Somebody pays the recruiter, and it is never you. In every legitimate agency arrangement the employer signs the terms of business, gets the invoice, and pays it. A recruiter who asks a candidate for money to be put forward, to be "registered" on a database, to have a CV rewritten as a condition of submission, or to cover a placement deposit is not a recruiter. That is the answer to the question most people are actually typing into a search box, and it takes one paragraph.
The useful part takes longer. Once you know how a recruiter gets paid, behaviour that looked pushy or erratic becomes predictable: the urgency, the chasing, the odd questions about your commute, the sudden silence, the hard ceiling on a salary that seemed negotiable last week. None of that is personality. It is the fee structure talking.
The number is a percentage of your first-year salary
Permanent placement is a one-off fee calculated on your first-year package. Typical ranges:
- High-volume or entry-level roles: roughly 12 to 15 percent
- Most professional and mid-level roles: roughly 15 to 25 percent
- Specialist, hard-to-fill and executive search: 25 to 35 percent, sometimes more
Make it concrete. You accept a role at 55,000 base. At a 20 percent fee the employer writes a cheque for 11,000 on top of your salary. At 25 percent it is 13,750. Your true first-year cost to that employer is not 55,000, it is 66,000 before employer taxes, pension and equipment.
Watch the basis of the calculation, because "salary" is defined generously in most terms of business. On a sales role with a 55,000 base and 20,000 on-target commission, many contracts bill against the full 75,000: 15,000 instead of 11,000. Guaranteed bonuses and car allowances are often included too, which explains a consultant's interest in your variable pay.
Contingency and retained search produce two different people
This is the most useful distinction in the whole subject.
Contingency means the agency is paid only if you start. No placement, no fee, however many hours went in. These roles are usually worked by several agencies at once, alongside the employer's careers page and internal referrals, and a consultant might convert one in five. That economics produces everything you have experienced: a CV sent forty minutes after a fifteen-minute phone call, a request to confirm interview availability by 5pm today, a nudge to accept before the other process has come back, then silence once the role goes cold.
Retained means the employer has already paid to start the search, usually in thirds: one third on engagement, one third on shortlist delivery, one third on start date. The agency is exclusive and gets paid regardless of who eventually starts. The behaviour changes completely. Longer briefings, a real sense of the hiring manager's politics, honest feedback, and a willingness to tell the client that a candidate is wrong.
Ask which one you are in. "Is this exclusive or retained, or are you working it on contingency?" A decent recruiter answers directly, and the answer tells you how much weight to put on their timelines.
The guarantee period explains the personal questions
Almost every agency contract has a rebate clause. If the candidate leaves inside a defined window, the employer gets part of the fee back or a free replacement search. Windows run from three to twelve months, and the rebate usually slides: full refund in month one, half by month three, nothing after six.
Say the fee was 12,000 with a sliding six-month guarantee. You resign in month three. The employer claws back 6,000 or gets a replacement at no charge, and the agency has just worked a full search for half the money.
That clause is why a recruiter asks how far the office is from your home, what your partner thinks about relocating, and why you left two of your last three jobs inside eighteen months. Those are not idle questions. They are a risk assessment on the rebate. It is also why a recruiter occasionally steers you away from a role they think you would take and then quit, which looks like sabotage from the outside and is fee protection from the inside.
What the fee does to your salary conversation
The honest version has two halves, and most articles only tell you the first one.
The aligned half: the fee is a percentage of your salary, so the recruiter earns more when you earn more. Moving you from 55,000 to 60,000 adds 1,000 to a 20 percent fee and a few hundred to the consultant's personal commission. When they push the client on your number, that is real.
The unaligned half: they are paid on a deal closing, not on the deal being optimal. A placement at 55,000 that signs on Friday beats a 62,000 negotiation that collapses. So they will advocate for you right up to the point where the extra commission stops being worth the risk, and that point arrives much earlier for them than for you. "I really would not push it, you will look difficult" is sometimes good advice and sometimes a consultant protecting a close. Treat it as one input, not a verdict.
A third thing is worth knowing. The fee sits on top of your salary inside the hiring budget. If a manager has 68,000 approved and the agency fee is 20 percent, the maximum base on offer is about 56,600. Someone who said the budget was "around 65" may have meant the all-in cost. Ask whether the figure quoted is inclusive or exclusive of agency fees. It sometimes explains a ceiling that has nothing to do with your worth, and it is one reason a direct application can land a higher base on an identical role.
Conversion fees quietly block temp-to-perm moves
If you were placed as a contractor or temp and the client now wants you permanently, there is almost always a conversion clause: either a flat transfer fee or a percentage of your new annual salary, often close to the perm rate. Many contracts taper it to zero after a set period of continuous billing, typically six to twelve months.
Worked example. The client wants to hire you at 48,000 and the conversion fee is 20 percent. That is 9,600 nobody budgeted for, landing mid-year in a cost centre that is already committed. The hiring manager genuinely wants you. The budget holder sees an unplanned 9,600 line and says not this quarter. The conversation dies, nobody explains why, and you conclude they did not rate your work.
Ask early rather than late. In the first week of an assignment, ask the agency what the conversion terms are and the exact date the fee reaches zero. You and the manager can then time the conversation for after that date, which costs the client nothing.
Duplicate submission is the fastest way to get rejected
Agency contracts include candidate ownership. The first agency to submit your CV to an employer with your consent generally owns you there for six to twelve months. If a second agency submits you for the same role, the employer faces a possible double fee or an ownership dispute, and the cheapest way to erase that risk is to reject you outright. You never find out. You just do not hear back from a role you were qualified for.
The rule that follows is not negotiable. Never let an agency submit you anywhere without naming the employer first and getting your explicit yes. When a recruiter says "I have a great client, send me your CV and I will get it over," the answer is "which client, and for which role?" A recruiter who will not name the employer is telling you they intend to spray your CV around.
Keep a list of where you have been submitted, by whom, and on what date. If you already applied directly two weeks ago, say so immediately. Direct applications usually take precedence, and mentioning it saves you a rejection.
The red flags, in order of seriousness
- Any request for money from you. Registration fees, placement deposits, administration charges, visa processing paid by the candidate. All disqualifying.
- A mandatory paid CV rewrite before they will put you forward. Legitimate recruiters edit your CV themselves, free, because a stronger CV is their product.
- Refusal to name the client before submission.
- Pressure to accept before you have a written offer, or to resign before a contract is signed.
- Bank details requested before a signed contract, especially from an unverified email domain.
Payroll deductions on umbrella contract work are a separate matter and can be legitimate, but they must be itemised in writing before you start.
Use the structure instead of resenting it
Knowing the economics gives you moves that cost nothing:
- Ask whether a role is contingency or retained, and calibrate the urgency accordingly.
- Answer the stability questions properly. A recruiter who believes you will stay past the guarantee window fights harder for you.
- Ask whether the budget quoted includes the agency fee before negotiating against that number.
- Approve every submission by name, in writing, one employer at a time.
- Ask about conversion terms on day one of any temp or contract assignment.
None of this makes a recruiter your friend or your adversary. It makes them legible. A consultant on contingency with a six-month rebate riding on you has very specific incentives, and most of them point at getting you hired quickly and keeping you there.