anything else seems...well, it just seems easy.

SO...that brings me back to my hiring manager and the hot water.

I have been working on both contract and direct hire positions for this hiring manager and one other in the same department. I have had great success finding candidates for positions that have been "difficult" for the internal recruiting team to fill. My success put me on an internal recruiter's radar and she was not happy about my sudden insertion to her nice, neat corporate recruiter world.

Suddenly I was notified that I was violating my contract with the client because I was **gasp** TALKING TO THE HIRING MANAGER!!! I should be shot! Immediately and without due process! This led to my almost losing the account, but thankfully the internal recruiting team wants to have happy hiring managers and so they let me stay on the vendor list since I make the hiring managers happy. They didn't have to do that and even if I am being a little tongue-in-cheek here I am truly grateful.

There is a lesson in all of this.

If you are an agency recruiter it is hyper-critical to understand the contract parameters. You HAVE to make sure you are following the rules because, unfortunately, the internal recruiters generally hold all the cards. You also have to make sure that the hiring managers understand the rules because they can get you into trouble by calling you when they aren't supposed to and the recruiter can't kick them off a list! You will take the fall.

If you are a corporate recruiter you need to remember that the agency recruiter has the same goal you do - FILLING THE POSITION. They often have a wide network and can present some stellar talent that you would never find. Not because you aren't talented, but you are often sorting through resumes from direct applicants. The agency recruiter is out there finding the people that haven't applied to your company and won't apply to your company and will likely never, ever hit your orbit if not for the agency recruiter.

If internal and agency recruiters can learn how to work together there will be a lot of happy candidates and a lot of happy hiring managers. There really is no need whatsoever for a recruiting hierarchy unless you are talking about a good recruiter vs. a bad recruiter and in that case I am all about hierarchy.

I just want to be at the top of it!! Hee!