negotiating with headhunters

[bishybashy]

I'm a economics and finance graduate, transiting onto my 2nd job.

I work in middle office. focusing on regulatory work.

I receive a second offer of 5.7k/month through a headhunter. It was a 1 year contract in an investment bank. I asked if it was negotiable. The headhunter said no.

To be frank, I'm perfectly fine with that pay. But I wanna have some assurance that the headhunter is not fleecing me.

1) What are your suggestions? is it possible to attempt negotiation with HH

2) do you think its possible that the bank actually offered higher (eg. 6.5k a month) and the recruitment agency quote me 5.7k (ie, each month they earn 800 dollars off me)

3) what is your understanding on how recruitment agencies operate.

thanks in advance.

Originally Posted by bishybashy

I'm a economics and finance graduate, transiting onto my 2nd job.

I work in middle office. focusing on regulatory work.

I receive a second offer of 5.7k/month through a headhunter. It was a 1 year contract in an investment bank. I asked if it was negotiable. The headhunter said no.

To be frank, I'm perfectly fine with that pay. But I wanna have some assurance that the headhunter is not fleecing me.

1) What are your suggestions? is it possible to attempt negotiation with HH

2) do you think its possible that the bank actually offered higher (eg. 6.5k a month) and the recruitment agency quote me 5.7k (ie, each month they earn 800 dollars off me)

3) what is your understanding on how recruitment agencies operate.

thanks in advance.

1) You can definitely try, the company wont take away the current offer just because you tried to negotiate with the HH. Whether or not the HH really goes back to negotiate is another story.

2) Recruitment agencies normally dont work this way. They will get a certain % of the annual package normally after your confirmation, so its in their interest to negotiate as high a salary for you as possible.

Ask the HH if the contract position is on the HH's agency payroll or on the bank's payroll? If it is on the bank's payroll, zero chance that he's undercutting u. Otherwise, there is a chance though the comms system usually doesn't work this way, like the above poster mentioned.

I can share from personal experience and hope this is useful to others in similar situations.

I had two job offers through the same recruitment agency firm. One came back with the annual compensation package earlier, and it was about 5k less than my minimum expectations. The recruitment agency kept trying to convince me that the amount I am expecting was too high. They also suggested that I lower my minimum expectation when negotiating with the second bank.

I held out at my end and rejected the first offer. The other bank in the end was able to offer 15k more than the first.

Moral of the story: Recruitment agencies will always help themselves first. It is more important to them that you agree to the job, than for you to have a higher pay.

To be sure if the headhunter is not fleecing you, do some homework. Ask around what the pay range is like.. ask others who have (or have had friends) worked there, and asked if they managed to negotiate for higher salaries.