Recruiters and Property Dealers - Are they Alike?

Dealing with Property Dealers is normally a very tedious job especially with the value that they bring to the table, at times you just despise them.

In case one is looking to buy or sell property, property dealers take 1-2% of the deal. So in a one crore deal, they would get a cool 1-2 lakhs. The situation is much worse for rented properties.

Consider a case, if you are looking for a commercial office space on Rent. If you are looking to get 1000 sq feet office on rent, and the price is around Rs 100 per sq feet, a property dealer would want to get a cool Rs 1,00,000/- (considering the fact that they normally take 1 month rent as their fees). Most of the property dealers in India are uneducated, don't even are aware of the legal contracts - just want to close the deal as fast as possible.

Similar is the case with Recruiters in IT industry.

I have dealt with number of recruiters, but none of them has ever tried to understand the recruitment process of an organization. Most of them will have an account with a portal like Naukri, Monster etc. and will send in resumes. Every organization puts in tremendous effort and already has accounts with such portals. If the recruiters are not able to give a significant advantage in terms of success rate (25% success rate), their is no advantage of using a recruiter versus hunting yourself.

A recruiter normally takes 8.33% of an annual salary for 0-3 years, and then this factor can increase up to 15-20% or even more for mid to senior levels. The actual headhunting might be even more expensive. Recruiting one Software Engineer with an annual package of 5 lakhs can take a cool Rs 50,000/ including taxes on a company's pocket.

In case a recruiter is just sending resumes on a trial and error basis assuming someone will get selected, their is no value add.

Recruiters might be more educated than an average property dealer but their professionalism in providing value addition is of the same nature.

I think the IT industry should all come together and define policies and rates to make the recruiting industry more organized. I think 8.33% is just too huge. Even if few companies come together and make a commitment, this industry would start falling in place.