Welcome to The Fordyce Letter:
This week’s inquiry comes from Sue Yager:
Jeff, I really need your help. As an avid reader of The Fordyce Letter for 10 years now, I have always appreciated your insight and knowledge of the recruiting industry, and find myself needing your help for the first time.
I believe I have more of a moral dilemma than a legal dilemma. Here’s the story: 4 years ago I worked with another recruiter, who was with another agency, and we sometimes did splits. This other recruiter emailed a resume to me and told me this candidate was fantastic, and asked whether she would be a good fit with any of my clients. I called the candidate and did a full interview with her even though I didn’t have any job opportunities for her at the time. I kept in touch with this candidate over the past 4 years, and she is now actively interviewing with one of my clients. I have not spoken to the recruiter who sent me her resume for about 2 years, and the candidate hasn’t spoken to her for several years.
Here’s my dilemma: Do I still owe that recruiter part of the fee? I want to do the right thing, but I don’t want to give away money unnecessarily either. (P.S., there was never a formal split fee agreement in place between us.)
Thank you for all of your help.
Respectfully,
Sue
Like just about every other recruiter, current or former, my first couple of months in this business was a struggle. Everyday I was making 70-80 dials that equaled 25-30 non-sensical ramblings that usually ended in a “not-interested” or a merciful hang up from my target. I was a brand new accounting and finance recruiter who knew nothing at all about accounting, and very little about business in general. The juxtaposition was that I was a hard-headed, sometimes cocky, 30 year-old who thought he knew pretty much everything. As time went on in my first couple of months as a recruiter, that attitude was replaced by a resigned feeling that I was not going to make it out of this alive (figuratively speaking of course). After about 6-8 weeks of this battle, I was ready to throw in the towel and move on. Moving on is what I had done best in my career up to that point. This was my fifth job in seven years, and going in, I was convinced that this must work out or I would be stuck in that revolving door of sales re-treads. It was this feeling, and a fiancé who was not likely to marry an unemployed former golf pro, that kept me coming back every day. Yep, you could say my first couple months as a recruiter was indeed a struggle. Then, one day, I caught a break.
For those who aren’t aware of the Rec Radar, it’s a splits network that launched in March 2008. Currently, recruitment agencies and individual recruiters join the network for free and can list unlimited positions or candidates available to split or for direct hire placement. These job listings appear on recruiters’ “radar” for two months, and after two months, the job listings either fall off “radar” or can be renewed.
