Source: Comicstock.com

During a time when many Americans are actively looking for work, I wrote a post two weeks ago questioning the legitimacy of headhunters.  There were numerous sources singing the praises of employment recruitment, seeing it as the best way to hire these days.

But if this was so, where were the numbers to back these claims up?

First off, the experts didn’t seem to agree.  CareerXRoads, a resource for professional recruiters, released their annual Source of Hire Survey in March of this year.  Of the 200 companies they surveyed, the highest number of hires in 2010 were from personal referrals at 27%.  Hires from Third Party Sources, or headhunters, made up a mere 2.3% of new hires.

But these numbers were from the companies themselves.  What, then, did everyday people – those who are either employed or searching for work – think?

My own findings reflected the corporate ones.  Of over 50 people surveyed, only 32% reported that they had ever used any kind of job recruitment.

“Never really saw the purpose,” wrote Alicia Thompson, a social worker from Pennsylvania.  “It seems easier to find jobs through personal connections than paying someone else to search for jobs.”

In fact, the 68% who never used employment agencies expressed distaste for them, seeing them as unneccesary middlemen.

“I’ve had friends and family members advise me to stay away, specifically because of the quality of employment they usually procure,” wrote Chris Davis, a graduate student from California.

Lindsay Hurst, a high school Spanish teacher from Virginia, has stayed away as well, but for different reasons.

“I like helping myself,” she wrote.

But as a teacher, Hurst may have made a good choice.  A few others claimed they never sought out headhunters because they believed their chosen professions were ill-suited for the work of those agencies, such as education and health care.

Which is mostly true.  There are very few options of recrutiment agencies for those in education, with the exception of operations like Education Pioneers who match high achieving graduate student with careers in public education.  And agencies like B.E. Smith work in health care, but only on the executive or managerial level.

But what of the 32% who say they have tried headhunters?  Despite the promise of success and simplicity, most who did contract a headhunter have had negative experiences.

“It’s easier, but they weren’t thorough at all,” Dave Blumberg, a Customer Experience Analyst, writes of his experiences with a temp agency.  “They did not understand my skill set and it was very impersonal.  I missed a phone call from the agency trying to staff me, and when I called back five minutes later they had already filled the position.”

Most complained of similar woes, saying the agencies did not really understand them, or were unsuccessful in helping them find work.

“I felt that I found better job matches while searching on my own,” wrote Jenna Krauter, a Creative Arts Therapist.

In fact, the success stories were rare among those who did use an employment agencies.

However, Catherine Wilensky, a statistician from Washington, D.C., said she would absolutely use a contingency employment agency if she ever needed to look for work again.

“It seems to be as painless as possible,” she wrote, “and they matched me with opportunities that seemed to be a good fit.”

Overall though, people like Wilensky seem to be in the minority.  For each one story of a speedy job placement, there were five of wasted time and feelings of being patronized.

So whether the data is coming from the corporations themselves, or people who have used their services, there seems to be little evidence in support of the overall success of headhunters.

Looks like in these trying times of unemployment, we unfortunately have to keep going at it ourselves.