Looking for work but struggling to land a job interview? Money might help.
Some job seekers are paying recruiters to help get a foot in the door, a practice known as “reverse recruitment” in which agencies act as agents or matchmakers for people seeking employment.
Liz Bentley, a New York-based executive coach, said even top-tier candidates are having to work harder to stand out as AI and other technologies make it easy for job candidates to bombard employers with their credentials.
“College graduates are having a hard time getting jobs. MBAs from top schools aren’t getting jobs. We are seeing white-collar layoffs, and employers are pausing hiring,” she told CBS News. “Even when jobs are lost, they are not necessarily filling them.”
“When companies pay recruiters, it’s because talent is scarce,” Bentley added. “When candidates pay them, it’s because jobs are scarce.”
How much does it cost?
Alex Shinkarovsky, the founder of Reverse Recruiting Agency, said demand for his firm’s services has surged. That’s in part because of how long it can take to navigate the job-search process. It takes an average of more than 24 weeks to find a new job in the U.S., according to the latest federal labor data, up from the 22 weeks a year ago.
Shinkarovsky said he can cut that timeframe nearly in half — his clients typically receive a job offer within 12.5 weeks, he told CBS News. “Our north star metric is to get clients interviews,” he told CBS News.
That comes at a hefty cost. Reverse Recruiting Agency charges job seekers $1,500 per month, while guaranteeing them a minimum of nine job interviews in three months. If a client accepts a job, the firm also collects a 10% commission on the new hire’s annual salary and refunds the first month’s $1,500 fee.
For example, someone who landed a job with an annual income of $100,000 would pay a total of $13,000 — that encompasses a $10,000 commission and $3,000 in monthly fees.
Still, the math can be more attractive than six months of unemployment, especially for employees commanding higher salaries. James Whittaker, co-founder and CEO of another reverse recruiting firm, Ambitious Exec, said a candidate applying for a job online has only a 1% to 2% change of getting an interview.
That’s in part due to the sheer volume of applications companies receive, especially as AI tools make it easier for people to mass apply for jobs.
“It is so easy to apply to a job these days that good candidates are getting lost in the sea of competition,” he told CBS News, adding that reverse recruiting services make the most sense for people in senior-level roles.
An unfair edge?
Adam Fineberg, founder and CEO of My Personal Recruiter, said his firm charges between $900 and $2,500 a month. But the service can typically winnow a job search by roughly 50% and help clients land a position within two or three months, he said.
A potential downside to the reverse-recruitment model? Job candidates who can’t afford to spring for this kind of help could find themselves at a disadvantage, Bentley said.
“It could introduce more inequality to the job search process,” she said. “Candidates who can afford the service have a leg up on those who cannot.”
Some career services pros also oppose the practice on principle.
“You should never pay anyone to get you a job,” career consultant Jennifer Mastor, founder of Mastor Recruiting and Consulting, told CBS News.
