I have been a headhunter since 2001 and believe that the best way to fill a vacancy is to use an executive search firm (especially for the executive search consultant who can send an invoice. This is a joke…). But whereas here at Apollo, our “fill ratio” is above 90% (meaning that we will get the job done), the ratio for the candidate is far from 90%.

So what is the probability that you will find your next job through a headhunter if you are a candidate?

My wife told me not to give a number as this might be negative for my business. But she also says on many other occasions that I always do what I want anyway.

So here we go:

Many candidates have told me in the past that the probability to find a new job through a headhunter would only be 15%.

Where does this number come from?

Let’s do the maths: there are two possiblities to meet a recruiter:

  1. We meet you for a specific job: In this case, we would invite 6, 7 candidates and present a short-list of 3-5. One of these will usually be hired. Once we have decided together to continue on this job, your chances are thus 25-33%.
  2. We invite you for a generic interview: Even if we do not have a job for you today, this can change tomorrow. At the end of these interviews, I often say that I find a new job for 1 out of 10 candidates. This is not particularly good or bad but industry average. Your chances are thus 15%.

Conclusion: Yes but no:

It is difficult and dangerous to break down everything into KPIs, ratios and percentages. If your personal ratio is 9 or 90% depends on many factors: the recruiter, the job, many internal and external, known and unknown factors – and most importantly on you.

The question is not if 15% of the candidates find a job through a headhunter or not but rather what do YOU have to do to be one the candidate who gets the job? Presentation, preparation, questions to the hiring manager – there are many resources on this blog and if you work with us, we will prepare the interview with you.

Numbers are just numbers. We do not own them. Our job is to put a hiring manager and a candidate together into one room. This is where our job ends and yours is starting.