Headhunter Fees

I am wondering if anyone knows how much headhunters receive when they place analysts at private equity firms & hedge funds?

Do they take a fixed percentage of the analyst's future salary? And if they do, how much is typical? Or do they just crank through analysts, and make like $10k per analyst, regardless of the position?

10 Comments
 

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30% sounds pretty high - I've heard more around 10-15% of first year salary dependent upon 3 months of satisfactory performance.

 
Best Response

It completely depends on the type of recruiting firm and the hiring firm. If the recruiter was hired on a contingent basis (paid if their candidate gets placed), bulge bracket banks typically pay approximately 20% of first year total comp while a growing boutique could pay closer to 15% of first year total comp because the recruiting firm is hoping to build a longer term relationship. Retained searches usually have lower fees associated with them (fixed engagement fee and then 15% of total comp, for example) because the firm is getting paid whether or not they actually place a candidate. Keep in mind, most of these fees are contingent on the hire doing well in 3, 6, and 9 months after the placement.

There are a few contingent search firms that will work for as low as 10% of first year total comp but they typically have very low candidate and client contact and really just churning resumes and trying to make as many placements as possible with less regard to the culture of the firm and the right fit for the candidate.

 

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